With Easter nearly two weeks past, it is not too early for our minds to begin to wander from focusing on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For example, as believers, we have the Christian life to live. We are to be pursuing holiness and reflecting godliness in all that we do, which can be quite consuming for the mind, allowing the foundations of our faith to suffer neglect. On the other hand, we can get so engrossed in the study of other doctrines of the Christian faith that we neglect the essentials.

So what is the remedy?

Today is the day we remember the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. To the unsuspecting, the crucifixion may have seemed like the end. In fact, we read what seems a little like disappointment in Luke 24, when some of His disciples (not of the eleven) express, "we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel." Maybe they saw the crucifixion as a battle lost. Actually, isn't that what is going on in all of Scripture and even in history. From the Garden until the end of time, we observe a great war between the God of Righteousness and all those enemies of righteousness. Satan, in the form of a serpent, enlisted Adam and Eve as the first rebel army. Though Adam had walked in the glorious presence of God, he willfully chose to reject God's Word and sought his own will. Throughout the pages of Scripture, person after person, nation after nation, attacks God's people and rejects God Himself. We see a people infected with Adam's sin who repeatedly wage this war against God. Sometimes, I wonder, "Shouldn't God have simply overthrown the powers of darkness immediately and rule over all?!" But that is not the wise plan of God. Nor do we get to experience the mercy of God that way. What would have been the outcome had God simply destroyed Adam, that first rebel, in the garden? What would be our fate, being rebels in the same army?

In these days before Holy Week, our attention is drawn to the Bible's teaching about sacrifice and love. This quote from a sermon by pastor-author Alistair Begg is about the importance of understanding that great sacrifice as "substitution:" Jesus died in my place.

--from the sermon, "Jesus Our Substitute"

Jesus is our High Priest, but what kind of priest is this who becomes the sacrifice? Priests OFFER sacrifices—but this priest IS the sacrifice. The priest lays Himself on the altar.

You see, Jesus died for sin—but not for His own sin. He had no sin. He was in every sense MADE SIN for us. He became all of our rebellion, all of our lying, all of our cheating, all of our adultery, all of our filth, all of our ugliness. He became all of that on the cross. Otherwise, how could God crucify his Son? . . .