Friday 22 April 2011

The Paradox of Easter

Easter is a special time for me. I will never forget the first Easter I celebrated in 1983, just 6 months after I had become a Christian aged 31 years. I'd grown up as a child enjoying the Easter holidays and the chocolate and as a young father I had introduced my daughters to the same limited pleasures of the secular celebration of Easter. But as Easter approached in 1983 I grasped something that made sense of the strange traditions that I'd been taught in Scripture at school. I understood the significance of more than the narrative about a man who died and then miraculously came back to life.

In my limited understanding of Easter, we were meant to be sad on Friday and able to celebrate on Sunday (with chocolate!). But as I prepared for Easter that year, I had an overwhelming sense of gratitude that God had forgiven my sins, for in God's sight I was now righteous.
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9).
For the first time I saw in the hideous death of the perfect Son of God that my sins were responsible for his death! The paradox of Easter is that we see God's majesty and power revealed in the resurrection of the Son, but at the same time we bow our heads at the thought that in the brokenness of Jesus on the cross, the love of God is revealed so profoundly for each of 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." (Rom 5:6-8)
May God bless you abundantly as we contemplate and give thanks for his mercy, love and kindness demonstrated in Christ.

2 comments:

Timaahy said...

Trevor,

"For the first time I saw in the hideous death of the perfect Son of God that my sins were responsible for his death!"

Could you expand on this a bit further?

Tim

Trevor Cairney said...

Hi Tim,

I think the Romans 5 passage that I shared in the post says it well enough:

"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." (Rom 5:6-8)

I realised for the first time that I was a sinner and was unworthy of God's forgiveness. The 'we' includes me! His death was the punishment I deserved. His pain and death were caused by me and all others living separate lives in rebellion against God.

I came to the point of believing what the Bible says about Jesus; that he was both man and God and that forgiveness is possible through faith in him (see the 1 John 1:9 verse above).

The good news in 1 John 1:9 is that I'm part of the 'our' and the 'we' here too! Why can I be forgiven and made right in God's sight? Because of Jesus' sacrificial death on my behalf. But there's more! Through his resurrection death was defeated and eternal life is open to all who believe in Him.

Thanks for asking.
Trevor