Mar 309 min read

Happy Easter: Why We Celebrate

Updated: Apr 10

It is good to be reminded of the real reason we celebrate Easter. It is not merely a "Spring Holiday," but a Holy Day in which we remember Christ's glorious Resurrection.

"He is not here, for He has risen" (Matthew 28:6a, AMP). Just like He said He would. This is the Truth, by which we are set free.

We are instructed in the Word to: “Buy the Truth and sell it not…” (Proverbs 23:23a, NASB Lexicon). We serve a LIVING God, Who wants us to live with Him, in Heaven, for all eternity. Christ's sacrifice on the cross and His miraculous Resurrection—combined—is the only pathway that enables us to join God in Heaven forever.

How do we "buy" the Truth, when it is offered to us by free Grace? Let's explore this together...

To acquire or purchase (qanah) the Truth means to spare no cost in obtaining it, for Christ is the heart’s most valuable possession, the sole object of our affection, our life’s correct way. The Truth is—and may be the only thing (One)—worth dying for. Jesus said it plainly: “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6, NIV).

Though mankind wanders, and looks the world and time over, there is nothing more valuable to find than Jesus Christ.

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary states:

“Buy the truth, and sell it not; be willing to part with anything for it. Do not part with it for pleasures, honours, riches, or anything in this world. The heart is what the great God requires. We must not think to divide the heart between God and the world; he will have all or none.”

Jesus states that we are to be cold or hot, not both (Revelation 3:15); He wants us to make a solid choice to be for or against Him (Matthew 12:30). Note well that God is for you, so I implore you to choose well, in turn (1 John 4:19; 1 Timothy 2:4).

To gain in wisdom, correction, and chastisement (from the Father) is to acquire an understanding of God, to come to know Him, and to learn why His Truth is everlasting (will not perish). Eve was the first to plunge into this learning pool of good versus evil, yet Christ is, and always will be, mankind’s Tree of Life, our anchor, our lifeline—the One we are searching for (see Genesis 3:1-24).

There is no other way out of evil.

His truth is freedom and is life—neither of which will end due to His work on the cross, and His Resurrection.

Likewise, we will spare no cost in learning of and knowing God. What we acquire, at such a steep price, becomes massively valuable to us. But part of the immense value of Christianity is found in its generosity. Like Christ, we turn around and give what we have learned to others—for free. We sell it not. No one can earn it. It is God’s free grace.

Remember, Jesus turned the tables on the moneychangers—the people buying and selling in the House of the Lord (House of Prayer). He drove them out. In this act, He signifies that God’s grace cannot be counted. It is immeasurable. His gift of life is for everyone who will take hold of it.

“Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers’” (Matthew 21:12-13, NIV).

If we are to live a life worth living, we will do it in prayer, we will live for Christ Who resides inside of us—the Unperishable, and we will love other people, drawing them to Him, as well.

Matthew Poole’s Commentary states:

“Buy the truth; purchase it upon any terms, spare no pains nor cost to get it. The truth; the true and saving knowledge of God’s mind and will concerning your salvation, and the way that leads to it.

Sell it not; do not forget it nor forsake it for any worldly advantages, as ungodly men frequently do.”

This Divine Plan is an “investment”—in ourselves, in the Word, in God’s Holy Kingdom (CEV). It is to be far more important to us than seeking any natural gold. If we truly believe, we will continually invest in our relationship with God. We are to put in a wholehearted effort.

“The measure [of thought and study] you give [to the truth you hear] will be the measure [of virtue and knowledge] that comes back to you” (Mark 4:24b, AMPC).

Conversely, to sell the truth is to sell ourselves, and to sell ourselves grossly short, or makar (Proverbs 23:23). In essence, if we give up Christ, we sell our own souls to everlasting destruction. Selling the truth, or makar, means to sell oneself as a slave to evil, to turn oneself over to the world’s way (to get swallowed in distraction; to choke out the Word), to serve anything other than Christ (Mark 4:7, AMPC). It is to give up; to cease living one’s life by faith, hope and love in Jesus as our Savior. This is the ultimate devaluation of our own precious life, a slap in the face to what Jesus has done, a refusal of His sacrifice to continually save us.

