Scripture Texts: Romans 5:6-10; Hebrews 10:1-23; Ephesians 2:1-21

Happy Easter! Jesus is the reason for the season.

Christ did not die for us in vain! There are reasons he died for you and I and shown in today's Scripture texts. That's why we need to appreciate God and not take Christ's death for granted.


1. It's the demonstration of God's love for us

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us"- Romans 5: 6-8

2. Christ's death reconciled us with God

"Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!"- Romans 5:9-10

3. Christ’s Sacrificed Himself for us once for All

"The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins- Hebrews 10:1-3
Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, my God.’”[a]
First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
“This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”
Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”[c]
And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary- Hebrews 10:1-3

[b]4. We have been called to Persevere in Faith
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:4

5. We have been Made Alive in Christ

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Hebrews 10:5-10

6. Christ Has joined us to Him in One Body

Jew and Gentile Reconciled Through Christ
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. Hebrews 10:11-23


7. To Prepare Us For His Second Coming and Judgement Day
The second coming is when Jesus returns to judge all mankind – the living and the dead. The living includes all who will be alive when he returns. The dead includes everyone else, all who have lived and died physically. Jesus said that everyone who has died will be raised from the dead and be judged (John 5:26-29).

8. To Have Eternal Life
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

We need to appreciate God's love for us by taking deep reflection over what Christ's death bestowed on us. Also, we need to totally commit ourselves to Christ our Lord and Saviour. That's the only way we can appreciate Him even though we can do nothing to compensate His great offering of Himself.

If you would like to give your life to Christ just say this short prayer:
"Lord Jesus, I come to You today, come into my life, take control of my life and change my world. Thank You Jesus, in Your name I pray, amen.

Congratulations!!!

God bless you.

Peace!

Jesus wasn’t a sin offering. The entire scope of christology is based on the idea that Jesus was the ultimate Yom Kippur sin sacrifice. Yom Kippur was the time when the priests made atonement for the entire nation of Israel. Jesus, it is claimed, came to save and atone the entire nation of Israel.
Such an atonement would take place on Yom Kippur, not Passover, when no sin sacrifice was made. Such an atonement would involve a goat, not a lamb. Numbers 29, Leviticus 16. Jesus is portrayed as a lamb of God, not a goat. He was not sacrificed on an altar, or by any Jewish priest.
There is no possibility in God’s highly-structured system for sacrifice and forgiveness in which a group of non-Jews could sacrifice on behalf of the Jewish People, could use a non-goat for the sin sacrifice, or atonement could be obtained on a cross. Christians can believe that a Roman execution is a sacrifice, but that doesn’t make it so any more than I can say that a pancake is the US Constitution.
During this holy time of year for Jews, Christians want very much to insert Jesus into the mix, but to be honest, he’s meaningless in the context of the Passover holiday and devoid of symbolism in the context of our redemption by God from slavery. The grand opus that constitutes our salvation from Egypt and journey to freedom has no room for the theology of Christianity or the mythology of one Jew whose claim to fame is that he (allegedly) died for everyone’s sins, past, present and future.