This weekend, Christian community in Nigeria joins the rest of the global Christian faith community to mark the Easter celebration. Easter celebration is observed in days set aside by believers to commemorate the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the death in Jerusalem.
It is three days occasion which begins from Friday to Sunday. The first day referred to as Good Friday is the day of the Crucifixion and subsequent burial and for three days, the body of Jesus Christ was in the earth; however, on the third day, He resurrected from the death with great, earth-quaking and unchallengeable power, which is referred to as Easter Sunday.
It is important to emphasize the significance of what Jesus Christ went through and His eventual killing, which was orchestrated by the Jewish leaders at that time. According to the Holy Bible, all the word that God gave to the prophets and patriarchs in the Old Testament pointed at Jesus Christ who, when He came in the New Testament, became the fulfillment of the Scriptural prophecies.
The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, all the persecution, hatred, arrest and lies heaped on Him, all the Jewish blackmails and false allegations leveled against Him were fulfillment of what was written about Him.
Jesus Christ came to the earth to take the place of man in divine and eternal punishment. Man fell into sin and became an enemy of God by virtue of his sinful nature through the Adamic Fall and was condemned to face the anger of God. But Jesus Christ, the very Word of God in heaven, became a man in the flesh through supernatural conception and birth.
On His way to and on the cross and in death, Jesus Christ endured unspeakable torture, 39 lashes that every strike tore His flesh. He endured unimaginable sufferings and agony in order to pay the eternal sinful indebtedness of man by which He averted the destruction of mankind. When He eventually resurrected, He opened the veil that separated God from man, re-established the stolen and destroyed relationship and fellowship, the type God had with Adam before the fall in the Garden of Eden.
The message of the cross or crucifixion is a message of God’s unmatchable love, passion and sacrifice which He demonstrated unto mankind. The implication is that, if any sinner believes or has faith in Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross, comes to Him, confesses his sins from his heart and forsakes them, he shall be saved from eternal death that is coming. Such one shall be forgiven and be exempted from the looming divine anger or judgment.
He rose up from the death with so much power given to Him by God to rule and reign; power that all names and creatures in heaven and on the earth should bow down to according to Philippians 2:5-11. It is that power that gave birth to the Christian faith, which is why the Church and Christians are the most hated and persecuted faith by satan, his agencies and agents all over the world.
We congratulate all Christians in Nigeria and beyond for this auspicious commemoration. We urge all, including non-Christians to use this event to reflect on the fact that, eternal life is real and eternal death or judgement is also real. The choice each person makes will determine how he or she will spend eternity.
