For many in our culture, Easter is limited to chocolate bunnies, egg hunts, and a big ham dinner. But as Christ-followers, we know Easter changes lives. But our celebration of this crucial and powerful holiday starts with an unpopular topic: sin.
Sin is a challenging topic, often overlooked, yet as Easter approaches, reflecting on its gravity can deepen our appreciation of the celebration. Consider with me the awfulness of sin. I believe if you do, you’ll find yourself eager to celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection not just on Easter but every day.
Paul Tripp vividly describes sin in his book, Do You Believe?
“Sin is the ultimate bomb, leaving a trail of destruction in its path. Sin is the ultimate pandemic, infecting everyone, and leaving everyone sick. Sin is the ultimate curse, sentencing everyone to death. Sin is the ultimate deceit, telling you endless lies and making promises it can’t keep. Sin is the ultimate interruption, changing the human story forever.”
Sin can also be conceptualized as corruption (think distortion, perversion, contortion) of what was originally very good. This corruption shows up in our actions and attitudes whenever we do something that’s out of alignment with the way God has instructed us to live.
This corruption leads to death. Death wasn’t part of the original design. But sin and its corruption bring death. And as bad as death is, it gets worse. Sin also brings God’s wrath. “On account of these [sins] the wrath of God is coming.” (Colossians 3:6 ESV)
Sin is bad. Real bad. It corrupts until death and it incurs God’s wrath. And we’re all infected with sin—every last one of us.
But the story doesn’t end here. Praise God it doesn’t end here! God, in His great love, created a way to restore to life what sin had corrupted. A return to the very good that God intended. But it required Jesus to soak up all the poison of sin and absorb the full detonation of God’s wrath.
Through the cross and the empty tomb, Jesus defeated sin and restored to beauty what God declared very good. This is reason to praise. Let’s celebrate Jesus together this Easter.