Resurrection Sunday. What a glorious occasion -- to celebrate the greatest liberating event in the whole history of mankind. The most central story of our faith lies in the good news that Jesus came down to earth, died for our sins and resurrected from the grave to seal our fate and victory.
As beautiful as it is to celebrate Jesus's victory on Calvary and out of the grave every Easter, to limit the good news that it bears to one out of 365 days in a year would be a complete waste.
That's not to say that Easter is pointless, but it would be pretty unfortunate for one to celebrate the victory in Christ once a year and live in defeat the rest of the year. The one thing we can do to make this Easter a milestone is to change our mindset and live out Easter the whole year round.
What happened on the cross and how do we respond to the 2000-year-old redemptive work God brought into our lives?
Substitution
As Christ breathed his last breath and as death took control of His soul, we were wiped clean of all our sin once and for all. Three days later, the man who died for the sin of all mankind rose from the dead because He was not just God but man as well.
The substitution of Jesus for us assures us that as we believe in His redemptive work, all our sins are now removed and we are now free from the consequences of sin.
Free entry
There is only one requirement to approaching God -- be holy. As simple as that sounds, it's terribly difficult for people to enter God's presence. No one can be holy by their own strength, but God gave up the life of His own Son as the ultimate atonement so that we would be able to freely enter His courts.
Because Jesus died and was risen, we are now able to freely enter God's presence. In John 14:6, Jesus declares, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Redemption
Jesus's death and resurrection not only signalled our freedom from the consequence of sin but also promised that we can live a life completely free from the occurrence of sin. God's enabling grace comes upon us as a result of Christ and we can now be set free from our sinful struggles.
Although it takes time and constant devotion to see outward transformation, once we believe in the work of Christ, we see a sudden transformation of the heart. That remains to be the greatest miracle the world will have ever seen.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
