written by: Carissa Waggoner
This season of Good Friday and into Easter Sunday, I struggled to find the message of what to say. So many things can be said about the events of Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection. I prayed for days about what to write on this matter. When the Spirit spoke softly, this matter is a matter of life and death.
I decided to explore what the internet says about life and death issues. This is what the AI had to say.
AI Overview
“A matter of life and death” is an idiom that means a situation is extremely serious, often involving potential death or great harm. It emphasizes the urgency and importance of the situation.
Meaning: It indicates that something is so critical that it could have life-altering or even life-threatening consequences.
This entails what Good Friday and Easter represent. Life and death.
Without Jesus’ death, His willing and obedient sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins would make everlasting life impossible, leading us to eternal death.
Isiah 53:5
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
Without Jesus’ resurrection, we would only focus on His death. Yes, the blood of Jesus was shed, and our sins are covered by that blood, but where is the ultimate victory? Where is the vindication of good versus evil? What gives us the assurance and promise of eternal life? It is the power of Jesus, demonstrated in His ability to raise Himself from the dead. He overcame death, not only for Himself but for us as well.
Matthew 28:6
6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.
Philippians 3:10-11
10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Romans 4:25
25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
If you are unfamiliar with the events of Good Friday and Easter, I can assure you they are deeply relevant to your life and death.
It all began in a garden when God created the first man, Adam, and the first woman, Eve, in His own image in the Garden of Eden. Humanity faltered; we sought to possess the power of God and the knowledge of God, which led us to disobey His command not to eat from a tree whose fruit would harm us. Despite God’s warning, we chose to eat it. This deception was encouraged by the enemy, Satan. From that day forward, the consequence of that first sin set the stage for all of humanity to sin. It became a part of our very nature.
Romans 3:23
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We were created by God, made in His image—not necessarily in a physical sense, but in spirit. Our essence should reflect His essence. Falling short of the glory of God means we are not living as we were intended to. We were designed to magnify the splendor of God’s majesty, power, goodness, grace, mercy, forgiveness, love, and His very presence. Anything less than this signifies that we have fallen short. If our decisions, thoughts, and actions do not reflect this magnification of all that God is, we have sinned. We are acting contrary to our true purpose. We cannot, by our own power, achieve the perfection of God.
Throughout the Bible, history recounts how humanity repeatedly offered animal sacrifices without blemish to God as a means of atoning for their sins. Atonement involves repaying a debt and undergoing purification, ultimately reconciling us with God in good standing. These sacrifices were ritualistic in nature, but God made it clear that they were not what He truly desired. Instead, He valued a contrite heart; in other words, He was more interested in our repentance and faithfulness than in the rituals themselves.
When Jesus faced the decision to be the final sacrifice for us, Jesus was God Himself, who came down to earth from Heaven. He embodied both humanity and divinity as His Son, and He chose to endure a gruesome death on our behalf. He understood that there was no other way for us to become sinless and blameless before Him. Jesus was without blemish and had not sinned; only He could be offered as the sacrifice.
John 1:29
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
2 Corinthians 5:21
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The only path to eternal life is through Jesus. If we do not choose to believe in who Jesus is, we are rejecting the sacrifice He made for us on the cross. Denying this sacrifice means it cannot save us. If we do not believe, we ultimately choose death. Understanding who Jesus is and what He accomplished through His death and resurrection leads us to repent of our sins and surrender our lives. This involves dying to ourselves so that Christ may live in us through the Holy Spirit, which Jesus gave us as a promise before He ascended into heaven.
Matthew 10:33
33 But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.
John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 14:6
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 6:47
47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life.
Matthew 24:13
13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.
God knew all along that we would fail that day in the Garden of Eden. He knew that Jesus would pray to Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. He understood that on the hill of Calvary, Jesus would willingly give His life for the salvation of the world. God also knew that Jesus would be resurrected and ascend into heaven.
He knows now, on this day, whom and what you will choose. Christ did this for you and for me. He loves us so immensely. We understand how to love our children and would give our lives for them. God’s love goes even deeper than that, to a point where we might be incapable of fully understanding it on this side of heaven.
From creation to the birth of Christ, to the cross, and to the resurrection, everything is about Jesus. We were created for His glory. We can now be made new. Our sins and hurts have been atoned for. It is finished.
Our response is all that remains. Will you choose life or death?
Deuteronomy 30:17-20
17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Prayer
Dear God, our heavenly Father. we come to you in awe of how great you are. How much you love us and would sacrifice for us to be with you, not only in eternity but here today in communion with you. You have made a way for our sins to be forgiven. Our sins are great. You knew that we did not have the power within us to save ourselves. Your mercy and grace are overwhelming to even phantom. We thank you for your son. We thank you for the work on the cross for us. We thank you for the victory over death and for overcoming the world. We thank you for your divine plan.
You are our everything. We love and honor you, Lord. Our prayer is that we remember the Great Commission that was given to the disciples before Jesus ascended. Equip us, Lord, with all that we need to go out into the world and share the good news of salvation available for all who call upon your name. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen!
Becoming His 
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