This Easter will be unlike any most of us have experienced in our lifetime. For those who are accustomed to large gatherings with egg hunts and activities in the park, there will be none. Churches won’t be festively observing this time with lively events for families and our communities. The celebration of our mutual redemption through Christ will not take place at a church building or large Easter dinner. For many of us, this is new and unsettling. However, there is something profound about the opportunity available to us this Easter. More so than any year prior, we can reflect on the personal nature of the atonement Christ made through His sinless life, sacrificial death, and triumphant resurrection.
It can be easy to deflect our gaze from an intimate and pointed reparation of sins and instead look at it from a global perspective. By that, I mean we can cement our focus on Christ dying for every person who has ever lived. It becomes a spiritual number game. The importance of the 7 billion people in the world today, plus every past generation that has come and every future generation that will come, is heavy. The importance of our individual lives, in our estimation, can be forgotten. That is not quite the reality though.
Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. John 6:37-38
Yes, if called by the Spirit of God, He died for my neighbor, my cousin, that kid that used to pick his nose in kindergarten and chase me with his boogers. The whole grand, “Everyone the Father gives.” However, we must acknowledge and own that He died for each of us, individually, as well.
Many times in my life, the enemy has distorted that amazing truth. I have believed the lie that I was snuck into the all-encompassing act of restoration with God. The resulting question that lodged its way into my heart was whether Christ would have chosen to walk away if my salvation alone was on the line. It’s produced an unceasing struggle to earn a spot in this family of believers. At times, in frustration, I have rebelled, honestly thinking God never really wanted me anyway. I have wrestled against the call of faith over works because of this, and maybe you have experienced that as well. However, God is restoring the truth. He draws us to Himself for a relationship made possible by salvation through Christ.
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:44
This weekend, I invite you to re-frame your view of The Resurrection. Remember, Christ died for you. Personally. Individually. Paul understood the gravity of this truth. He declared that Christ loved him and justified him through faith. There was nothing Paul could do to earn salvation for himself.
And yet because we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus. This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified. Galatians 2:17
“A person,” he says. An individual person if justified by faith. Bask in the glory of that knowledge. Despite our shortcomings and mistakes, God chose us. He died for His glory and our salvation.
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16
This Resurrection Sunday and onward celebrate the depths of God’s love for you. Remind yourself or affirm for the first time, “Christ died for me personally!” As you text, call or reach out to those you would have spent this day with, remind them of this truth. Maybe you’ll do a few group texts or group chats during the day, but make it a point to recognize individually and to those around you, that you are each handpicked by God.
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,” Romans 8:15-16