I’m sure you have heard the uproar surrounding the Rafael Warnock tweet over Easter this year. He has since deleted the tweet, but his deletion does not remove his intention and meaning.
Warnock is a progressive U.S. Senator, having served as pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. once preached. He narrowly won a highly contentious Senate election earlier this year in Georgia. Wearing his pastor’s hat, he tweeted Easter Sunday, “The meaning of Easter is more transcendent than the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” adding, “Whether you are a Christian or not, through a commitment to helping others we are able to save ourselves.”
Easter is designated by Christians to celebrate Christ’s resurrection from the grave and completed victory over sin. In many churches, after a year plagued by the pandemic, Resurrection Sunday provided hope that despite life’s hardships, Jesus has defeated death and reconciled repentant sinners to God. Pastors around the country reminded their congregants that Jesus’s resurrection is at the center of the gospel and the reason we celebrate Easter.
In the NASB, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15; 19 If we have hoped in Christ only in this life, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But the fact is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.”
Paul also wrote in Ephesians 2; 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
If Christ didn’t complete His work on the cross, we Christians should be pitied. We trust in a Savior, risen by the God of the Universe. Our whole world, actions, tenants of belief concerning now and the future, and the way we treat others ought to be based on the sacrifice of Christ and His resurrection. Christ raised from the dead to live eternally in heaven with God so we could too. There is no meaning above, secret or otherwise, that transcends the sacrifice of Jesus. The assertions of Sen. Warnock are those made by liberal theologians and those who do not believe that the atonement of Christ is the finish and completed work of salvation.
There is no work. There is no action. There are no efforts that make a man or woman worthy to receive eternal life in heaven. We cannot earn or do anything to save ourselves. This is a clear heresy from one who either does not know the Bible or does not believe it. Easter is not more important than Christ and helping others saves no one. It is out of delight in our risen Savior that one willingly lays his or her life down in the service of others. Be wary church. Do not allow your ears to be tickled by errant, liberal theologians who diminish the work of Christ on the cross, in the grave, and loosed by God to rise again. Speedily seek to worship and adore Him. Serve Him through your sacrificial service to others. Call us for ways you can join others in serving your community. I look forward to working with you from this Easter to next!
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