Introduction.

What is the heart of the message of Easter? Is it simply a retelling of the narratives of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection? Is it describing the great love of Jesus revealed in his death for his people? Is it the empty tomb which declares that Jesus overcame death and the grave? Personally I believe that the Apostle Paul sums up the Easter Message when he describes the ministry the church has received from the Lord, listen to what he says in 2 Corinthians 5:18-21,

            ‘Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to  Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.'

All the events that took place on the first Easter were all according to God's foreordain purpose and plan, nothing happened by chance or accident. The importance and great significance of the events that unfolded at the first Easter can only be grasped by understanding the purpose of God in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul explains God's purpose saying, ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.... .... For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.' The primary focus of the Easter Message must be on what was accomplished in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Good News of the Gospel is not about what men like Judas, Pilate or Caiaphas did, but about the great and wonderful things God did through the Lord Jesus Christ. The historic events that took place form the foundation and basis of the Gospel and its message of God's amazing grace. We have no Gospel without the cross or the resurrection of Jesus.

1.       Reconciliation was the work that Jesus Christ came to do.

1. Jesus came to do the work needed to reconcile the world to God.  The best place to start unpacking this statement is to look at what reconciliation means. We live in a broken world where many people have broken lives and therefore reconciliation is one of the great needs of our society. The most basic meaning of the word translated as reconciliation is to change or exchange. A farmer would bring his vegetables to the market and exchange them for cash. The moneychangers in the temple exchanged Roman denarii for Hebrew shekels. When applied to human relationships it means to exchange enmity for friendship. Reconciliation is not a feeling, it is much more than simply stopping the animosity, anger, bitterness and resentment, it means a change of state, attitude and condition. Reconciliation is not a synonym for forgiveness; it goes beyond forgiveness and means the full acceptance of a person who was an enemy and now is a trusted partner. Simply put the great principle behind reconciliation is without change reconciliation is impossible. Where people refuse to change, reconciliation is impossible, a truce may be possible and mutual toleration may be accomplished, but such a state between two parties can never be called reconciliation.
   
   
2. When we speak about reconciliation between God and man there are three extremely important things to remember.
   
   
1. God and man are not equal parties needing to be reconciled. God is the all sovereign, holy, all powerful, self-existing Creator-King; men and women are created beings totally dependant upon their Creator-King for life. Mankind needs God to exist, God does not need mankind to supply him with something or fulfil a need he has. God is the glorious Master; mankind at best is a rebellious servant.
   
   
2. God is perfect in all his ways, therefore he cannot sin nor do that which is wrong. God is immutable which means he does not change. God never needs to change because he is holy, just, righteous and true in his very essence. Men and women are utterly sinful in all their ways, and all the intentions of the thoughts of their hearts are continually evil. (Genesis 6:5) The continuous evil that comes from the heart points to the fact that the problem of mankind lies in his heart, mind and soul. I offend God not only by what I do (think, feel, speak, or deeds) but also in what I am. Sin has invaded and corrupted every faculty in human beings. Think of sin as a tablespoon of arsenic. Think of yourself as a cup of water into which a tablespoon of arsenic has been stirred. The cup no longer contains 94% water and 6% arsenic which can be distinguished from each other, it is a cup of deadly poisonous water, not water that is generally good, but water that is totally contaminated. When sin entered the world through Adam's sin, it contaminated Adam and all his descendents. When God made Adam, he made him in his own image and likeness to continually glorify his Maker. Sin shattered that image and likeness so that it does not glorify God at all. The image and the likeness of God in mankind was to be like a mirror that continually reflected the glory of God, but sin has twisted and distorted that mirror. A twisted and distorted mirror never ever tells the truth, it always lies. Sin has made all men and women continual liars; it never allows them to reflect the truth about the image and likeness of God. Sin is not so much a problem with what I do, but what I am. I do what I do because of what I am in my inner-most being; a sinful man. I am a distorted mirror, everything that comes out of me tells a lie about God and the perfection of his being. For me to reflect the glory of God I need to be changed, not so much by modifying behaviour, but by having the image and likeness of God restored in me. The mirror of my heart, mind and soul needs to be made true in order to perfectly reflect the glory of God. Reconciliation to God is about changing the sinner in his inner-most-being so that he glorifies God in his inner being and outwardly behaviour. If you are to be reconciled to God a real change has to take place in your heart, mind and soul.
   
