What a difference Easter day makes

The song ‘What a difference a day makes,’ popularised by Dinah Washington back in 1959, has a message that resonates far beyond a celebration of romantic love, for which it still often played. There are many days in history that we can look back on and see how significantly they shaped the future: the births or deaths of key historical figures, landmark legal judgments, or victories and defeats in war. The world looks very different after those days. But no day can rival Easter Day for significance. This is the day we celebrate the provision of the forgiveness of sin, the overcoming of death, and the defeat of the devil. It is a big news day. What a difference Easter day makes.

Easter marks the provision of the forgiveness of sin. All that Jesus had done in His life, passion and death is revealed to be sufficient to justify all who are in Him (Rom 4:25), to be able to stand in the presence of a holy God. Sin has led to death, where it always leads (Rom 6:23), and in His death, Jesus had paid the price for sinners to be forgiven. We know that, because Jesus rose from the dead, showing His sacrifice was complete, and he could return to His Father to plead our cause forever (Heb 7:25). Easter marks the provision of the forgiveness of sin.

Easter also marks the overcoming of death. For the first time in the history of the human race, someone has come back from the dead not only to die again at some later date, as would be the case for Lazarus (John 11:44). Jesus lives forever in a resurrection body that will never go sick, never grow old, and never die, and he offers that possibility to all who turn to Him. Death had lost its grip on the human race; life had overcome death. No longer do we have to face the fear of death as those who have no hope, but as those who know a new creation has begun, as the first resurrection body has been created. Easter marks the overcoming of death.

Easter marks the defeat of the devil as well. The voice contradicting God in the garden of Eden (Gen 3:1), the accuser whose works can be seen across the pages of Scripture (e.g. Job 2:4), the one who tempted Jesus in the wilderness (Matt 4:1) and sought to distract Jesus from going to the cross through the voice of Peter (Matt 16:23), had lost the power he had accumulated. No longer is the human race left in slavery to the evil one. A redeemer has come to set us free, and we know that because One of those, who Satan thought he had in his power, had left the realm of the dead and returned to live on earth. The prince of this world (John 12:31) had been defeated by the Prince of the world to come. Children of the devil can now become the children of God (1 John 3:10). Easter marks the defeat of the devil as well.

Easter day was a very significant day. Things are not the same after that. What Luther referred to as three tyrants: sin, death and the devil, have lost their power. Jesus has come to our rescue to save us from all three. It was a truly momentous day. Those things that blighted humanity since our earliest days have been addressed at their very roots. No longer need we be the slaves of sin, or those how live in the fear of death, or to find ourselves, however inadvertently, serving the evil one. It is the start of the new creation in which righteousness dwells (2 Pet 3:13).

What a difference Easter day makes.

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The Revd Dr Justyn Terry is Vice-Principal and Academic Dean at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He is author of The Five Phases of Leadership published by Langham Publishing and has written on the Atonement and on Anglican theology

Views expressed in blogs published by the Latimer Trust are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Latimer Trust.