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How would you explain Easter?
Elgin is growing every day, and like you, I see the projections for even greater expansion ahead.
That growth will challenge our comfortable, small-town lifestyle—but growth is inevitable, as even my own relocation demonstrates. When I have a conversation with a new friend, I want to be ready to explain what Easter means, especially as the signs of the season are all around us. Easter is the most holy celebration for Christians around the world. It represents the fulfillment of many Old Testament prophecies—a very interesting study, if you’ve never explored it—and commemorates the essentials of the Christian faith: Jesus came, lived a sinless life, died on a cross for the sin of mankind, and by His resurrection demonstrated the dynamite power of God.
I imagine I would have been as surprised and awestruck as the women who first found the empty tomb that Easter morning.
The Easter story really begins in Genesis chapter 3, which describes the consequences of disobedience—sin, pain, suffering, toil and death. Physical death is part of that result. But in verse 15, we find the first declaration of the Gospel, that Jesus would provide a way to conquer sin and give us the opportunity to be made right with God, to be born again.
Jesus, who knew no sin, died for the sin of all mankind, making the way for us to be reconciled to God. The Just died for the unjust.
But death on the cross was not the end—it was the means to God’s final statement. His mighty power conquered both death and the grave.
A popular chorus puts it this way: 'He paid the debt He did not owe; I owe the debt I could not pay. I needed someone to wash my sins away... and now I sing a brand-new song, ‘Amazing Grace’ all day long, Christ Jesus paid the debt I could never pay.'
Scripture tells us there is none righteous—no, not one.
No human action can balance the scales. We are guilty, and the price for that guilt, and sin, is death. Like the chorus says, we could never pay the price for our sin, but Jesus came for that very reason—to pay a debt He did not owe.
Easter bunnies are cute, and chocolate is great... but don’t forget the real reason we celebrate. He paid the price I could not pay, and for that, I am eternally grateful. Until next week, Anita
