Easter is not that far away. It is a little earlier this year. Don’t let that catch you by surprise. Each year as the Easter season approaches, I find myself meditating afresh on the whole story of the ministry of Jesus as it is drawing to a close and then culminates in His atoning death. In my heart I sense a kind of reverent, holy sadness about it all as we come into Good Friday - a sobering reality check deep inside me that acknowledges and understands that the cross was inevitable … because of my sin. Because of the sins of all humanity.
There is a kind of futility about it all, too. We were, all of us, born into a fallen, sinful world. We didn’t know this, of course, at the moment of our birth. We could not have known that when we took our first breath, we were already immersed in the sin condition with all its corrupting and destructive power that leads to eternal death. In time those of us who are born again came to understand this reality when Holy Spirit convicted us of the truth. We heard the message of the Gospel, and the truth was suddenly real and very, very eternal. Our existence while here is rendered futile because of the sin condition that is embedded in all flesh and in the whole creation. I know this to be true, of course, because of the Word of God …. But I still feel at times that kind of futile feeling that I was trapped in sin before I was born. I had no choice. Neither did you.
But then, as I ready myself for Easter … as I reread the ancient narratives and immerse myself in the story of Jesus once again, I realise that God also knew how futile our predicament was. He could see it all coming to a head. A holy God who absolutely must answer and deal with sin – or He is not holy. The answer to sin is the holy wrath of God. His holy wrath consumes and destroys sin. Sin and its effects are extinguished, obliterated by the wrath of God.
Before the atoning work of Christ on the cross, God held back His holy wrath …
Romans 3:25 (NIV)
God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of His blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— …”
I have often wondered how God could hold back His wrath as the sins of humanity just kept piling up … I can only conclude that His love for us is so great, His mercy and compassion is so far reaching, so deep and rich, that it constrained His wrath, until the Lamb of God was ready to appear on the earth. In His great mercy and love He waited for the right moment.
Romans 5:6 (NIV)
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless,
Christ died for the ungodly.”
Yes, futility is part of the mix of feelings I experience at Easter time as we approach Good Friday. But, when I meditate upon the cross, when I understand how great the power of sin is, and how great a response was required in order for it to be expunged, I see, I am awestruck, that God’s love and power is far, far greater. And the futility and that sense of sacred sobriety gives way to the sin reality that God had to deal with, and gratitude and worship fills my heart, as I realise just how He did that ... And I am overwhelmed.
Romans 5:8-11 (NIV)
“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him! 10 For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
2 Corinthians 5:15-17 (NIV)
“And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again. 16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
Psalms 103:12 (NIV)
“… as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
Meditate on these things as we approach Easter once again. Allow the sobering moments as we realise why Jesus had to die. But then give thanks that He did, and that it was God’s only way of satisfying His wrath against sin and getting His children back from death.
We are no longer objects of wrath. We have peace with God …
Romans 5:1 (NIV) “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, …”
Think on these things, meditate on these scriptures … start preparing for Easter worship.
Ps. Milton