This is what Easter is about!

Written By Seun Ojo

With Easter here, I'll love for us to look at the Significance of Easter. By now I'm hoping we're all aware of the fact that Easter isn't about eggs or bunnies but about the Death and Resurrection of Jesus! If you're worried about if this holiday is a pagan holiday you can check out our article on that. That being said let's begin

The Significance of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus

With the Easter season here, let’s look at some significant themes of Easter.

Let’s begin by exploring what the death of Jesus meant and why it is important.

Romans 6:23 says

”For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”

We’ve probably heard this verse many times, but what does it mean?

A wage is a payment that is earned.

This means that sin has a price attached to it that has to be paid.

If you’ve read the book of Leviticus in the bible, you’ve probably come across the words “sin offering”.

This is a sacrifice for sin. Blood had to be shed for the sins the people committed, but these animal sacrifices were only a temporary covering of sins.

This was the people paying the price for the sins they had committed. These animals did no wrong but died in place of the people performing the sacrifices.

So where does Jesus come in? Why couldn’t any other person die for our sins to be forgiven?

One thing we see in these sacrifices in the Old Testament was that the animal sacrificed had to be spotless.

In John 1:29, John the Baptist refers to Jesus as “The lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”

Jesus was without sin by nature of who he is; the son of God.

Every other man was born in sin because they were born of man and it was through one man that sin entered the world.

But, Jesus was different, he was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit making him both fully man and fully God.

This is where I’m headed, Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world, the only one capable of erasing our sins.

So as Jesus died, he paid the wages of sin and this is what was foreshadowed in the Old Testament with the sacrifices.

There’s a difference though, the sacrifices made in the Old Testament were a temporary covering of sin, whereas when Jesus died, he died once and for all time.

What does this mean?

It means that with his death came forgiveness, we don’t have to offer sacrifices anytime we sin as we have already been forgiven, we just have to accept the forgiveness that he has given.

The resurrection, Easter Day!

Now, let’s move on to the resurrection of Jesus.

We’ve probably seen some posts on Easter like ‘He is risen, that’s the reason for the season’

That’s because it’s what we celebrate on Easter Day(resurrection Sunday) itself, the fact that Jesus rose from the dead.

Amazing! Isn’t it?

So why did Jesus rise from the dead, why didn’t he just stay dead?

Let’s take a look at Romans 1:4

It says; “and he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The resurrection is proof that Jesus was indeed who he claimed to be, the son of God.

Also, the resurrection of Jesus shows us that death is defeated and had no power over him.

‬‬ “But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip.”

‭‭Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭2‬:‭24‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The amazing thing is that he did not defeat death for himself alone, but he did this for us.

1Corinthians 15:12-34 says a lot about resurrection and how the resurrection of Christ ushered in the resurrection of the dead.

“So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15‬:‭21‬-‭23‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This is great news, that we are given a new life in Christ and we will be raised when he returns!!!

So as you celebrate Easter this year and every other year, celebrate in the consciousness of what that represents to you as a believer.

Happy Easter

Remember, Christ is Risen!