(March 20, 2024) Ayodele Afuye shares a great Easter truth…

As we observe the remembrance of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ at Easter, this should also be a season of reflection about the precedence, the aftermath, and the overall reason for Christ’s coming to die for you and me.

Redemption From Darkness
Is it just enough to celebrate Easter, as we call this ‘season’ or ‘Resurrection’ as some want to refer to it? No! Celebrating and making merry about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead after three days is great… but our redemption from the kingdom of darkness into the marvellous light of the Father is also worth celebrating.

Flashing back to my childhood days, I always looked forward to Resurrection Sunday, and awaited my late dad and mum preparing varieties of meals which would be taken with us to meet other families and friends from church to go to ‘Galilee’ – as I had imaged the picnic locale at the time – to meet with Jesus. After all, hadn’t Jesus said, ‘But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee’ (Matthew 26:32).

There were so much eating and drinking with other families and friends within our local church. Such a beautiful time of joint picnicking, and while we were enjoying this time of celebration, I would keep asking Mum, ‘When is Jesus going to arrive?’

The naive childhood understanding I had was that after Christ’s resurrection, we would be seeing Him. And I would wait expectantly, looking forward to seeing Jesus… since it had been announced in church on Good Friday by the minister that Jesus had said, ‘Meet me at Galilee.’ Waiting with great expectation, wanting to have some catch-up time with Jesus was a great inspiration for me at Easter.

Fresh New Start
But beyond the above expectation and celebration, I would come to really understand why the resurrection of Jesus is so important and should be celebrated – it means no more alienation from God!

Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossians, ‘Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation’ (Colossians 1:21-22).

We must reflect on the reason for the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus: The pain He bore before and at Calvary, the shame, the humiliation, and the weight of our sins which He carried on the cross was that His blood would to be shed in remission of our sins to make us reconciled to God.

This is the process of redemption and reconciliation, and the reality is that you and I have been made totally free from the bondage of sin, law, and death. We were estranged and alienated because of our sin, but Christ died on the cross and was resurrected, giving us a fresh start before God.

Some theologians wrongly teach that Christ did not come to the earth physically; they claim He only came in Spirit. But that is a theological error! The Bible confirms that Jesus came here physically, through the virgin Mary’s Holy Spirit conception (Matthew 1:18; Luke 1:35), and presented Himself for the redemption of humankind, with the aim of removing the barrier between us and God (Colossians 1:22 above).

• Romans 8:34 confirms: ‘Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.’ 
• 2Corinthians 5:21 declares: ‘For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.’
• Hebrew 7:25 states, ‘Therefore ‘He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.’ 

Three Important Essentials
(i) Acceptance of Jesus
One must repent of sins and accept Jesus as Saviour. John 3:16-18 is still a vital scripture – ‘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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.  Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.’ 

(ii) Growth in Christ
Paul laid emphasis on us growing in our faith in Jesus having been reconciled to God: ‘… continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant’ (Colossians 1:23).

Spiritual growth is a necessary function of our continued journey in faith. The celebration of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus is not enough if we are not consistent in our faith.

(iii) Divine godly purpose
Paul mentions that he’s been called to share the gospel. Like Paul we too have been redeemed from the kingdom of darkness through Jesus’ death and resurrection… and God has a divine purpose for us also. We too must share the gospel with lost souls! And serve the kingdom in whatever way God desires us to be involved.

Jesus will fully activate the potentials of our divine purpose when we continue in faith. We must also be willing to be well-grounded in the knowledge, understanding, and wisdom of God. This will then unleash the manifold blessings of God on us… peace, joy, and fulfilment are the basic ingredients of such blessed hope.

And by grace the purpose of God concerning you and I will be fully fulfilled. I encourage you to grow in Christ, become spiritually mature – and boldly share the fullness of the joy of Jesus’ resurrection!

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Dr Ayodele Afuye is founder and senior leader at Vessels of Virtues Ministries. He oversees the running of this ministry and pastors The Dynasty Church, (RWC) Ridge, Lancaster, UK. Link: www.thedynastychurch.org.
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