by mattwi1s0n

Speaker Ron Dunn shared about a time he took his son and six of his classmates to a carnival for his son’s birthday. Once there he bought a roll of tickets, and each time the group arrived at a new line he would pull off seven tickets and hand them to the kids. When they arrived at the Ferris wheel all of a sudden there was an eighth kid in the group holding out his hand.

Ron said, “Who are you?”

The kid said, “I’m Johnny.”

Ron said, “Who are you, Johnny?”

Johnny said, “I’m your son’s new friend. And he said you would give me a ticket.”

Ron then said, “Do you think I gave him one? Absolutely.” Why would Ron give a ticket to a kid he never met before? The simple reason is because of his son.

In the song “Fields of Grace” Darrel Evans sings, “There’s a place where religion finally dies.” The word “religion” means “to bind.” In its proper sense it can mean to bind us to God; in a negative sense it means to leave people feeling bound to impossible rules, demands and guilt, something Jesus never taught.

Easter is about the death of religion and the revelation of life. It is about the elimination of religious lists of “do’s” and “don’ts” being replaced by the love and grace of God.

With over forty thousand denominations, countless people have been left feeling confused and bound, rather than finding freedom to live what the New Testament calls “the life that is really life” (1 Timothy 6:19).

And while some of the Apostle Paul’s words have been abused in the making of religions, in fact he prayed that people would “have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:18-19).

This love Paul tells us is received from God, “not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time” (1Timothy 6:19).

Stunning isn’t it? Before time began, before we took our first breath, God’s grace was already given to us.

Many decades ago Kenneth Wuest shared, “God’s salvation is an oversize salvation. It is shock proof, stain proof, unbreakable, all sufficient. It is equal to every emergency, for it flows from the heart of an infinite God freely bestowed and righteously given through the all sufficient sacrifice of our Lord on the Cross. Salvation is all of grace. Trust God’s grace. It is super abounding grace.”

The wonder, the awesome picture, the magnificent promise is that Easter is about this and so much more for one reason; simply because we are friends of the Son.