The beautiful story of Easter begins in the Old Testament, winds it’s way through to and is partially fulfilled in the New Testament through Christ’s death and Resurrection.

Christ came to this earth to die for our sins so that we could be united with the Father in His Kingdom. For this we celebrate! Christ came and died for us.

But this is not all that we should be celebrating on Easter.

To fully understand why Easter is a time of Celebration we must go a little journey. Throughout this journey I will look at the beautiful promises of the coming Messiah in the Old Testament and the culmination of those promises in the New Testament. Then finally we will look at His death and Resurrection and the future promise of our own Resurrection into eternal new life with Him.

After this discussion I would recommend that you go read 1 Corinthians 15 to get a better understanding of the resurrection of the dead.

We can look forward to, at the end of the ages those who have been sleeping (dead) and those who are caught up in the rapture, will be resurrected into a new body.

There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. ~1 Corinthians 15:40

When Christ died on the cross he guaranteed our own bodily resurrections. Jesus teaches in the Gospel of John that all will rise in a bodily resurrection.

Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. ~John 5:28-29

Christ’s death and resurrection was a future promise of our own future resurrection into glorious bodies that will live eternally with Christ.

You know in heaven there is no sickness. No disease. No arthritis. No aches, no pains, no illness. That does not describe out bodies currently and that is because we will be raised to new life in new ressurected, glorious bodies that can dwell in heaven forever.

Doesn’t that sound like something worth celebrating!? John MacArthur has an excellent sermon (you can read the manuscript or listen to it) on Our Resurrection Bodies.  He has so much wisdom and knowledge, I highly recommend that you listen to his sermon.

Ultimately we celebrate Easter because of what he has done for us. We celebrate because God wove the story of Christ all through the Old Testament. He fulfilled those promises in the New Testament. And then Christ died for us on the cross that day so that we could have new life.

That’s why we celebrate. We celebrate because he made a way for us into new life! We opened the door for us to accept perfect glorified Resurrection bodies at the end of the ages. We have so much hope because he died for us.

So we celebrate because we are thankful, grateful, and joyful for what is to come! 

 

Read more from this series:

• Introduction
• Promises of the Coming Messiah: A Journey Through the Old Testament
• Fulfillment of the Messiah: A Journey Through The New Testament
• Why Easter is a Time of Celebration: The Resurrection
• Why Easter is a Time of Celebration: Future Promises