   
3. God alone sets the degree of change that is needed in the sinner for reconciliation to take place. The sinner has absolutely no say, the sinner is totally at the mercy of God. God alone sets the standard and the way reconciliation will take place. God according to his perfect holiness, justice, righteousness, and love sets the terms. God's terms of reconciliation are set out in the covenants he makes. At the heart of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant the relationship between God and reconciled sinners is stated in the following terms: the Lord says, ‘I will be your God and you shall be my people.' Listen to what Moses says in Leviticus 11:44-45 about those who are God's people, ‘For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth. For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.' Listen to Peter saying the same thing about Jews and Gentiles who belong to the New Covenant in 1 Peter 1:15-16, ‘He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy."' If you are to be part of God's people you must be holy even as the Lord is holy. Holiness is God's prerequisite for your reconciliation to himself, this is totally non-negotiable. The covenantal relationship between God and man is essentially a holy relationship that reveals God's glory.
   
   
3. What kind of holiness does God's covenant demand? Most people would answer this by saying living perfectly according to the law of God. This concept of holiness was the concept taught and practised by the Pharisees. The Scribes and Pharisees tried their very best to keep the law and prescribed very harsh penalties on themselves and others who broke the law. In their zeal to keep the law of the first three commandments as they understood them, they picked up stones to stone Jesus when he said ‘I and my Father are one.' They were ready to put to death those who broke the law of God. The Scribes and Pharisees were the most respectable people in Jewish society of that time; they were truly committed to keeping the law of God and seen as godly men. In our day they would have been regarded as extremely godly men. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus in Matthew 5:20 says, ‘For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.' The Jews who heard this would have thought to themselves ‘who can be more holy than the Scribes and Pharisees?' If you compared yourself to the Scribes and Pharisees you would be ashamed of your attitude towards the law of God. I am sure that their outward holiness far exceeded yours or mine. Jesus in Matthew 23:27 says, ‘"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. ^Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.' The holiness demanded by the Covenant is holiness within and holiness without. Through the very best efforts of an extremely disciplined life a man can achieve an outward form of holiness, but he can never produce internal holiness of heart, mind, will and soul. The degree of change God requires for reconciliation is internal and external. David knew this and therefore in Psalm 51:5-6 says,  Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, ‘And in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,..' Reconciliation we noted has the basic meaning to change; in order for you to be reconciled to God your sinfulness must be exchanged for holiness; you must have truth in your inward parts.

2. God's method of reconciliation rests on the principle of imputation.

1. Listen again to part of what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:19, ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself not imputing their trespasses to them.'  All that is needed to reconcile Jews and Gentiles (the World) to God, God himself has already done in Jesus Christ, the work is complete, no further work needs to be done in order to secure reconciliation. To reconcile you to God, Jesus Christ's work was to make imputation possible without the violation of God's perfect character. What does imputation mean? Concerning imputation Charles Hodge says, ‘It means simply to set to ones account, to lay to one's charge or to one's credit: to credit as the ground of judicial process.' If my mortgage was imputed to you it means that you would be responsible for paying the debt. The fullness of all the sin of Christ's people was imputed to him and made him responsible to suffer the terrible consequences of their sin. Taking your sin upon himself he suffered your condemnation and satisfied the justice, holiness and wrath of God. Your trespasses have been imputed to Christ and he has suffered the full demands of God's judgment against your sin.
   
