Driving home from work, I found a ripe banana in the trash bin of badly written church signs. This sign was lettered by a nearby Assembly of God church. This, once again, is not a photo of the actual sign, but a facsimile of it with the help of www.churchsigngenerator.com. The Lord Jesus Christ is no longer hanging on a cross, he is no longer lying in a borrowed tomb, Christ has risen, sinners may now be justified by faith because of his righteousness alone. The fact that the Lord Jesus Christ . . .

* veiled his eternal, divine attributes . . .

* humbled himself by taking on the form of a servant in his incarnation . . .

* Perfectly keeping the Covenant of Works which our first human father, Adam, failed to keep, thereby earning eternal life . . .

* Silently suffering the ridicule, rejection, hatred and violence of the self-righteous . . .

* Although sinless, received sin’s penalty, death, on behalf of those whom God the Father gave him before the world was created . . .

* Lay buried in a borrowed tomb . . .

* Rose from the dead, indicating that the sacrifice he’d just offered to God the Father had been received and that justification has actually, and irrevocably, been obtained for those whom the Father chose and gave to him . . .

. . . is the reason any of us has a hope beyond the grave, has the grace to believe, receive, and gratefully love and obey the Lord Jesus Christ who was sent to us by the Father; the benefits of whose work are graciously and effectually applied by the Holy Spirit to those who, realizing their lack of righteousness before the Holy God and Creator of the universe, repent of their sins and believe this Good News!

If you have never considered the claims of God’s Law on you, may you realize by examining its perfect standard, that you fall short and have no righteousness to stand on before God, repent of your sins and turn to Christ in faith which is evidenced by loving and grateful, though imperfect, obedience and call on him for salvation today!

If you have called on the Lord, renew your faith in him in response to the reminder of all that he is and has done for you, and renew your repentance from the works that betray your lack of love and gratitude for your gracious, loving, merciful Savior!

And remember to have a wonderful Easter weekend, beloved, because Christ’s empty cross and Christ’s empty tomb point us to the fact of full salvation through his death and resurrection!!!

AMEN