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The Fall vs The Rise

Romans 6:4 

“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” 

Given the theme of Easter, I think it’s important to remember why we celebrate this holiday and what specifically was done on a cross 2,000 odd years ago in a place called Golgotha. Easter isn’t merely a time of stuffing your face with chocolates but a reflection: a reflection to highlight how humanity’s failure points to Jesus’s correction.  

Before we look at the verse, I think it’s important to see where it all went wrong. If you aren’t aware of the story, let me give you a quick run through of what is known as ‘The Fall’. Genisis 1:26-27 tells us that we were made in the image and likeness of God, creating a unique relationship that separated humanity from any other creation of God. This unique relationship was inhabited in ‘The Garden of Eden’: the same place where Eve was tempted by Satan. We see throughout Genisis 3 of how a misinterpretation of God’s word led to confusion, temptation and eventual sin.  

This same temptation was seen in the life of Jesus; however, something was fundamentally different. The same scheme was used: Satan tried to question Jesus’s knowledge of God’s word. But with Jesus there was no misinterpretation of God’s word, because Jesus was the word itself (John 1:1) Even if we look at specifically what was tempted such as “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread” or “All this I will give you, if you will bow down and worship me” (Matthew 4:1-9), they are all external: questioning his deity rather than tackling anything internal. This was all done because there was no sin inside Jesus for Satan to tackle. 

Jesus lived a life of no sin and because of that He was the ultimate sacrifice to re-connect a relationship that was lost in ‘The Garden of Eden’.  

If we look more closely at the verse, when Jesus died on the cross it wasn’t just a singular event that we look back on, it’s a reality we must embrace everyday. Because Jesus died on a cross and resurrected three days later, we get to experience the duality of what happened. We share in his death of sin, but we also live in his resurrection of a new life.  

So today is not just a day where we eat easter eggs, but a day where we both receive Christ’s resurrection and live through the conquering of sin.  

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