Now Joseph’s brothers did this to him—sold him into slavery, then lied to cover their shame (Genesis 37:12-36). However, many people turn away from Christ all on their own, “selling the truth” that God has planted inside of them, and that rather cheaply, forsaking their own souls. They lose sight of their own worth. All alternative choices (all those other than Christ) amount to slavery.

Sin is suicide.

Holiness is health.

Christ alone holds the freedom of God in His hand. Life is His offer. He frees God’s people so they may willingly and freely serve Him, in righteousness, peace and joy—this is truly living wide open. At Easter, we celebrate that Christ miraculously arose from the grave to free God’s people once and for all from the bondages and clutches of all evil, including death itself—this is truly living forever!

There is nothing else, in all of time, equal to this event.

“[I AM] the Ever-living One [living in and beyond all time and space]. I died, but see, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of [absolute control and victory over] death and of Hades (the realm of the dead)” (Revelation 1:18, AMP).

Those keys, in Christ’s possession, free you from any and all prisons Satan has ever devised—releasing your soul from a dead, dark tomb.

In our lack of wisdom, we may presume death to be inevitable, a natural occurrence we all must face. “We work, then we die,” says the trapped slave, curved beneath the weight of evil’s bondages (mental, emotional, physical, financial, spiritual). However, if we know our true value—what the Blood and Resurrection of Christ is worth—we will look up. We will have a broader vantage point. We will remain dignified, wearing Christ’s robe of freedom. We will walk upright, in the light. We will freely give the Truth out to other people.

Death is a mere triviality.

The entrance to Heaven, however, is the epitome of Grace—His Name is Jesus.

In Christ, we shall not die, but truly live.

This is the meaning of Easter.

“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).

This is the beauty of Christ’s work:

neither sin nor death

has any hold on the Christian whatsoever.

This Easter, start living (or re-living) your Blood-bought Life in the freedom wherewith Christ has made you free. Do not take “no” for an answer; but, rather, in everything good see God’s “yes and Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20). God keeps His promises.

“In [this] freedom Christ has made us free [and completely liberated us]; stand fast then, and do not be hampered and held ensnared and submit again to a yoke of slavery [which you have once put off]” (Galatians 5:1,AMPC).

His burden is Light:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30, NIV).

Celebrate! And never forget what you already know:

“Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more” (Revelation 3:11-12, NKJV).

Accept Christ as your Lord and Saviour. Be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Through Him, you will come in safe—more than a conqueror. Be filled with His Word. You will, then, never disappear.

“Heaven and earth will disappear, but My words will never disappear” (Matthew 24:35, NLT).

The phenomenal thing is this: what God created, He can easily remake.

This is the symbol, the meaning of Christ's Resurrection. This is why we celebrate Easter. One Day, we will all be brand new and unified with God forever.

Though the whole world pass away (and it will), God’s Word, the Truth, Christ will last forever, as will you if you remain in Him. As a born again Christian, you have already been paid the extreme dividend on your investment—you have been given the Truth and the Life. You have nothing to fear of death; it has nothing to do with those who are found in Christ Jesus. We are kept forever safe.

Tell me where else in the world you can find a deal like that.

Happy Easter – He is Risen!

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES

“So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free” (John 8:36, NLT).

“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31-39, NIV).

I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see (Revelation 3:18, NIV).

Jacob said to Esau, “Sell me this day your birthright” (Genesis 25:31, paraphrase, author’s).

So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams” (Genesis 37:17b-20, NIV).

And the devil took him [Jesus] up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve’” (Luke 4:5-8, ESV).

“He's not here. He has been brought back to life! Remember what he told you…” (Luke 24:6, GW).

The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in the field; which a man found, and hid; and in his joy he goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a merchant seeking goodly pearls: and having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it (Matthew 13:44-46, ASV).

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TRANSLATIONS & REFERENCES

American Standard Version (ASV), Public domain.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary. Proverbs 23:23. Biblehub. Retrieved March 29, 2024 from https://biblehub.com/commentaries/proverbs/23-23.htm

Matthew Poole's Commentary. Proverbs 23:23. Biblehub. Retrieved March 29, 2024 from https://biblehub.com/commentaries/proverbs/23-23.htm

NASB Lexicon. Proverbs 23:23. Biblehub. Retrieved March 29, 2024 from https://biblehub.com/lexicon/proverbs/23-23.htm

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

DAWN DYSON