Seven Days

For sin’s meager wage is death, but God’s lavish gift is life eternal, found in your union with our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. Romans 6:23 TPT

As we enter this Easter week, let’s spend some time reflecting on the incredible gift Jesus gave us when He gave His life to cover our sin. Apostle Paul begins Romans 6:23 by saying, “The wages of sin is death.”  

We were essentially dead in our transgressions, our sins against God, leaving us destined for eternal separation from Him. But Paul continues the verse with the Lord’s redemptive truth: “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

Because of Jesus, the debt of our sin has been paid, and we get to spend forever in the presence of God!  Hallelujah! That leaves me breathless! 

Because He is perfect, God simply cannot be in close proximity to sin. In the Old Testament, the Israelites were required to frequently sacrifice an unblemished lamb to atone for sin. The offering had to be perfect to cover the debt of sin - it was the only way a person could stay in right standing with God.

Luke 19:45-48 TPT  Jesus entered the temple area and forcibly threw out all the merchants from their stalls. He rebuked them, saying, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Father’s house is to be filled with prayer—a house of prayer, not a cave of bandits!’ ” From then on Jesus continued teaching in the temple area, but the high priests, the experts of the law, and the prominent men of the city kept trying to find a strategy to accuse Jesus, for they wanted him dead. They could find no reason to accuse him, for he was a hero to the people and the crowds were awestruck by every word he spoke.

Easter is not a day – it is a season, and a way of life.  These seven days are called Holy Week because without the crucifixion, there would have been no Resurrection Sunday. Had Christ not hung on the cross, taken on our sins, and defeated Satan’s power, no one would have eternal life.

We need to walk through and reflect on the events of Holy Week. We need to experience the jubilation of Palm Sunday and the rising unrest that followed on Holy Monday and Tuesday. We need to feel the shock of the betrayal on Wednesday and the horror of the arrest on Thursday. We need to remember the awful reality of the death on Good Friday and the grief that set in on that Holy Saturday. And then, maybe, just maybe, we will be able to really celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday.