By Nikki Dabney

If you’ve been a Christian for most of your life, you’ve probably heard the gospel preached countless of times – which is an enormous blessing not afforded to most of the world. But it brings with it this pressure to emotionally connect to the gospel every time we hear it.

We want to weep over Jesus’ crucifixion and rejoice over His resurrection. And we feel a sense of guilt if we don’t.

We do everything we can to help us grasp the weight of that moment in history – we watch The Passion of the Christ, we sing the hymns of old, we re-read the gospel accounts.

But we don’t have to struggle with connecting to the historical Jesus – we get to experience Him, the living God, now.

The gospel isn’t just a moment in history, it isn’t just your moment of salvation; it’s happening now.

Jesus still defeats my sin. He still conquers my death.

He still gives me life. He still makes me new.

Over and over and over and over.

When sin entangles us, when pain feels like death, when darkness overwhelms us, He intervenes.

He binds wounds. He gives us breath again. He awakes us to the emptiness we’ve been living in.

And He somehow takes the ash we created while wandering from Him, and creates something beautiful. We become, again, in awe of who He is, and our hearts are filled with worship.

Easter celebrates the ultimate reconciliation – Christ conquering death and allowing us to have an eternal relationship with Him (Romans 5:10).

But His love is so relentless. We keep falling. We’re unfaithful. We stop trusting Him. And He keeps reconciling us to Himself. He mends our relationship and draws us near.

This is the mark of the One True God – He resurrects.

Hallelujah.