As we prepare for Easter Sunday, it’s important to rehearse again this incredible truth that God, the Son, came to earth to die to pay the debt you and I owed—one we could never pay—for the forgiveness of our sins. And because Jesus died and then rose again after three days, he has conquered eternal death for us. If you have been born from above through faith in Jesus Christ, then your debt has been paid, and that is the most amazing truth.

Think about the disciples as they were witnessing Jesus’ trial and crucifixion. No doubt they could not comprehend how Jesus could come to this end. They believed he was their Messiah, and he would save them from Rome. Instead he came to save them from their sins. But after the resurrection when the Holy Spirit came upon them, they finally understood, and they were changed people.

In a statement to the Sadducees, who had just put him in jail for preaching the Gospel, Peter said,

The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree (Acts 5:30).

Peter points to the tree—the curse of the cross—and says despite their intention to bring Jesus to disgrace, God raised him from the dead and reversed the stigma.

Paul went even further to show how the cross became their message. He said,

We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:23-24).

The fact Jesus was crucified was a great stumbling block to Jews in that day. How could their Messiah die and on a cross of all things? And for the Gentiles—those who are not Jews—this idea of a god dying seemed foolish. There were lots of gods worshipped in those days. The Romans had false gods for every occasion. But none of their gods died by crucifixion! That was foolishness to them.

The amazing truth is once the disciples understood the purpose of Jesus’ death on the cross, that very shameful act of being crucified transformed the disciples and their message, and the thing that once had been so repugnant to them became the thing in which they boasted.

And that is what we boast in this Easter season. Don’t let this celebration pass you by this year without taking time to remember that Jesus set you free by dying for you and then rising from the tomb. And because of that, you are free indeed!