Cleansed to Serve.

     Millions of people are celebrating "Easter" this week. For many it is nothing more than another holiday, a great meal, family time, and Easter eggs for the kids. Others recognize that Jesus died and rose again in history, and view this time from a religious standpoint. They are careful to observe the religious traditions that have been passed down through the centuries. They go to holy week services, give things up for lent, and so on.
      Sadly most miss the truth of Christ's death and resurrection. It is much more than a holiday to celebrate, or a religious tradition to observe.

     And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
                                      1 Peter 2:24 NASB

     For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit.
                                    1 Peter 3:18 NASB

     Christ died for us, to bring us back into fellowship with God. A fellowship that has been broken by sin, our sin; the wicked things that we have done selfishly, in opposition to God (Romans 8:7).  It is by His death for us that we find forgiveness for our sin, but not only forgiveness, but freedom from the power of sin itself. He bore our sins in His body on the tree so that we might turn from sin to righteousness!
     Just as Christ suffered and died for us, we also are to determine in our hearts to live no longer for our sinful desires, but for God (1 Peter 4:1-2). Look at what the writer of Hebrews has to say,

     How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
                                    Hebrews 9:14 NASB

     You see that Jesus died that we might have life, new life in Him. It involves mercy, the forgiveness of our sinful past, but it is a new life, a new creation, where the old sinful life is gone, and a new life is now begun; a life lived in obedience to Christ (2 Cor 5:17). This is the abundant life that God has always desired for us. It is what we were created to be, and now made possible through Christ's offering of Himself.