Happy Easter! Christ is risen! Our king is alive, and we have brand new life with him! In spite of the countless insurmountable sins we had committed against our God, he forgave it all, redeemed us from death, and restored us to himself. Christ is risen!
As it turns out, God had been preparing his people for that forgiveness through Christ for millennia. Through Moses and the Law, he gave his people an opportunity to get right with God by living righteously. But that was always doomed to fail—we’re woefully incapable of perfect righteousness anyway—and God even conveys that he always knew it would fail. Sure enough, just as God had anticipated, the Israelites would forsake their God time and time again, and in turn he would forsake them to be destroyed by evil. But that was never meant to be the end of the story.
There is hardly a story in the Bible that does not depict God as a God of grace, even in the Old Testament. He didn’t have to offer them forgiveness. The covenant offered conditional blessings; if they bless God, God blesses them. But he promised a wonderful day of forgiveness anyway. When things are most hopeless, when his people are scattered and slaughtered and abandoned, even then God will not forget his people. He will graciously draw them home, they will repent and run to him, and God’s people will be restored to him. If there’s one thing we know about God, it’s this: he is passionate about restoring his people to himself.
The story of the Israelites is one of several cycles of sin and judgment and repentance and grace. But that all comes to a dramatic, wonderful resolution in the person of Christ. Through Christ we are forgiven, just as God had always promised. But that’s not all; through Christ we are also alive, never to be held under the dominion of sin and death again! Once and for all, we God’s people are restored to him, to glorify him and find joy in his glory. To use Moses’ words, God has circumcised our hearts, so that we may love him fully, and live. The promise is fulfilled, God’s people are redeemed, and Christ is risen!
