Game Change

But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

Exodus 21:23-25

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23

Easter week is filled with Easter baskets, Peeps, egg hunts, and Easter hams. Somewhere in the midst of all the fuss is the reality that on Easter, Jesus changed all the rules. The Old Testament teaches that our imperfections and sins have a cost and consequences. We hear in the New Testament that our sins have the consequence of death, similar to the Old Testament in a culture of animal sacrifice to pay the cost of sins.

Throughout this week you will hear people saying things like, grace is free, and that Jesus offers you this free gift. Jesus offers you this gift at no cost to you, but He had to pay for it with His own life. Jesus died on the cross and took on death, the ultimate game over, dead end, it’s over, that ever existed. When he came down from the cross and was put in the grave, these verses about the cost of sin were true as the day they were written, death was the end of the road on this earth, there was not way to make a U-turn out of it, at least before Jesus.

Early Easter morning Jesus did not just conquer death, he smashed it, exploding out of the grave. Easter morning Jesus rewrote all the rules. Death no longer won, sin no longer bound people until they sacrificed an animal to make amends, till people earned or bought their forgiveness and reconciliation. It was no longer about what we did to earn repentance for our brokenness. There was no more eye for an eye, just grace and new life through the man who died on the cross for each of us.

So when someone tells you grace is free, remember, although it doesn’t cost you anything, it cost Jesus everything. Scripture tells us that Jesus turned his face “like flint” to that task for you, so that Easter morning would be unlike any other morning. Jesus died and on Easter so that we would experience a game change, a new reality that we still live in today, where grace is free, and forgiveness is offered to you through Him.

 

Pastor Bill