Easter Victory Over What?

   Theologian and ethicist H. Richard Niebuhr once critiqued some in the American Church of 1937 as subverting the Bible’s message of salvation, teaching that, “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.”

   Easter Sunday has come and gone, and the Easter Season has begun.  Easter Victory! 

   Victory?  Victory over what? 

   For some in our own time, nothing at all.

   What can Easter mean to a world uncomfortable with sin, or repentance, or a need for conversion from the old life to a new birth?

   How can the good news mean something if there is no bad news to overcome?

   Most people already know something is wrong or that they are dissatisfied with their lives, but they can’t express it until they open their hearts and admit some painful realities. 

   Maybe addiction is a better metaphor for our powerlessness over sin and our need for a Savior.  12-step programs like AA were begun by a Lutheran pastor and follow the gospel process of conversion.

   Read past our Easter Gospel lesson in Luke 24 and you will find these words of Jesus, “‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

   Repentance and forgiveness.

   To repent is to turn around and walk with Jesus.   It puts us on the path of real life as God intended in this world, and eternal life in its perfection after death.  That’s the good news.  That is the Easter Victory won for us by Jesus.

   For what do you need to repent?  For what do you need forgiveness? 

   Pray about it today, talk to Jesus.  Trust Jesus.  Turn from sin and experience new life!  It’s been won for you, the Easter Victory!

   Contact us at flc@faithsd.net or 909 599-3978 to talk about trusting Jesus.  Go to our website at www.faithsd.net for more info about us.  Come and worship with us this Sunday at 8:30 a.m. or at 10:00 a.m. to experience more about the new life in Jesus Christ.