Ps. Luke Andrade, Elim Church Alexandra

This Easter weekend billions of people around the world celebrate the great exchange.

“Let Us make man in Our image.” These words spoken by God Almighty, creator of heaven and earth as He begins to form mankind.

All people, regardless of our differences, were made in the image and likeness of God. Created. Created on purpose, with a purpose and for a purpose.

However, we were all led astray by our own sinful desires. Selfishness, lusts, desire for power and control, and so on. These things distort the image of God.

For thousands of years God has been revealing himself to people. The Bible is full of those stories of God continuing on a path of fulfilling and restoring what he started at creation. To make men and women into His image.

Mankind has tried, and failed to redeem itself. Laws, policies, politics - these things only reveal that there is something deeper, a heart problem, at the core of our dilemma.

One of the most obvious manifestations of this 'heart problem' is a loss of identity. Rather than assurance and security knowing who and Who's we are, we are struggling to cling to other things - status, political affiliation, sexuality, sports teams - anything to make sense of ourselves.

This is what Easter is all about. The great exchange.

Mankind hopeless and lost needed a saviour, someone to redeem our brokenness, and to model what this image looked like. 

So He came, claiming to be the Son of God, the very image of the invisible God, a crime punishable by death. He was crucified, put in a tomb, and three days later rose to life! This was no mere man, but truly God in flesh.

Jesus Christ when he died on that cross, died for our sake, and when he rose to new life rose for our victory also!

The Easter message is this. You have a problem. God has a solution. The solution is not a different job, another lover, or an esteemed politician.

These things will not fulfil the identity that you seek. 

The identity that mankind longs for, that we so desperately crave has been made available for all through Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ and the great exchange is what is celebrated this weekend.

To all those in Central Otago, Good Friday, and Happy Easter!

Ps. Luke Andrade is the senior pastor at Elim Church Alexandra. Photo: Supplied