Easter is a significant occasion celebrated by Christians to reflect on their redemption from sin and death. It is centred on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that gives enablement to all believers (Romans 8:11). The occasion is mostly characterized by thanksgiving to Jesus Christ for paying the price of our sins, taking away our sins and giving us the power to overcome sin. Contrary to a widespread narrative told to little children about an Easter bunny who has many baskets and hides coloured eggs and candies in them, Easter is a time for man to reflect on Jesus’ finished work on the cross and its impact in his/her life. Therefore, for many believers, it is a time of forgiveness, repentance, and fellowship in the presence of God. In this season, we will learn and reflect on Easter beginning from Man’s battle with Sin, then to Jesus’ Vicarious death and finally The resurrection: He has risen, He is not here.
Man’s battle with Sin
God’s eternal plan to rescue and restore man into His presence after the fall in the garden of Eden is revealed in the reason for Easter. The greatest tragedy to ever befall any man is for him to live on Earth without God in his life. A separation that is not only physical but eternal. In fact, that is the worst or lowest state that a man (God’s creation in His own image) can be reduced to. Sadly, that was exactly what you and I were when we lived in sin and had become corrupted. In this corrupt state, we were unable to save ourselves.
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
Sin had consumed man to the point that he could not produce any good of his own because his very thoughts were solely evil. This state of man is described as Man’s depraved nature ( i.e. The natural man is born a sinner because he inherited the Adamic nature that is sinful, he cannot save himself and needs Jesus to remove this nature of sin). This displeased the Lord.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
At this point, nothing from the nature of man was possible to save him from his depravity. This is where man’s battle with sin gets worse. When the first man sinned, his first approach was to hide his sins from God for he thought he could cover his nakedness from God using fig leaves.
“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves”.
Adam and Eve would have truly been in a fix before coming up with the idea of sewing fig leaves. Even with that they further hid their whole being from God and when God did confront them, they began to shift blames. We see a serious battle with sin here. First, covering the sin, second hiding from God and finally blaming others for their sins. Sadly, many of us still find ourselves in similar situations with sin and we choose to battle it out.
This battle I speak about is real. It consumes the mind, hardens the heart and leads to eternal destruction. No known ceremonial cleansing can remove sin and make one free of it. The only remedy to sin is the blood of Jesus which is accessed by repentance and belief in Jesus as the Saviour who died on the cross to take away the sins of the world. This is the only way to break free from sin’s bondage and live a life of righteousness, peace, and joy in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Perhaps, you are a believer and you are still having a hard time dealing with sin. Instead of making it your battle why don’t you take it to Jesus. By this I mean; repent, surrender to Jesus and make every effort to turn away from sin. If you do this, God will be with you every step of the way to help you break free from any sin or addiction.
Conclusion
In this Easter season, decide to mark a new beginning with God and let go of any form of battles with sin. Repent, come to Jesus Christ and He will relieve you of every sin you might be battling with. I pray this year’s Easter celebrations will impact your life and release God’s grace in your life.
Happy Easter!
God bless you.
