By: Mike Kelly
Retired Pastor
We have 4 great grandchildren 4 and under, and I was looking at pictures of the Easter Egg Hunts they participated in. It’s so neat to see their smiles and great joy every time they find an egg.
They don’t necessarily know what’s in the egg, but they just enjoy the adventure of finding them and then the surprise of opening them later.
As much as I do not want to confuse the Mythical Easter Bunny with our Risen Savior, there are some parallels we can comment on.
Christ’s death and Resurrection brings great joy to all who believe. Have you ever taken a few minutes to share in the childlike joy and faith of opening the “eggs” Christ’s resurrection gives us?
First, we are cleansed from sin. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says to us “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come!” And it isn’t that sin is just erased, it is as if it never were.
We are set free from the legacy of sin, from the generational curses, from the fears and weaknesses sin causes. Now we can do all things in Christ who strengthens us. That’s an amazing gift.
Second, we are removed from Satan’s control. Colossians 1:13 says “He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin.’
Our value has been restored, our desires have changed, our heart has been made new. We live in the Light, we see clearly and correctly, no longer fooled by his shadows.
And then we are rescued from spiritual death. 2 Cor 1:9-10 “Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death, but this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us”.
We will never see true death. We will live for all eternity with him. Those in hell will be alive but they will not have life like we will come to know it. We will lack nothing while they will lack everything including hope, love and comfort.
And amazingly, we learn to know God. Philippians 3:8 “What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.
I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.” It is a personal, deep, intimate and growing knowledge of God when scripture says we will know him as he knows us.
All worry, doubt and pain will be replaced with His love and care. Our sorrow and fears will be replaced by his assurances and love.
Another gift we will find from Easter is that we are adopted by God. Romans 8:17 explains “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory”.
All that God possesses will be ours as well… a shared purpose of love and service, a glorified state of being, true love and joy unspeakable forever and ever!.
And yet another gift will be the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God in up. And with this indwelling will come God’s wisdom. 1 Corinthians 2:12-13 “What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.”
“This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.”
We are never alone. We are never an inch from God because wherever we are, there he is. And we have all spiritual knowledge available to us. When we don’t know what to do next, we only have to ask and listen.
God is not trying to hide his direction and wisdom from us. He dwells inside us to provide all that we need for life and life abundantly.
That’s a list of pretty nice “Easter Eggs” for our basket. Of course, if you don’t recognize the death and resurrection of Jesus as the death of the penalty for all sin through the sacrifice of his life, then your eggs will be filled with Santa’s coal.
———————–
Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.