Easter Meditation 2026

This meditation follows the reading of The Garden, The Curtain, and The Cross: The True Story of Why Jesus Died and Rose Again, by Carl Laferton.

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The original Sin that dwells inside each and every one of us is Pride. 

Pride causes us to live day-to-day not wanting God to be in charge of anything that would affect the way we want to live.

Even for the most committed believer, pride causes a reversion to a state of living as a practical atheist.  This means that we say God is sovereign over all things and that we desire to live and love and He has first lived and loved us in Jesus Christ, but we move throughout our days as if God was not real and present.

Because of the indwelling Sin that corrupts every human being and therefore makes it impossible for every human being to be near God’s holiness, God placed a “Keep Out” sign at the entrance to His Kingdom.

However, this was not God’s will.  God’s will was to have a “Welcome” sign for you and for me to freely enter into His presence and His eternal Kingdom of Heaven.

So, in order to change the “Keep Out” sign to a “Welcome” sign, God committed (for your ultimate good) to have the worst day that could ever happen.  God stepped into the world in the person of Jesus Christ to provide forgiveness for all of our Sin by being the perfectly innocent sacrifice that was needed to heal, to forgive, and to restore us to place of peace and friendship with Him forever.

This was God’s plan before time and space existed.

God’s love caused Him to plan the ultimate rescue mission through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  

Jesus’ perfectly sinless life is the perfectly spotless life that was needed to atone for your sins.

Jesus’ receiving of the wrath of God as punishment for your Sin by death of the cross is the substitution that you need to be set free from the condemnation and punishment that you deserve due to the corruption that Sin causes in your heart and being.

And, Jesus’ resurrection from the grave on Easter morning is the victory over Sin and Death that you need in order to be assured that you are fully at peace with God today and will one day be welcomed by your Creator with wide open arms into 

Through Jesus, God’s Keep Out sign that has been posted at the entrance to His Kingdom due to the universal human predicament of Sin has been ripped up and thrown out forever.  God’s wonderful place is open to you this morning and forever because Jesus walked out of the grave, fully alive, on Easter morning.

Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection turns God’s Keep Out sign into a Welcome sign.

Through faith in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for you, you can now go into God’s Kingdom.

I leave you with this exhortation from the Apostle Paul’s letter the Church gathered in the city of Colossae.

Colossians 3:1–4 says this to you:

[1] If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. [2] Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. [3] For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. [4] When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (ESV)

Christ the Lord is Risen today, Hallelujah!

Oh, Happy Day, Jesus washed our sins away!

This is the Resurrection of Jesus for you.

And, all of God’s people said, Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

April 5, 2026 — Easter Sunday.