Tags
cross of Christ, crucifixion, Easter, hope, Redeemer, scoffer, sinner
It’s hard to remember who I would be without hope in Christ. As I look forward to celebrating the cross of Christ and His defeat of sin and the grave, it’s hard to accept where I would have been on that day.
My life is secure in that victory. I hope in it. I rejoice in it. I get so excited about Easter Sunday each year. I try to give that hope away in the things I say and the way I live. It overwhelms my soul.
Defeat in death will pass over my life because of a perfect Son slaughtered in my place. I celebrate that with the deepest gratitude. I’m thankful beyond words for something I don’t deserve.
I forget sometimes that if I had been there on that day, I would have been a voice in the mob that called for His execution. That’s heavy to write. That’s hurtful to acknowledge, but it’s true.
I am no better a sinner than those present on that day. I am no more deserving of the saving knowledge and grace I have received than they were. I have no reason to think I would have covered Jesus with my body and defended Him as the Son of God. I am too good at sinning to think that a possibility.
Here’s why knowing and acknowledging that is important- I remember the core of the gospel. I remember WHILE I was a sinner, Christ still died for me. His heart was for me on that cross as it was for those scourging and mocking Him that day. This keeps me from thinking that when I meet someone who doesn’t know the hope I do that I am better positioned for grace than they are.
They aren’t going to know this truth if I treat them like a project or refuse to engage them where they are. They may hate God. They may not acknowledge His existence. They may believe that religion is a joke. They may think Christ is a mythical character, but that fact that there is grace for them too is something we can’t forget.
Not as a project or another gold star on your chart of times you’ve shared the gospel. There is grace for them because there was grace for me and for you. We didn’t deserve it more. We weren’t entitled to it because we’ve been made acceptable through it. It isn’t ours to dole out to those we deem worthy. None of us are.
Don’t forget who you were. Don’t forget that someone looked beyond that to share the truth of the gospel and hope of the cross with you at your worst.
This Easter, may an undeserved grace be central to what we celebrate. May we acknowledge what is true about the hope we have received, and may we always remember the price paid by a God who loved the whole world enough to slay His Son to make a way. May we love others beyond their faults always remembering that those faults are no worse than those we have. May I remember that in a crowd of scoffers, I may have been the loudest voice all while my sin was killing him- all while my sin held Him to the tree.
It is because of Easter that our debt was paid. It is because of Easter that we can love and share hope. It is because of Easter that Christ is the name above every name. It is because Easter that one sacrifice can save us all. It is because of Easter that we can know and enjoy Him forever.
Praise God. Praise Jesus. Today I stand a reconciled sinner, and I will celebrate His death in my place. I will love Him and give him my “Yes!” all of my days.
I am sharing the link to a song that reminds me of a love that paid my debt it did not owe. May we never stop hoping and giving it away in love. May we love people where they are enough to share with them the whole truth that suffered and saved us! May we love that deeply.
