What Easter means to me.

This is a very short spot that I shared in church tonight.

What easter means to me. . .

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

[For] Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

Easter is a time of great encouragement for me because I am reminded of the great lengths to which God has gone to bring me to himself, to demolish the barrier between God and humanity. It's nothing that any of us could ever have accomplished but in His grace, while we still hated God, he killed us on the cross with Christ. Paul and Timothy, when they were writing to the Corinthians were convinced that Christ died for all and therefore all died. What can this mean other than that the gap between us and God has been bridged once and for all?

Now, being in a relationship with God the Father, through Christ and in the guidance and empowerment of the Holy Spirit we have the awesome opportunity to participate in the outworking of God's plan here and now. It says later in this passage that we have been given the ministry of reconciliation. What this means to me is that God has reconciled the world to himself and we have the privilege of telling those around us, 'Look what Christ has done! He's brought us to the Father. We are His children and will be for all eternity if we only believe what he has accomplished for us.'

However we tell those around us, we need to be aware that the Holy Spirit has gone before us and is already at work in these situations. Our ministry of living for 'him who died for us' is one of participating in what He is already doing.

So, Easter encourages me to think about what God has done in the past, (that is, primarily the life, death and resurrection of Christ), what God is doing now, (that is, working in the world around us, working through us and in us to proclaim the good news of reconciliation) and what God has planned for the future, (that is summarised in Revelation 21 verse 3, "Look, the home of God is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.")