No Other Name By Which We Are Saved...
This past weekend we celebrated Easter. In most families it was one day filled with candy and painted eggs and ham, lamb, and some type of fowl on the table.
Monday came and it was the talk of the office, what did we eat... were we with family. Then the conversation turned to - "kids these days expect a lot of gifts and candy but they don't know the reason we celebrate Easter." I agreed, but then I heard my coworkers go into a more secular ideal of what Easter is. It's about Spring and new life.
New life. Yes, Easter is about New Life... but not the green fragrant kind or baby bunnies and chicks. New Life. That's what Jesus offered us when he offered his body - his perfect sinless self - to be brutalized and murdered on a cross - a punishment for the truly wicked in society - so that we could have a New Life.
New Life - it seems so weird to think about. How do you have a "new life?" What IS a new "life?" So many people think "Come To Jesus" means you have to give up the fun part of life... well, I can't see why one would think that.
Ask yourself this - did Jesus ask you to give up anything when he put Himself in the position to suffer and die for you? No, He didn't. And He still doesn't. It's not how good or bad you are that determines what level of salvation you earn. There aren't any LEVELS. There's a Heaven and a Hell and there is no inbetween. There isn't any special place for the 'kinda good' or the 'kinda bad'. And Jesus knew that. He knew that each and every one of us would need a way to come to the Father. To be saved.
From the Hitlers to the Mother Theresas - whether they accept Him or not He still gave His life for theirs.
For me - Easter starts on Good Friday. Really, it starts on Christmas. Because without Christmas = Easter doesn't happen... and without Easter Christmas means nothing. Because if Easter didn't happen teh way the Bible says then the baby in the manger is just another kid born in a stable. And if Christmas didn't happen the way the Bible tells then Jesus was nothing more than a liar and deserved that cross.
But there's nothing that proves that Jesus isn't exactly who He said. And to just call Him a good person or a good teacher denies the very Identity of who Christ was and is. If He were just a good person and not God then His lie is probably as horrific as any lie the tyrants of the modern world ever were. His lie - like theirs - saw (and sees) hundreds of lives lost in His name. If Jesus is not the Son of God - if he's just a good person - then he is the lowest possible person. He can't be both. He wasn't both.
Jesus came to save that which was lost... He came to save all of us. He didn't just pick and choose. He extended and extends this offer of love to all. But in order to receive the gift we have to ACCEPT the gift. Just like Haille Rae had to accept the gift we gave her at Easter in her basket - we have to accept Christ's gift of salvation.
Sing; I need you Jesus!
To come in and save me...
Where else can I go?
There's no other name by
Which we are saved!
....
This world has nothing for me...
This world has nothing for me...
This world has nothing for me...
So I need you Jesus...
Monday came and it was the talk of the office, what did we eat... were we with family. Then the conversation turned to - "kids these days expect a lot of gifts and candy but they don't know the reason we celebrate Easter." I agreed, but then I heard my coworkers go into a more secular ideal of what Easter is. It's about Spring and new life.
New life. Yes, Easter is about New Life... but not the green fragrant kind or baby bunnies and chicks. New Life. That's what Jesus offered us when he offered his body - his perfect sinless self - to be brutalized and murdered on a cross - a punishment for the truly wicked in society - so that we could have a New Life.
New Life - it seems so weird to think about. How do you have a "new life?" What IS a new "life?" So many people think "Come To Jesus" means you have to give up the fun part of life... well, I can't see why one would think that.
Ask yourself this - did Jesus ask you to give up anything when he put Himself in the position to suffer and die for you? No, He didn't. And He still doesn't. It's not how good or bad you are that determines what level of salvation you earn. There aren't any LEVELS. There's a Heaven and a Hell and there is no inbetween. There isn't any special place for the 'kinda good' or the 'kinda bad'. And Jesus knew that. He knew that each and every one of us would need a way to come to the Father. To be saved.
From the Hitlers to the Mother Theresas - whether they accept Him or not He still gave His life for theirs.
For me - Easter starts on Good Friday. Really, it starts on Christmas. Because without Christmas = Easter doesn't happen... and without Easter Christmas means nothing. Because if Easter didn't happen teh way the Bible says then the baby in the manger is just another kid born in a stable. And if Christmas didn't happen the way the Bible tells then Jesus was nothing more than a liar and deserved that cross.
But there's nothing that proves that Jesus isn't exactly who He said. And to just call Him a good person or a good teacher denies the very Identity of who Christ was and is. If He were just a good person and not God then His lie is probably as horrific as any lie the tyrants of the modern world ever were. His lie - like theirs - saw (and sees) hundreds of lives lost in His name. If Jesus is not the Son of God - if he's just a good person - then he is the lowest possible person. He can't be both. He wasn't both.
Jesus came to save that which was lost... He came to save all of us. He didn't just pick and choose. He extended and extends this offer of love to all. But in order to receive the gift we have to ACCEPT the gift. Just like Haille Rae had to accept the gift we gave her at Easter in her basket - we have to accept Christ's gift of salvation.
Sing; I need you Jesus!
To come in and save me...
Where else can I go?
There's no other name by
Which we are saved!
....
This world has nothing for me...
This world has nothing for me...
This world has nothing for me...
So I need you Jesus...