“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).  There is no more important event in the history of the world.  The most hotly-contested political issues of our time are insignificant when placed next to the magnitude of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice.  His death and resurrection offer us the promise of forgiveness and salvation.  In a less fallen world, Christ’s story would be leading the nightly news every single night!

CNN and MSNBC might not find Christ’s resurrection newsworthy, but we should!  God incarnate died for our sins, so that we may reconcile with Him for all time.  That’s not only good news but also an essential truth that affects each of our lives.  It should inform everything we do.  It should remain forefront in our minds.  

Yet most of us fail to do so, don’t we?  So many of us who call ourselves “Christians” hide our faith from others.  Many of us push Jesus Christ to the side for three hundred and sixty-three days each year and briefly contemplate His life on Christmas and Easter.  We timidly accept admonishments from authority figures who instruct us to keep our beliefs away from schools, offices, sports, and politics.  We stay quiet while Christians around the world are persecuted and murdered.

Our hiding has a profound effect.  It not only gives aid and comfort to those who do great evil in this world but also chips away at the firm foundations of our beliefs.  By silencing ourselves in anticipation of being silenced by others, we help censor Christ’s death and resurrection from the pages of history.  We must not let that be our legacy!

Those who despise God take pleasure in weakening a Believer’s faith.  They mock Christians as superstitious, backwards, and dumb.  They pile all the sins of the past upon Christians’ shoulders and blaspheme all that Christians hold sacred.  They document Christians’ moral failings as evidentiary proof of their hypocrisy.  They build shrines to demons and celebrate Satan on Christians’ holiest feast days.

When they do so, remember, you are the target.  They have no interest in debating the truth of Jesus Christ in the public forum.  They mean to intimidate and weaken you.  They mean to plant the seeds of doubt in your mind, so that those destructive seeds might grow and become your undoing.  They wish to destroy your relationship with God and to deny you the promise of eternal life.  They want you to join them in Hell.  They want you to stop believing.

Believing is everything.  Those who were around for the “Miracle on Ice” during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid — when America’s young hockey players won an upset victory over the Soviet Union’s four-time defending gold medalists — remember sportscaster Al Michaels’s enthusiastic call in the final seconds: “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!”  As iconic as that moment in sports history remains, the question and answer transcend a mere hockey game.  

If you believe in the miracle of Christ’s resurrection, then everything you do in this life should be done with His sacrifice and purpose in mind.  How could a Christian otherwise behave?  Once you accept the truth that Jesus Christ died for our sins, how can any earthly struggle seem insurmountable?  How can any hardship seem too great to endure?  How can any temptation seem preferable to eternal salvation?  Do you believe in miracles?  Then steel your faith, persevere, and conquer your fears.  Those who believe are shown the way.

It is essential that followers of Christ be willing to suffer.  They cannot be Believers only when believing is easy; their faith is tested only when believing is exceptionally difficult.  We are meant to overcome what seeks to defeat us.

Jesus Christ taught through example.  To someone who does not yet believe, Christ’s death seems irreconcilable with his authority.  How can the Son of God be physically abused and crucified?  Why would He allow Himself to be treated so barbarically?  Those who have grown up on superhero movies find it difficult to understand why God incarnate would endure so much pain and suffering.  Yet enduring agony and humiliation is part of Christ’s lesson to us all.  Dying for our sins came at tremendous physical cost.

All of us benefit from contemplating Christ’s sacrifice.  For our sins and to make us right with God, the Son of God endured mockery and insult.  He was beaten.  He was whipped.  His skin was bruised and torn, and His tormentors forced a crown of thorns upon His head.  Onlookers spat upon Him, struck Him, and ridiculed Him.  He was crucified.  With broken bones and open wounds, Christ endured thirst and pain for six hours upon the cross.  Despite His suffering, “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’” (Luke 23:34).  Even while being tortured, Christ offered forgiveness.

If Almighty God is willing to suffer such horrific abuses in this world to save our immortal souls, how could we not be willing to sacrifice whatever is necessary to serve His eternal will?  None of us is perfect.  None of us is free of sin.  In other words, we are not Jesus Christ.  But if Christ is willing to suffer for us sinners, then surely we sinners should be prepared to suffer for Jesus Christ.  

That puts a lot of things in perspective, doesn’t it?  Our world is becoming increasingly fragile.  Totalitarianism is on the rise, and respect for individual liberty is dwindling.  With out-of-control currency-printing and unsustainable inflation, future economic calamity seems all but certain.  The achievements of Western civilization are regularly discarded, and civic leaders laugh at notions of moral virtue.  Our institutions are corrupt.  Our society embraces vice.  Our culture celebrates sin.  Pedophilia, organized crime, murder, and other evils plague our times.  Lucifer seems to be advancing around the globe, and fighting back against Legion is daunting.  

It would be so easy to break, to stop believing, and to give in.  It would be so easy to lose our way.  It would be so easy to forsake Jesus Christ who died so that we might live.  Yet in these periods of great distress, we have the chance to fortify our faith.  Those who wish to destroy our relationship with God are everywhere, so everywhere we look is an opportunity to bind ourselves more closely to Him.

Just as Christ overcame death, we can overcome the suffering of this world when we believe in Him.  “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.  Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).  

I pray that we overcome our earthly struggles together.  I humbly ask God to guide and protect us through these turbulent days.  I offer my heartfelt fellowship.  I wish you abundant joy.  As we celebrate Easter, let us all renew our faith.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/04/this_easter_let_us_renew_our_faith.html