Transformation

It’s Easter week, a time that comes once a year. But it actually affects every day of the year – in fact every day of your life.

Today I’m including a short video for you to watch from our friends at The John 10:10 Project. But before you do, let’s think from a different angle about Good Friday (the day Jesus died on the cross) and Resurrection Sunday (the day He rose from the dead). What’s the message and purpose of Jesus’ suffering and death? What does it mean to you and to me that He rose from the dead? We don’t have time to cover the full story here. To do that, we’d need to read the Holy Bible from cover to cover because it’s on every page. History is HIStory. But I’ll try to condense the message to its essentials in a few sentences:

•  God gave the Law through Moses in the Old Testament to show people what sin was and how they were breaking His commandments and doing harmful things to themselves and others. It was given for their own good, based on His love for them. Sin separates people from God and is so serious that He required the blood and sacrifice of animals to pay for the sins of people. This graphic and painful act was to unmistakably and dramatically get people’s attention that sin comes with a price so high they could not pay it themselves. The price had to be paid by an innocent creature for their sinful actions.

•  Then in God’s timing, He sent the Messiah: Jesus Christ. He was God the Son – fully God, and at the same time, fully man.

•  Because God the Son became actual flesh and blood, He was able to become the ultimate sacrifice for sin, giving His blood and His life instead, once and for all time. The Old Testament Law was pointing to His sacrifice all along.

•  God Himself came to Earth and paid the price for the sins of anyone who comes to Him, accepts this gift, and believes. Only He could die and take away the sins of the world.

You have probably heard the verse John 3:16 many times, but this time slow down to savor and take in the meaning of each word – and verse 17 also:

“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.”

There’s the big picture of why Jesus endured the suffering He went through and death on the cross. But the story doesn’t end there! On the third day after His death, He rose from the dead and is alive today! He conquered death for all of us who are in Him as believers and because of this, have the promise of eternal life. 

God reconciles humanity to Himself through His Son alone. When we accept Jesus as our Saviour and the forgiver of our sins through His sacrifice, the Bible says we become a new creation. We’re born again!

Chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians gives us amazing and life-changing good news:

Verse 17 (ESV): “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Verse 21 (NLT): “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.”

It’s a spiritual rebirth, not just a renovation of our behavior. We are fundamentally changed, forgiven, and reconciled to God through Jesus. God now views us as new, righteous, and holy. Our purpose and perspective begin to grow in a new direction and change as we read His Word the Bible and talk to Him in prayer.

I couldn’t think of a better way to wrap up this important message than with a video about the Monarch butterfly. Here’s a truly miraculous example of what transformation looks like, designed for us by God the Creator Himself. If a little caterpillar can become an entirely different creature with wings to fly and freedom to live a different life, imagine how He can transform your life if you give your heart to Him!

• RESET HIGHER: Learn more about how to become a Christian here.