All of us at some time or another have looked at someone else’s life and thought about what it would be like to trade places with them. Maybe we’re walking down the street and we see a homeless person or a person in a wheelchair or a blind person and we wonder what it would be like to live like that. We’re curious, but we don’t really want to know. There’s no desire to trade places. When it comes to trading places, WE ALWAYS WANT TO TRADE UP! Thankfully, the God of the universe was willing to trade down. Every year on Easter Day, Christians in every country around the world celebrate the most profound and miraculous trade to take place in the history of humanity. A trade that is so big and so profound it is truly unfathomable to fully understand with the human mind and heart. A trade that impacts not just one’s position here and now, but for all eternity. A trade that is available to EVERYONE. What trade am I speaking about? The trade that God made available to every human being when He sent his holy and perfect Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross in the place of sinful and imperfect humanity. The sinless Jesus died on the cross for my sin, for your sin, for the sins of the whole world. (Isaiah 53:4-6) "Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds, we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Colossians 1:21-22) "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 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." ON THE CROSS… Jesus was punished so we could be pardoned. Jesus was cursed so we could be cleansed.
Jesus was broken so we could be blessed.
His life ended so ours could begin.
This Easter I want everyone to know that there is no greater love than the love of God for His most prized creation…mankind. I want everyone to know that Jesus has done everything to give you the freedom your heart, mind, and soul long for. Freedom from doubts and fears. Freedom from temptations and addictions. Freedom from selfish desires and the approval of others. Freedom from judgment and even death! This Easter I want everyone to know that Jesus took our place on the cross so we could inherit a place in heaven with God for all eternity. If you want to really TRADE UP, Jesus is the way! (Ephesians 2:1-10) "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (John 3:16) 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.
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