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Friday, March 7
For I delivered to you as of rst importance that which I also received, that Christ died on behalf of our sins according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3)
On Monday before Easter Sunday in 1997, our ministry staff at my church in Atlanta began a spiritual retreat. Late that afternoon I took a walk down to the Chattahoochee River, then hiked to the waterfall on the retreat property. It was a brilliant spring day, with not a cloud in the sky. I sat on a wooden deck overlooking the waterfall as it splashed into a creek that wandered down to the river, and God spoke to me.
He showed me that my faith had become a religion, not a relationship. That I was working for him, not walking with him. I couldn't remember the last time I prayed, not to complete a prayer list or ask for his help, but because I simply wanted to be with God. I couldn't remember the last time I read the Scriptures, not to prepare a Bible study or complete a morning "quiet time," but simply because I wanted to hear from him. I couldn't remember the last time I took an hour to listen to God, or the last time I told him with all my heart that I loved him.
Easter was real for me, but the living Christ was not relevant. During those two days, I learned how to fall back in love with Jesus again. I discovered the transforming di fference between a religion about Jesus and a passionate relationship with him.
Which would he say you have with him today?
What God's word means
Paul delivered ("handed over") to the Corinthians as of rst importance ("as of the highest signi fiance") that message which he also received ("had been given by others"). Delivered and received were technical words in Paul's culture for the reception and distribution of religious instruction. Note that this message was not given to Paul by men, but directly by Jesus: "the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ" (Galatians 1:11-12). Assuming this "revelation" came at his Damascus road conversion (Acts 9), Paul received this message 20 years before transmitting it to the Corinthians. As such, it is likely the earliest "creed" in Christian history.
Here is the essential message of the Christian faith. First, Christ died as a fact of history. Second, he died on behalf of ("for, in place of, as a result of") our sins ("guilt, sinfulness"). This fact proves his sinlessness (Hebrews 4:15), as Chrysostom (died A.D. 407) noted: "How could Christ die for sinners if he were a sinner himself?"3 Jesus' death freed us from past sins as well as bondage to sin. Third, he did so according to the Scriptures. His atoning sacri ce ful lled Isaiah 53:5: "he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."
Why Easter matters
As Nazi soldiers were lining up Jewish women for the gas chambers, one distraught mother refused to part with her baby. A simple woman known to the prisoners as Mother Maria saw that the guard wasn't watching. So she pushed the mother aside and took her place in line.
At Calvary, Jesus did the same for you. He paid the penalty for your sins by dying in your place. If he had refused the cross, his Father could not forgive your sins. They would bar you from God's perfect heaven, consigning you to eternity in hell. But on Good Friday, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21, NIV).
How to respond
On March 15, 1985, World War II veteran Wayne Alderson appeared on The Today Show. Asked about his most signi cant memory of the war, Alderson told about a redheaded friend who saved his life. A German soldier threw a grenade at Alderson, which exploded and sent him facedown and wounded into the mud. Nearby, a German machine gun began firing in his direction. Alderson knew that if the grenade wound did not kill him, the machine gun would.
But his friend turned him over so he could breathe and threw his own body over him. He died protecting him from certain death. With tears welling up in his eyes, Alderson said, "I can never forget the person who sacri ficed his life to save me. I owe everything to him. I can never forget . . . I owe everything."
What do you owe the One who died for you?
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