"The greatest gift you've ever been given wasn't bought in a store. No cash exchanged hands. It wasn't even wrapped. Yet it cost the Giver everything."
This was the message given by Saddleback Church's Pastor Rick Warren as Easter Sunday draws near. Warren encouraged people to remember why Jesus Christ died on the cross in the first place, and how Christians can honour His sacrifice.
He shared the Bible verses Romans 3:24-25 which says: "Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin."
Warren said that Jesus had to die on the cross for people's sins, because nobody is perfect and everybody falls short of God's standard. At the same time, God wants to be fair. "When somebody breaks a law, there must be a penalty for it. When you break man's laws, you pay man's penalty. When you break God's laws, you pay God's penalties," he said.
And because God loves people, He offered up His own Son - His most prized possession. Warren quoted 2 Corinthians 5:21 which says: "God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God's goodness into us!"
The only thing people need to do now is repent from their sins and accept God's gift. "God gave us a free gift of salvation when Jesus took our sin upon himself," he said. "It's a gift we must receive."
Warren added that it's one thing to understand the basics of how to have a relationship with Jesus, and another thing entirely to accept the gift.
