It's Easter Sunday once again! And I dare say Happy Easter to everyone of us. It's always a thing of joy to commemorate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is because this event remains the bastion of hope for the Christian faith. It is the very essence of Christianity. Had Christ not risen from the dead, Christianity would surely be non existent. Little wonder the Roman government and Jewish leadership at that time did everything possible to cover up His resurrection including the use of propaganda.
Hence, every Easter reminds us that Jesus came to the earth in human form, lived among men, was killed by crucifixion, buried and on the third day, he rose again and appeared to many and afterwards, ascended into heaven! That is the fundamental message of Easter and we mustn't get it wrong.
We are also not unmindful of the attempt by the world system to pervert the essence or significance of Easter. We hear that Easter was actually the modified name of the Queen of Heaven called the Eastern Star which was reportedly hated by God. But the Pontiff of Rome at the time ruled that Easter must be observed, which was actually a time to worship this queen, rather than the remembrance of when Jesus died and resurrected. If we remember the conspiracies by the world system against the birth and life of Jesus Christ, then it shouldn't even come as a surprise when we see the lies, controversies and further conspiracies being concocted by the same system to rubbish the essence of Easter.
As we celebrate Easter today, Christians must not be unmindful of the fundamental message of the resurrection of Christ. Jesus himself made this message crystal clear upon his resurrection as recorded in Mark 16:15 "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." The fundamental message in Easter therefore is the Gospel. The reason why all these events happened is because of the gospel. That is why the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."
Every Christian therefore must seize this opportunity of the Easter celebrations to re-internalise the fundamental values of the gospel. For ease of explaining what the gospel is, I coin it as follows:
G - Grace of God
O - Omnipotence of God
S - Salvation of God
P - Peace with God
E - Eternity with God
L - Love of God
Now, these six things are the sum of the fundamental message of Easter. Jesus is the GOSPEL personified. We should not only believe it, we must live it and most importantly, preach these intrinsic values of the gospel.
One again, to all Christians in Nigeria and indeed all over the world, Happy Easter from JSN blog.
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