Easter. It’s one day when many people will attend church. It’s also a day when many people will be thinking about Jesus Christ. It’s a holiday that needs no introduction to most people in the “Western world”. I think most people are even aware of it’s adulterated pagan roots, meaning, how the Catholic church paired this holiday with pagan traditions associated to fertility.
Isaiah 43:18-19
18 “Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old.19 Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.
THE RESSURECTION
The cross of Christ is where the sacrifice of Christ was made- it is where the path of repentance leads us to and where we willingly put to death our bodies for the faith of Jesus Christ. Yes, everyone of us, if we are to follow the Lord our God and Savior Jesus Christ, must pick up the cross to follow Him. But that is not the end of the story.
My friend Jeremy asked the question, “Why just one day?” in regards to why so many people only give thought to Christ for one day a year when “Easter” rolls around.
And that is a good question to answer. There are a great many people who have not come to the cross yet.
But I want to point out another question that another one of my friends asked; he asked why are so many people focusing on the cross and not on the resurrection of Christ?
In Isaiah 43:18-19, God prophesied concerning the new things to come, saying,
“Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
The question that God asked is the question that I want to ask today: “Shall you know it?”
God has made a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, but many are missing them today! Many have gone down paths of distraction and drawn near broken cisterns that have no water!
Jeremiah 2:13
“For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
Not only today, but everyday that the children of God walk upon the Earth, shall we not declare the paths in the wilderness and rivers in the desert?
2nd Peter 1:4
“by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
By the promises of God we have become partakers in the divine nature. The corruption of the world is gone, “remember the former things no more” and the new things have come!
Hebrews 10:16
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,”
The flesh is corrupted; according to the flesh we could not walk with the Lord and absolutely no one was careful to observe His ways. But now, because He has caused the old things to pass and the new things to come through His Son Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, He has placed in us a new heart and a new mind, that is, the mind of Christ!
Let us praise Jesus Christ for what He has done; praise God for His faithfulness to His divine promises, and His mercy upon all of us who are undeserving!
For it is said,
Titus 3:5
“5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,”
We have been washed in the blood of Christ and renewed by the Holy Spirit!
How have we been renewed by the Spirit?
The resurrection of Christ.
The renewing of the Holy Spirit is “being born again”,“the new creation”, “the sanctifying work of the Spirit”, and “the reconciliation of God in Christ Jesus”.
2nd Corinthians 5:17
“17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
Romans 5:10
“For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
Romans 6:3-4
“3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
The very definition of someone that is in Christ is a new creation. If you’re not a new creation, you’re not in Christ Jesus. The gospel of salvation in which Jesus commanded all men everywhere to repent and believe in Him is a ministry of reconciliation by which those who were formerly enemies of God are now made children by the life of Christ.
Therefore, those who have come to the cross have a decision they must make: “will I crucify myself with Christ and choose to live now by faith in the Son of God?”
Galatians 2:20
“20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Does Christ live?
Yes! He is raised and He lives! I know He lives because He lives within me! It is because He raised and lives that I, now, also live in newness of life through Him who is within me! Amen!
NOTHING AVAILS ANYTHING EXCEPT THE NEW CREATIONS
Galatians 6:15
“15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor un-circumcision avails anything, but a new creation.”
Therefore, it is not because today is Easter that we should be thinking about the resurrection, but because Christ lives and He lives within you, if indeed you are a living new creation in Christ Jesus, that we should be living in the resurrection of Christ every day of our new-life!
