The Gift, The Price, The Freedom
The Gift, The Price, The Freedom
Audio Version Coming Soon!
Easter is my favorite celebration of the entire year.
• Christmas is the birth of Jesus as the beginning of our journey home.
• Christ’s death was the sacrifice for our sins.
• The resurrection is Jesus Christ overcoming sin death and the grave. This is the most important to me.
Jesus was a good teacher and prophet; there were many of these. BUT, Jesus rose from the dead proving He is who He says He is.
If someone claims to beat death, dies and then is resurrected and viewed by 500 witnesses; for me, He is to be believed.
Jesus says:
“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live..”
John 11:25 (ESV)
Salvation: Forgiveness of Sins
Because of God’s love for all of mankind God gave us a bridge home to be with Him now and for eternity.
He paid the price for the atonement, the forgiveness of all sins of mankind forever. Thus, allowing all mankind the choice to be reconciled to Him. God not only desired a one-on-one relationship with man; but also provided the necessary sacrifice for direct access to Him through Christ Jesus.
God revealed who He was and His love for us through the life of Jesus. We see in the Gospels what mattered to Jesus. We see how Jesus dealt with temptation, ridicule, and love. We saw how Jesus came with a deliberate plan to rescue man from an eternity apart from God and nothing Satan, or disciple, Pharisee, Sadducee, the powerful or powerless would deter Christ’s focus or ability to complete God’s plan. God’s love was too great to leave us to our own devices unless He gave us a way back to Him, should we choose to take it. He would not take away our freedom to choose, but he would give us what we needed to reach Him.
What an incredible gift.
He made provision for us knowing ahead of time that we would make mistakes, have regrets and some would turn their backs on Him. We can’t earn what He already gave as a gift. This is a gift of love and grace beyond our ability to understand.
Christ’s Death
God’s gift was expensive; for God, it was His only Son, for Jesus, it was His life in clear and unmistakable humility “given, not taken” that we would have the freedom to choose. Jesus, a man free from sin, took all of our sins on Himself, submitted Himself to death on a cross and took our sins to the grave.
That is where our sins will remain buried forever: forever not because He died but because He rose three days later no longer bound but victorious. We know this because there were more than 500 witnesses that saw Jesus after he rose from the dead.
Satan lost his power over us; not on the day Christ was born or the day Jesus died but on the day Jesus rose from the dead.
The day Christ died I would imagine the Satan was doing a dance. He believed he won. Had Satan only known what he was doing, he would never have killed Jesus in the first place.
The Freedom to Choose
We can choose a life with Christ our Savior and our Heavenly Father or not; a life that overcomes our circumstance or one bound by our circumstance.
It is now our choice.
Satan would like us to believe that we are confined by our circumstances. Jesus says we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus. His death was the sacrifice for sin; His life was the example, His written word was the weapon that Jesus used to defeat temptation and the Holy Spirit is the power to live a life of love, grace and free from bondage.
Even on the cross, Christ gave us an example of how to love as He did. He said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” He was referring to His persecutors. How often do we run across those who spitefully use us, try to harm us and we ask God the Father to forgive them for they know not what they do?
That one is tough, but in the Lord’s prayer Jesus says it a different way: forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
On the cross, Jesus shows us if He can ask His Father to forgive those who brutally beat Him, hung Him on a cross then we can do the same. The Lord’s prayer is His instruction to us on how to pray to the Father. This portion of the prayer is huge. Forgive us as we forgive.
I will be forgiven the same as I forgive. There have been times in my life that I figure I would go to hell faster than the one I’m refusing to forgive. Unforgiveness is costly. It results in bitterness, hatred, physical diseases, and mental disorders, an overall miserable life. Jesus showed us how to be free. He died so we can be free to ask our Father to forgive and in that action empowering us to forgive.
We may not have the ability to choose our circumstance, but we now have the freedom to choose our response. We now have the freedom to control our heart, our will, and our actions.
It was on the third day that Satan’s dance ended, and Satan knew his plan failed.
Redemption was always God’s plan once Adam and Eve allowed sin to become a part of their life with their choice. God knew mankind needed to be free to choose again, and so the plan was put in place long before we knew Him, He planned for us.
There was a young boy that spoke about Judas feeling so bad for what he did that Judas killed himself. The response by one who was listening to the boy was, “Oh no, Judas didn’t have to kill himself. Had Judas waited the three days he would have known that Jesus loved him so much that Jesus would have forgiven him.” There is no sin even in the betrayal of Jesus that wouldn’t be covered by Christ’s death and resurrection. Judas would have been forgiven had he chosen to live and ask for forgiveness. Ask Peter.
We too need to know that if we ask forgiveness, it is freely given. The price was paid long ago. Can we accept God’s forgiveness? Can we forgive ourselves? Can we forgive those who do wrong to us? It is the greatest gift we have been given, and it is the greatest gift we can give.