   
2. Talking about sin has always been unpopular and has been watered down to doing something that is wrong. In many Evangelical churches sin is often defined as breaking God's law. This is true but does not go far enough. Breaking God's law is not like breaking the law by travelling 110k's in a 100 k zone. Sin is an attack on God himself; it attacks his right to be God and violates his character. Think about what are you doing when you tell a lie? It is true that you are breaking the 9^th commandment, but more than that you are refusing to submit to the Lordship of God, rejecting his attribute of truth and promoting falsehood, despising God's omniscient wisdom, and challenging God's right to hold you accountable. Indirectly you are making yourself the one who determines what is good and evil which is an attempt to dethrone God. Think again of the distorted mirror which never reflects the truth, by not telling the truth you distort the image and the likeness of God who is holy and true and reflects a God who is a liar. Jesus in John 8:44 says this of the Satan, ‘He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.' When you lie, you do not reflect God's image and likeness but pay homage to Satan's rebellion. Every sin no matter how insignificant you think it is, is offensive to God. It is shaking your fist in his face, spitting at him in disgust, and embracing Satan's ways. Your sin is highly offensive and deeply grievous to God as it proclaims that Satan is more worthy than God.

3. God's method of reconciliation involves the imputation of sin and righteousness.

1. Paul tells us that God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. The context tells us that what is described here by Paul took place by imputation. Jesus did not become a sinner like us, but became sin when all the sins of his people were imputed to him, all our sins were put to his account and he was held responsible for the debt those sins incurred. It is important to grasp that all the sins of the Lord's people were imputed to Jesus; not only the sins committed before they came to trust Jesus, but also the sins committed after embracing Jesus as their Saviour and Lord. If you are a believer every sin you will ever commit in your life has been imputed to Jesus and he suffered the full consequences of your sin. Jesus did this for his people because he loved them from all eternity. What has Jesus done for you in his work on the cross? Listen to John Calvin, ‘by His obedience, He has wiped off our transgressions, by His sacrifice appeased the divine anger, by His blood  washed away our stains, by His cross borne our curse, and by His death made satisfaction for us.' If you are a believer then the thought of Jesus doing this for you ought to fill you with the deepest gratitude possible and cause you to respond to his love by loving him with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.
   
   
2. Our sin has been imputed to Jesus and he has suffered the awful and dreadful consequences of our sin. Paul goes on to say that Jesus' perfect and glorious righteousness has been imputed to us. Jesus' perfect record of righteousness is imputed to his people; to your account the perfect righteousness of Jesus has been credited to your account. This does not mean that the credit of Jesus' righteousness off-sets the debit of your sinfulness, the debit of your sinfulness was removed to put to Jesus account. The only entry on your account is the righteousness of Jesus. This means you are held responsible and accountable for the righteous of Jesus, and therefore you will receive every blessing benefit and privilege that belongs to Jesus. This is what it means to be a co-heir with Jesus.   
    
3. Do you see the concept of change or exchange in the principle of imputation? Think about the exchange that takes place for every believer. God dealt with Jesus in his crucifixion as he should have dealt with every believer, Jesus received what believers deserve. God deals with believers as he would deal with Jesus, believers receive what Jesus deserved. The blessings and privileges believers enjoy are totally underserved. Jesus' work was substitutionary; he took your place and you took his place.
   
   
4. Imputation means crediting your account, it changes your standing and status before God, you have Christ's righteousness therefore before God who is just you are not guilty of sin. It's on the grounds of Jesus' work and imputation of your sin to him and his righteousness to you that enables God the righteous Judge to declare you just. It is vital that you grasp that imputation credits you with Christ's righteousness and does not make you righteous. You are given a new heart and the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in you to make you holy. The process of making you holy is called sanctification. It is the imputation of Christ's righteousness to you and your sin to Jesus that enables God to declare you just. This action of God is called justification, it is a single act of God not a process. Christian are justified and in the process of being sanctified. The process of sanctification only begins once the sinner is justified by Christ Jesus.

Conclusion.   

The forgotten message of Easter is that God was in Christ reconciling sinners to himself. If you are a believer rejoice in your reconciliation. If you are not a believer I plead with you to be reconciled to God.