The Need For Easter

The Easter message of Samuel Godfrey George, 2014:

What about Easter? Do we need Easter? Isn't Good Friday enough? Didn't Jesus Christ say, "It is finished" on Good Friday? What more remains to be done? What is the significance of Easter? Did not Christ achieve the ultimate triumph over sin on Good Friday? What greater triumph is there? There is one triumph. There is one greater triumph. There is the greatest triumph, the triumph over death. Jesus triumphed over death on Easter.

The first Easter was the moment when Jesus Christ triumphed over death and secured a triumph of a similar nature for all of us who believe in him. All of us who believe in Christ have this hope -- that we too will triumph along with Jesus. Why? Why do we have this hope? We die with Jesus, for that is the nature of the Christian life on earth. Life on earth is a steady death. Every day we die to our selves. Every day we die gradually. We deny ourselves gradually. If we die with Jesus, if we bear our crosses along with him, we will also rise with him. This is the simple hope. This is the promise. This is what Easter means.

Why should we celebrate Easter? We celebrate Easter because it represents our ultimate hope. Our hope is not for this life alone. It is especially for the next life. And the next life is life indeed. The next life is a life without end. The next life is a life with God, without trouble and suffering. The next life is truly life. We celebrate Easter because it gives us the promise of the next life. It makes the promise of the next life available to us. Let us cling to this promise. Let us believe that as Christ rose from the dead, we too will rise from the dead. Let us simply believe that. Let us celebrate Easter. Happy Easter to all of you.