Pastor's Corner

Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It is an affirmation of hope that comforts us and assures us throughout life. Fear of the grave is broken. The sting and dread of death is defeated. We have a confident expectation of good things to come. With delightful anticipation we enjoy the forgiveness of our sins and the promise of everlasting life through faith in Jesus Christ.

When the disciples came to the empty tomb, they found Jesus' grave clothes lying there. Earlier, when Christ raised his friend Lazarus from the dead, Jesus told those present, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go". Lazarus was set free of the mummy like wrappings of death.

The Lord intends that we do the same. Through the life and power of Christ in our lives we lay aside the grave clothes of a defeated life: fear, doubt, guilt, condemnation, lusts of the flesh. We step freely into the everlasting joy and freedom of new life offered to each of us through faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. We are released from our grave clothes.

"We know (the self-evident truth) that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin (ending its power and paying the sinner's debt) once and for all; and the life that He lives, He lives to (glorify) God (in unbroken fellowship with Him). Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin (and your relationship to it broken), but alive to God (in unbroken fellowship with Him) in Christ Jesus." Romans 6:9-11, Amp Version.

Pastor Greg Brownell

Dayton United Brethren Church