Soap Box

*NOTE* Here's an Easter Soapbox from 2013. Happy Easter! - TeamCDB

Have you ever stopped and really thought about what the holy day we celebrate this Sunday really means? It is the cornerstone of Christianity, the institution of a new blood covenant between Almighty God and His creation, the once and for all sacrifice that ended all sacrifices.

It is my belief that everybody should read the Bible for themselves and draw their own conclusions, so what I say in this column are my conclusions, reached by my reading of the scriptures and listening to people who I feel in my heart are proclaiming the true Word of God.

I believe that the coming of Jesus Christ brought a new covenant, making man's salvation contingent on a condition of the heart and conscience instead of the rigidity of the law.

Jesus said that He did not come to do away with the law and the prophets but to fulfill them, and if our hearts are right, we are naturally going to follow the laws of God, we're not going to sleep with our neighbor's wife or kill anybody or swear to falsehoods against them. We're going to treat our parents with respect and love and help our neighbor when he needs a hand; it just comes naturally when you follow the teachings of Jesus.

The Pharisees followed the law to the letter, even down to tithing part of the herbs from their garden, but the law didn't say anything about not taking away a widow and orphan's farm or bribing one of Jesus' disciples to betray him and deliver him up to be crucified. Jesus said they were like whitewashed tombs, clean on the outside but dirty and corrupt on the inside.

The Pharisees and priests were powerful people under the old covenant, the priests were the only ones who could enter the Holy of Holies to atone for the sins of Israel, a special room that no ordinary citizen ever saw the inside of.

When Jesus died, the heavy veil that covered the entrance of the Holy of Holies was supernaturally torn from top to bottom, signifying that it was acceptable for ordinary people to come into the very presence of Almighty God and present their own praises and prayers without the intervention of an earthly priest, but with an advocate in heaven sitting at the right hand of the Creator and Ruler of the universe to intercede for them.

The Pharisees saw their stranglehold on the people slipping away with the appearance of this Jesus of Nazareth. The Pharisees had it pretty much made in old Jerusalem, they were respected and deferred to and through the elite group called the Sanhedrin who exercised absolute rule over the everyday religious lives of the Jews even up to excommunication which took away one's privilege of worshiping in the temple.

The Pharisees didn't want to lose their place of respect and power in Jewish society, but Jesus was performing miracles and preaching about love and forgiveness and the crowds he drew were growing bigger and bigger, so with the help of lies and subterfuge they had their way and Jesus carried a cross to a place called Golgotha, the place of the skull, and was nailed to it by Roman soldiers.

Heretofore, the blood of animals was shed to atone for the sins of man, but the blood that Jesus shed on the cross was the last sacrifice, the full and final covering for the sins of the world, powerful enough to save everybody who sincerely calls upon the name of the Lord.

As we all know, he was laid in a tomb, but the grave couldn't hold the Son of God and that's what we celebrate on Easter, the miraculous resurrection of the Savior of mankind.

Did you ever stop and think that the very first person saved under the new covenant was a criminal who was dying on a cross next to Jesus? Such is the marvelous grace of God.

So on Easter we celebrate a life, a death and a resurrection.

So this Easter let us remember what we are celebrating and as the springtime brings forth the new blossoms let's keep in mind the one who left the unspeakable joy of Heaven to come to Earth to die a horrible death on a Roman cross so that through his shed blood we can have eternal life.

Happy Resurrection Day, my brothers and sisters.

He is risen!

What do you think?

Pray for our troops, and for our country.

God Bless America

— Charlie Daniels

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