“I once conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection,” wrote Benjamin Franklin. He went on to select no less than 13 virtues he desired to perfect, and crafted a plan whereby he would devote himself to one virtue per week. However, his “bold and arduous” efforts not only failed to produce moral perfection, they exposed his chronic imperfections all the more.

If an accomplished, ambitious human such as Benjamin Franklin couldn’t pull it off, can we?

What Jesus Christ did at Easter gives us a radically different option. It is the option of joining in his death and resurrection. This is the symbolism of baptism—to go beneath the water in death, and to come back out very much alive! The Apostle Paul wrote in the first century:

“For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. (This would have been helpful for Ben Franklin to know ahead of time.) So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.” (Galatians 2:19-21*)

The gift of Easter is freedom and power—freedom to ditch our efforts at moral improvement and power to become the people we were originally destined to be. This freedom is actualized when we accept Christ’s atoning sacrifice for us on the cross and join in the power that raised him from the dead.

Here are two questions I’ve asked myself and invite you to consider too:

> What sins (“moral imperfections”, self-sabotaging habits and addictions) would I like to nail once and for all onto the cross with Christ?

> Alternately, what sins am I not yet willing to nail there? What pay offs do I get from sin that compel me to take it down off the cross and save it from death?

As I die to my sin and embrace the power of the resurrection, by faith, I become a new person. I am a sibling of Christ. For the rest of my life, I am growing up into this identity that I have received through the resurrection. This is the stuff of every day faith.

Scripture: Keeping in mind your answers to the questions above, meditate and journal on these words written in the New Testament, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” and “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-21) I Peter 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”

Prayer: Holy Father, Son and Spirit, How can we possibly comprehend the layers of mystery and salvation wrapped up in your death and resurrection? Although you, Jesus, were by very nature God, you submitted to death, taking our sins with you into the grave where you defeated the Enemy of our souls forever. By faith, we are raised with you from the dead. Let this new life of ours break into the world this week and bear the fruit of love to those around us. Teach us to live in the power of your and our resurrection every day! In Jesus’ name and for his glory, Amen.

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*Note: If you wish, you can look up this and other Bible passages online at youversion.com
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