One of the most meaningful things you will ever know is that God loves you – and He loves you just like you are. The message of Easter is that God is not up in heaven scowling at you. He does not have His arms crossed over His chest. He is not disappointed with you thinking, “that one will never be good enough”. The message of Easter is that God loves you so much that He sent His Son to make it possible for you and God to have a relationship – and it worked.
Jesus said, “God loved the world [including you] so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him, (John 3:16-17 NLT). There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends,” (John 15:13 NLT). And, that is exactly what Jesus did. He purposefully gave His life on that cross for you, so that you could have a relationship with God. Then He rose to life again on that first Easter Sunday morning to prove that it worked. God accepted what Jesus did.
In the book of Ephesians, Paul wrote: “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding,” (Eph. 1:3-8 NLT).
The message of Easter is that God loves you – a lot. He loves you now, just like you are. He loves you so much that it “gave him great pleasure” to do whatever it took to redeem you. He loves you so much that He wants to adopt you into His family. He loves you so much that He has done everything necessary to make it possible to forgive you and set you free. All you need to do is receive and rely on what He has done for you. If you would like to know more about how to do that, I would love to spend some time explaining it to you.
