KINGDOM DIGEST
Easter What Does It Mean To You?
The Bible makes it very clear that Jesus died for us. He died for our sins, that he might deliver us from the evil of this present age. Easter symbolizes the completed work of the Cross. We do not celebrate the name Easter but the person who died and resurrected in which Easter commemorates. That event took place for our salvation; that’s why we mark it as an expression of appreciation of what Christ did for us. What did he do for us? He got us salvation by paying the price for our transgression. By his death, Christ delivered us from darkness and redeemed us back to God.
You see that great fall in Genesis 3 was the fall of the entire earth. So, whosoever would have brought about our redemption, reconciliation and salvation is worthy to be celebrated. I express my appreciation for those who celebrate Easter once a year, for me I celebrate it every day. I believe that for the benefits of the Cross to be effectual and fervent in my life, I must celebrate Christ every day.
The benefits of the death of Jesus on the Cross
Redemption, lifting, reconciliation, restoration and fulfilment. In Genesis 1:26-28, God said, “Let’s create man in our image and after our likeness…” We lost this in Genesis 3:4-15, and man was driven away from the presence of God, which is called Eden.
When you are driven away from light and life, you are dead, and the only way man was to be restored to Eden was for man to die. There was no way an ordinary man would die and come back alive to redeem us, so it took a sacred man, an holy man whose birth was holy. That man is Jesus the holy lamp that was slain for our sin. By him we are restored to where we fell. He brought us back to God for us to become sons of God in His image, in His likeness to accomplish the assignment that was given to us.
When God created man, He wanted man to extend the Kingdom of God in human’s family on the Earth, when man lost it, the human family lost everything, and the earth was cursed. So, restoration of man restored the entire earth back to God, and that’s why Jesus says in Matthew 28, “All power in heaven and on earth is given to me…” Adam was not given power over heaven but the earth.
Only Jesus had the two because He occupied the two realms. So, by his death and resurrection, He has restored you to your position of power, restored your identity as the son of God and restored your authority; now everything is subject to you. It is sad that believers don’t have this revelation.
In Hosea 4:6, God says that, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” It is ignorance that causes that destruction.
We need to realise that God cannot say what he will not do and do what he has not promised. Ephesians 1:11 tells us that ‘in Christ we have obtained an inheritance and that we are predestinated after the counsel of him who does everything according to the counsel of his own will.’
He created man to be exactly like him, that is why Jesus is called the express image of God. You cannot say Jesus had any problem; if he that had no problem has taken our problems upon himself, it means that I have no problem at all because he paid the price for me. It’s like I owed the bank and you paid the debt for me, yet I’m still running away from the bank; am I not stupid?
Eternal Life and Authority
1John 5:11 says: “This is the record that God has given unto us eternal life and this life is in the son. I don’t have any other life but the one given to me, which is eternal life. At the fall, I inherited a particular life which is called the soul life from Adam. That soul sinned and died, then someone came up and gave me another life which is called eternal life, and this life is in the son. Whosoever has the son has eternal life.
What is the process of having the son? Believe in the completed work of the Cross – the death, burial and the resurrection. In John 5: 26, the Bible says: “As the father has life in himself, so has he given to his son to have life in himself.” God has life, and has given the same life to his son: who is the son? Jesus, who is the son? Me also. You have to believe to experience the benefits of the redeeming work of Christ on the Cross.
