A Fresh Start

Who doesn’t love spring? The temperature is perfect, the days get a bit longer, and (my personal favorite) the fishing ramps up. Some grab cleaning supplies and do a little spring cleaning, opening windows, tossing out clutter, and making things feel fresh and new.

Another thing I love about spring is Easter. As a Christian, this time of year is at the center of what I believe. But many people’s view of the Gospel and what Jesus did for us can become cluttered. 

I was thinking, what if we did some “spring cleaning” with our thoughts about Jesus and the Gospel? There are many wrong thoughts about the Gospel: “Easter is just a nice story” or “Jesus was a good teacher who made a lot of sense, but nothing more” or “I’m just trying to do some good to offset the bad—you know, just be a better person.” It’s time for a spiritual spring cleaning. So, let’s open the windows of our hearts and welcome the fresh air of the Gospel into our lives.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 sums up the Gospel:

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day….”

That short sentence contains the whole Gospel message.

First, Jesus died for our sins. The Bible is straightforward: every one of us has done wrong. Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Our mistakes, whether big or small, known and unknown, separate us from a perfect God. But God loves us too much to leave us. So, He sent His own Son, Jesus, who never sinned, to take the punishment we deserved. On the Friday of Holy Week, what we now call Good Friday, Roman soldiers nailed Jesus to a cross outside Jerusalem. 

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21.

He suffered until He cried out, “It is finished!” Then, He died. What was finished? The penalty for sin. He took it all. His body was placed in a tomb with a heavy stone rolled across the entrance. Soldiers guarded the tomb and all his followers thought it was over.

But Sunday morning changed everything!

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.” John 20:1.

The tomb was empty! The grave clothes were neatly folded. Jesus was alive! The Bible tells us that over the next forty days He appeared to His friends—first to Mary, then to the disciples, then to more than five hundred people at once (1 Corinthians 15:6). 

Here’s why this matters to you and me today.

The resurrection proves Jesus is who He claimed to be—the Son of God. It proves that sin’s hold over us is broken and death isn’t the end. The Bible promises in Romans 10:9: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Salvation is a gift God wants you and me to have. You simply come as you are, trust that what Jesus did on the cross counts for you, and receive forgiveness and new life—a FRESH START.

This Easter, do a little spiritual spring cleaning:

• Throw away the idea that Jesus was only a good, moral teacher. 

• Throw out the lie that you must earn God’s love. 

• Sweep away doubt with the eyewitness accounts we see in the Bible.

• Open the windows and let the fresh air of John 3:16’s truth fill your heart.

Easter is not about baskets full of eggs, or bunnies. It is about an empty tomb and a living Savior. It is about God making all things new—starting with you.