Easter - Picture of Grace

Yesterday was such a great family day as we commemorated the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. My husband worked until 4pm, but in the meanwhile, the children and I sat down to do Bible time from the book of John. I don't think it dawned on me until then just how much Jesus actually went through for me. It was when I began to explain to my children that the beating that Jesus endured was only for our healing, that he still had to go to the cross for our justification that it hit me. Then it was my middle daughter, Cierra, that noted the fact that Jesus also had to be stripped of all his earthly goods and go to the cross naked as a pauper in order to secure our financial security. He had to face everything that you and I face, but on a much greater scale since he would only do it once, and for all. Yes , he even had to face our greatest enemy, the fear of death.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus sweat great drops of blood. He would have to face death. He would have to face hell. He would have to be beaten and ultimately become sin for us. But worst of all, Jesus knew that he would have to face rejection from his father whom he adored and who had always adored him. How could he ever endure it? He would bare the load of the sin of the whole world on himself. Yes, the government was literally on his shoulders. But what was it that actually made him go through with it? What was it that propelled him to yield to the Father's will as opposed to his own? Hebrews 12:2 tells us that it was the joy set before Jesus that enabled him to endure the cross. He knew he would hang there in open shame, yet it says he despised it, counted it as nothing because of this joy that strategically dangled right before his eyes.

Now this is the clincher, this joy was the Father's very own heart for us. He so deeply loved us that he would risk the very life of his only son. Jesus hang there and saw us all as righteous and holy before the Father. Yes, he would become sin! He saw us accepted and held in the Father's arms of love and grace. Yes, he would be forsaken! He saw us not struggling, scrounging for our needs to be met, but prosperous. Yes, he would become poor! He saw you and me free from sickness and disease. Yes, he would take the whooping! He saw us bowing down before the Father clean, coming before his throne of grace boldly without guilt and condemnation. He saw all his children as one! Yeah, he would gladly bare this burden. It was worth it!

As I pondered these things, a great appreciation rose up within me. How could I be a victim of fear when Jesus had endured it all for me? How could I worry about people's acceptance or rejection when the Father has accepted me in his very own beloved family? How could I be anxious about my needs being met when it is according to God's riches in glory by Christ Jesus? And finally, how could I ever question God's will for my healing and health when he already provided it for me?

We must not forget the purpose for our Christian celebration of Easter (Resurrection Day) to remember what Jesus did as our substitution in his life, death, burial and his resurrection from the grave. Many men have died for what they considered worthy causes, but only one man died for our sin against God, and he is the only one who rose from the dead and lives forevermore! He is the mediator between God and man, the Son of God and the Son of man, the man Jesus Christ! We need not even worry about death. There is no need to fear when Jesus has already conquered the grave just for us!

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:6-8