2010 Letter No 04

Each month Bill writes a pastor's letter for our monthly church magazine called 'The Messenger'. Here is the letter for April 2010:

At Good Friday and Easter we celebrate the great rescue that God has achieved through Jesus. We were lost, but now we have been found. We were guilty, but now we have been forgiven. We were doomed, but now we have been saved.

But I have been reminded recently how difficult it is for people in our culture to hear this good news. Spirituality and religion are often understood as providing meaning and fulfilment where previously there has been pointlessness and emptiness. While it is true that a relationship with God through Christ does provide meaning and purpose, it is only a part of the picture.

Our deepest need is one which is often unrecognised – namely to have our sin forgiven. It might not be the need which we feel most keenly, but it is the need which is of greatest concern to our holy God – which is why he sent Jesus to die upon the cross for our sin, and raised him to life, showing him to be the Son of God.

This reminds me of the situation of an anorexic girl, who believes that her greatest need is to be thinner, when in fact her greatest need is to eat properly. People do not always recognise what their greatest needs actually are. No amount of wagging our fingers and lecturing will change the anorexic girl, unless her eyes are opened to her situation. And the same is true for us as we proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. People are not interested in the medicine of Christ, unless they recognise that they are terminally ill with the disease of sin. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

Let us pray for eyes to be opened to the gospel this Easter.