Now that Easter Monday has come and gone, we can officially say that Easter weekend is over. The new Easter outfits are wrinkled from wear. The remnants of Easter baskets are either strewn about the house or tidily tossed into the trash can. Plastic eggs are sitting on the counter waiting to be tucked away until next year. Leftover ham sits in the fridge, and (expensive!) colored hardboiled eggs await their destiny as egg salad or deviled eggs.

Easter weekend may be over, but the celebration continues every second of every day. As people whose lives are centered around the Lord and the Good News, we see through glasses that are fitted with lenses that show us life through the perspective of Jesus’ death and resurrection. To us, Easter isn’t just a one day celebration; it’s a lifelong one. Actually, it’s more than that…it’s an eternal celebration!

But we forget so quickly, don’t we? We go right back to the daily grind, like tucking our newfound perspective away in the storage bin with the empty, plastic Easter eggs until next year.

I pray this will change for you over these next few days. We are going to work on Gospel fluency in such a way that the celebration will continue, not just for this week, but also for the next and then the next.

Yesterday we were challenged to memorize Romans 3:22-25. Try to recite verse 22 in your head or out loud now. If it’s not quite hidden in your heart yet, that’s ok! Read it and then read it again.

We read in yesterday’s verses that the penalty for sin is death. Every year on Good Friday we reflect on how Christ’s death covers our death. He took our sins on himself on the cross. Take a moment to thank God for this immense gift.

If we’ve been in the Church for any amount of time, we know this. We know that God sent His Son to die for us. We may not, however, fully grasp the significance.

1. Jesus’s death and resurrection doesn’t only change our eternal destination; it changes our perspective in life.

Romans 5:1-5 - “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

According to Paul, when we believe in Jesus and what He did for us on the cross, we are justified. We have peace. We rejoice because we have hope. We rejoice even in our sufferings. Accepting the gift of salvation frees us from the penalty of sin, and it frees us from the overwhelming hopelessness of the world. It frees us from the bondage of feeling like we’re not good enough. Salvation frees us from the questions that come in suffering. It does NOT free us from suffering, but in our suffering, we know there’s purpose (even if we never see the purpose while on earth). Salvation is freedom from hell and freedom from the burdens of the world.

2. Salvation changes our identity; it makes us righteous.

2 Corinthians 5:21 - “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Philippians 3:9 - “And be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—”

Romans 4:5 - “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness…”

When God tells us that we are righteous, He is telling us that we are in right standing with Him. The work of Jesus on the cross justifies those who believe in Him.

Nineteenth-century Anglican bishop Handley Moule explains justification as “being received by Him as if we had not grieved Him.” Justification, he says, is not only that God forgives us, but that He sees us as though we never sinned in the first place. Read that again. And again. The crucifixion changes who we are.

REFLECTION:

When you believe in Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross, you are seen by God as though you have never sinned. How does this change your perspective right this minute?

In your journal or out loud, write or say a prayer of thanksgiving to God for His mercy and grace that shows you as blameless in His eyes.

My grandfather, whom we called Pop-Pop, passed away at the end of February. Though he was technically my dad’s stepdad, he was the only father my dad knew. Pop-Pop considered my dad and his three siblings as his own after he married my grandmother. Pop-Pop also had three biological daughters.

Pop-Pop was a godly man of integrity. He was generous beyond measure and had a smile that made even the most outcast feel welcomed. He was a good father who deeply loved his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. In his will he left an inheritance to all seven of his sons and daughters, not just his three biological daughters. To him, they were all heirs of anything he had because they were all his children.

When we accept the gift of salvation that God offers to us, our eternal destination and our identity change, just as we looked at yesterday. In addition, when we accept this gift, we become heirs of God and His Kingdom.

In the case of Pop-Pop, his children weren’t given the right to his inheritance until after he passed away. In fact, it may take months, or even years, for all aspects of the will to be executed. If the executor of the will doesn’t carry out all of her obligations or if the lawyer misinterprets something in the will, my dad’s inheritance could be affected. What was left to him was up to Pop-Pop, but whether or not my dad ever actually receives his inheritance is left up to the work of other people.

But, as heirs of God, we have access to all that He has right now simply because He gives it to us. Our inheritance in the Lord is not dependent on how well we live out our faith. Our inheritance is not something we deserve nor is it something we can earn. It is ours through Christ. Author Phylicia Masonheimer says that “It’s as if He, the true heir, drapes His royal robes over our shoulders and says, ‘[He is one of mine.’ and] ‘She is one of mine.’”

Our inheritance through Jesus is given to us as soon as we believe in Him. We actually looked at pieces of this inheritance yesterday when we read Romans 5:1-5:

Romans 5:1-5 - “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

We read Romans 5:1-5 as we talked about how salvation changes our identity. It makes sense that a change in identity leads to a change in inheritance.

Though Pop-Pop didn’t legally adopt my dad and his siblings, he adopted them in every other sense. They became his children. They were given a father. This change in their identity changed their inheritance. Without Pop-Pop’s acceptance of my dad as his own, my dad would not have been included in Pop-Pop’s will. Even more importantly, my dad would not have had access to all that Pop-Pop offered him - love, wisdom, faith, accountability, mentorship - while he was alive. If this is true in human terms, how much more is it true of our heavenly father?

Salvation gives us an inheritance of freedom and of belonging. To quote Bishop Moule again, the voice of God is “the voice which says, not merely, ‘You may go; you are let off your penalty’; but, ‘You may come; you are welcomed into My presence and fellowship.’” Masonheimer summarizes this quote in her own words, “Justification is both the clang of freedom’s bell and a shout of ‘welcome home!’” As co-heirs with Christ, God separates us from the penalty of sin while also joining us with His family.

The Bible often refers to us as “strangers and aliens” because this world is not our forever home. As spoken word artist, Propaganda, has said, “I live here but I’m not from here.” The fact that you are a stranger in the world should fill you with peace. It’s the reason you don’t always feel like you belong. It’s the reason you don’t fit into every situation you encounter. It’s why you parent (or feel the conviction to parent) your kids differently than unbelievers . It’s why you approach sickness or tragedy in a different way than someone who doesn’t yet believe in Jesus. Your adoption into the family of God changes everything. It changes your eternity and it changes your here and now. You may be a stranger on earth, but you are welcomed home by being welcomed into the presence of God, not just in heaven, but right now.

As we noted on day 1, we cannot become fluent in these convictions without the Word of God replacing the words of the world.

Reflect on the following passages. Resist the temptation to skip over them so you can be done with today’s devotional. These words are far more significant than any word I have written:

Ephesians 2:19-20 - “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

John 1:12-13 - “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

1 John 3:1 - “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”

Galatians 4:7 - “So you are no longer a slave, but a son/daughter, and if a son/daughter, then an heir through God.”

REFLECTION:

What aspect of the inheritance you receive as a follower of Christ is most meaningful to you - being freed from sin or being welcomed home? Why?

All that salvation means to us - justification, righteousness, inheritance - should constantly draw us to our knees (literally and/or metaphorically) in humility and gratitude. It should also lead us to a deep desire to want to please the Lord with our lives. After all, it is His lovingkindness that leads us to repentance and to life change (Romans 2:4). What one specific area of your life do you want to repent of and give over to the Lord not out of shame or obligation but out of a longing to be more like Him because of who He is? Talk to the Lord about that now.