The Meaning of Easter
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
The meaning of Easter today highlights for me the evidence of a false gospel in America.
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples”
How do you know if you have believed a false gospel?
Do you call yourself “saved”
because you believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord?
But have you considered this?
- The bible calls your heart “deceitfully wicked”
- Listen to Jeremiah 17:9
“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick;
who can understand it??”
Are you going to trust that?
Or maybe you’ve convinced your mind that you are a Christian.
Listen to Proverbs 28:26.
And “whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool” (Prov. 28:26)
Maybe you trust your good works then?
Isaiah calls your best deed a “filthy rag” in Is. 64:6.
You may be quick to reference John 3:16—
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life.”
…but have you really taken this verse in context, and with the rest of scripture?
For example, did you know that the word “whosoever” is translated as a whole phrase in the Greek not a single word—and that phrase refers to “all who are already believers.”
Just a few pages over in chapter 6 Jesus reiterates that
the ones who come to him are the ones the Father gives to him.
The ones who come are the ones who are called by the Father. (not everyone)
The WORD “world” here is also not what you think.
It’s a reference to both Jew AND gentile believers all over the world.
(again, not everyone). Even if you don’t believe the Greek translation,
check out the logic by reading John 3:16 in context of the surrounding verses.
If “world” means “everyone” in John 3:16
then it must mean everyone is saved in John 3:17 and then
if everyone is saved, who are the “condemned” in John 3:18??
See the danger of taking a single verse out of its context?
The danger of convincing someone they are saved
because of something they did, said, or prayed.
Scripture makes it clear (especially in Romans and Ephesians)
that we are not “participants” in our salvation. GOD DOES THE WORK.
Ephesians says we were DEAD in our trespasses and sins and that God had to make us alive. A dead person doesn’t reach out for a life vest! A dead person has already stopped breathing and lays lifeless in the water. Someone else has to jump into water, drag him out to rescue him and breathe life into him. “It’s by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of your works, so that no man can boast” Ephesians 2 says.
You didn’t come to Jesus, you didn’t have faith, you didn’t decide to be saved. God called you, God breathed life into your spiritually dead body and you became alive, born again but this time spiritually. He gave you exactly what you needed to be able to repent and believe.
Now here’s the clincher!
God doesn’t make mistakes and do faulty work.
The bible describes clear evidence of what this new life looks like.
As a sinner, you were born into the world with a sin nature (Romans 1) you could not do anything but sin. You were incapable of keeping God’s commands!
When God makes something “new” it indeed becomes something completely different from what it was. The new person hates their own sin, and loves living right in God’s eyes. They love the commands of God, they love reading God’s word (Psalm 1 says they meditate on it day and night. That’s not a command, that’s a description reality in a believer’s life!) and they find themselves obeying. THAT obedience is evidence that God is in them.
Check this out –
I challenge you to look at the bible with a new approach.
NOT as a “to do” list that you have to try to live up to.
Look at it as a measuring stick.
Use it to decide if you are indeed saved, or not. (2 Peter says examine yourself..unless you fail the test!)
The scriptures testify what a believer’s life looks like.
When you read scripture, ask yourself: “is this a reality in my life?”
Does the scripture testify for or against my salvation?
When you read a verse that does not describe your life, your only response should be repentance.
False gospel says we have some good, and just need a little help.
True gospel says there is none righteous, not even one.
Be careful how you define “sin” and how you define “good.”
The bible promises that God will not judge by your standards, what you think is good…or what everyone else considers good. You won’t be compared to other people (can’t say “well at least I wasn’t as bad as him”). Acts 17:30 says God will judge the world by the Man he ordained…by the perfect and sinless Jesus Christ. That’s God’s standard of good.
The true gospel—the Easter story itself—cannot be understood until sin is fully defined by scripture. If you don’t understand how high God’s standard is, how wicked your sin is to him, and that He is storing up wrath for the unrighteous, you cannot appreciate what actually occurred on the cross. How Jesus endured all the wrath, the punishment, and every curse that was meant for you for breaking God’s perfect law.
I hope you’ll re-think the meaning of Easter this season, and continually examine your own life with an open bible.
Sincerely,
Additional References
Luke 13:3 “but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Luke 16:15 ““You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.”
John 14:21 “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.”
1 Corinthians 6:9 “9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous[a] will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,[b] 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Romans 2:5 “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”
2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”
2 Timothy 2:19 “ But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”