A BELIEF IS ALL WE GOT

….IT IS FINISHED! IT IS DONE! TOWARDS SALVATION & RESTORATION

Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross – Colossians 2:15

Easter is here with us and allow me once again to wish you a grand one. Let me begin by clarifying that I consider Easter far more important by significance than Christmas and the reason is quite apparent, plain and bare for all to behold. First off, I think it is really a matter of strategic positioning (haha) in that whereas Christmas is in December a relatively warmer and sunny month compare Easter is during the stormy weather that is in March and April. Therefore, naturally activity is scaled down a bit during Easter and we are left with more time to ponder about Christ, His death and resurrection; and the import of all that in our lives. About Christmas, well, the idea is lost somewhere between festivity and merrymaking. It is that one time that we are left to get down with the remaining items on our bucket-lists for the year which again isn’t really a bad idea but there is much we can do concerning the day and the concept behind it – because there is a lot conceptual confusion surrounding Christmas! And am I the only one who’s observed that there aren’t as many Easter offers as there are during Christmas?

Back to Easter now! Christ’s death and resurrection is everything our belief revolves around. It is the fulcrum of our faith. You cannot talk about faith and alienate that discourse from the death of Jesus. And resurrection…must be the wow!! factor. (Have you ever wondered what could have happened if Jesus died and never rose again!) There is an inexorable linkage between Christ’s death and His resurrection. The victory at Calvary is one that we’d never win ourselves in eons. On this cross, where we first saw the light and burdens of our hearts rolled away, was where Jesus was piled with sins that he didn’t even commit, given into the hands of men and bore an undue punishment that wasn’t even His. Having so died, sin lost its power on us. Jesus scorned its shame. The works of the evil one were destroyed once, for all and for good. Satan was condemned and his head crashed. But how did we get here? How did Jesus get here? If at all Jesus is paying for our sins where did sin originate? In order to have an understanding, and a clear one while at it, of Easter it is imperative that we go back to the Garden of Eden. Now, shall we?

The Garden of Eden was a one stop shop for all our happiness needs. In here man could behold of God’s goodness by delighting in His abundance. The Christian Apologetics Forum records in their website that the origins of sin are twofold, that is, sin came into the world first through the angelic realm demons and through the first humans, the first couple Adam and Eve. I choose to draw an illustration from the latter though which is set out in Genesis 3. After Satan rebelled from heaven he had a major encounter with Adam and Eve at the Garden of Abundance. The patent idea of God regarding man was a likeness and a resemblance of him which can only mean that man possessed an everlasting spirit similar to that of God. His design was just like that of God – he’d fellowship like God, reason like Him and would enjoy Him forever. At this juncture I simply wonder to myself what else did our parents want yaani?! I mean, God could even walk around and talk with kina Adam like lifelong buddies! But once Adam and Eve defied God’s instructions and fed on the fruit of the forbidden tree then karash sin toklezead and man fell which is true if you were to consider Romans 3:23. Sin can in this sense be seen as disobedience, rebellion and defiance of God by man. In fact, sin is defined severally and differently across the Bible but the concept that I find quite apt is that of “missing the mark”. And this could only mean that man could have everything but there is this one thing that he fell short of and devoid of it he cannot be said to have achieved anything in strict sense – righteousness, Right standing with God. Sin severed man’s communion with God. It was the bulwark between man and God. It was actually like a Chinese wall that precluded man’s communication from getting to God. Christ finishes this race for us. Through Christ’s death and triumphant resurrection, which we are commemorating in this season, the race that we could run our entire lives and fail to finish he helps us finish. The amount of work that we’d put up our entire lives in order to earn this standing with God would be in vain. These efforts would just be frantic. We could never be righteous if it hadn’t been for Jesus. He makes us Holy before His father and atones for all our sins – old and new.

It is through Christ that we are able to approach God’s throne of mercy. The Bible records in Romans 5 and verse 19 that just as through the disobedience of the one man (ADAM) the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man (JESUS) the many will be made righteous. Christ gives us a name and an identity – we are called the Children of God. All the inheritances that are due to Him become ours just by his painful death. I couldn’t want more myself!

Happy Easter, it is finished…it is done!