The Easter season is a time of reflection, renewal, and rejoicing as we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection and the hope we have because of it. Continuing our Easter reading plan, day 3 focuses on the themes of the cross, Christ’s sacrifice, and God’s love demonstrated through giving His Son. As we read and reflect on these passages, may our hearts be filled with gratefulness and praise.
Isaiah 53:1-12 – The Suffering Servant
This powerful prophetic passage describes the coming Messiah – Jesus – as a suffering servant who would be “despised and rejected” and bear our iniquities. Though innocent, He would allow Himself to be crushed and afflicted, and “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (v.6). Jesus bore our sins so that by His wounds, we could be healed and restored. Isaiah 53 reminds us of the incredible cost of the cross and the depth of Christ’s sacrifice for us.
Mark 15:16-39 – The Crucifixion
Mark’s account of Jesus’ crucifixion vividly depicts His sufferings – being mocked and beaten, hung on a cross between two criminals, reviled by the religious leaders. Even in His agonizing death, Jesus showed mercy, forgiving those crucifying Him. He bore God’s wrath on our behalf. The veil of the temple tore from top to bottom, signifying access to God made possible by Christ’s sacrifice. Even a centurion was compelled to declare “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (v.39).
John 3:16-21 – For God So Loved the World
This passage contains the most famous verse about God’s love – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son…” (v.16). God expressed His love by sending Jesus to save the world, not condemn it. All who believe can have eternal life. Christ came as light into the world, but people rejected Him because they loved darkness. Our response – whether we walk in light or darkness – reveals our reception of God’s love gift through His Son.
Romans 3:21-26 – God’s Righteousness Through Faith
We are made right with God not by our own efforts but through having faith in Christ’s sacrifice which paid for our sins. Jesus’ blood on the cross satisfied God’s wrath and displayed His justice and righteousness. When we trust in Christ, our sins are atoned for freely by God’s grace as a gift. What we could not earn ourselves, Jesus provided for us through giving His life on the cross.
Romans 5:6-11 – Reconciled by Christ’s Death
We were powerless, ungodly, sinners and enemies of God. Yet in His love for us, Christ died for us even when we were still in rebellion against Him. His blood justifies us and reconciles us to God. Through Jesus’ sacrifice, we have peace, grace, and the hope of salvation. God demonstrated His own love toward us by sending His Son to die on our behalf while we were still deep in sin.
Romans 6:1-14 – Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
Since we are united with Christ in His death and resurrection through baptism, we consider ourselves dead to sin but alive to God. We must not let sin reign in our mortal bodies but offer ourselves to God. For sin shall no longer be our master since we are not under law but under grace. Just as Christ was raised from the dead, we too may live a new life, turning from sin and pursuing righteousness.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25 – Christ the Power and Wisdom of God
The message of the cross seems foolish and offensive to the world. But to those being saved, it is the power and wisdom of God. Human wisdom cannot come to know God – His power and wisdom is revealed in Christ crucified. What seems weakness to the world displays God’s wisdom and power to save all who believe. Our faith rests not in human philosophy but in Christ alone.
1 Corinthians 15:1-11 – Christ Died for Our Sins
Paul reminds the Corinthians of the good news he preached to them – that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, rose again, and appeared to many. This is the gospel message we stand upon – that Jesus paid for our sins with His death and defeated death in His resurrection. We can receive salvation and new life because of what Christ accomplished for us on the cross.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21 – Reconciled to God
Through Christ’s death, the old has passed away and we are new creations, reconciled to God through Jesus. Though He was sinless, God made Him to be sin on our behalf so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. We are ambassadors of this gospel message – that God through Christ reconciled the world to Himself by not counting our sins against us. What an amazing gift!
Galatians 2:15-21 – Crucified with Christ
Paul explains that trying to be justified by works of the law only leads to being entangled in sin. But through faith in Christ, we die to the law and live for God. Our old self is crucified with Christ so that His life now lives in us. The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me – I am crucified with Him and He lives through me. We live by faith in the Son of God who gave Himself up for us.
Ephesians 1:3-14 – Redemption Through His Blood
God’s manifold blessings are ours through Christ – adoption, redemption, forgiveness, wisdom. In Christ we have obtained an inheritance, having believed the message of truth of the gospel of our salvation. He is the guarantee of that inheritance until full redemption through His blood. We are redeemed from sin by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. His sacrifice paved the way for our adoption and blessings.
Ephesians 2:11-22 – Reconciled Through Christ
While once alienated from God without hope, now through Christ’s blood we have been brought near, reconciled to God. Jesus Himself is our peace. Through the cross He created one new people and put to death the hostility between us. We both have access to the Father by one Spirit because of Christ’s sacrifice. Jesus’ death tore down the dividing walls and enabled us to be fellow citizens of God.
Philippians 2:1-11 – Christ’s Humility and Exaltation
Though Jesus was God, He humbled Himself by taking on human flesh and dying on a cross for our salvation. He allowed Himself to be made nothing, poured out like an offering – even to death on a cross. Therefore God highly exalted Jesus, giving Him the name above all names. Glory to Christ who gave up everything to redeem us from death and secure eternal life for all who believe!
Philippians 3:1-14 – Surpassing Worth of Knowing Christ
Whatever we gain from the flesh is worthless compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. Everything else is rubbish compared to gaining Christ. I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection, being conformed to His death, so that I may attain the resurrection from the dead. I press on toward the prize of the upward call in Christ that He purchased for me with His blood.
Colossians 1:15-23 – Reconciled by Christ’s Death
Jesus is the image of the invisible God, creator and sustainer of all. He is preeminent in all things. God was pleased to reconcile all things to Himself through Christ’s sacrifice – making peace by His blood. Christ has presented us holy and blameless through His death if indeed we continue grounded and steadfast in the faith. His death and resurrection secure our hope.
Colossians 2:6-15 – Canceling the Record of Debt
As we received Christ, so we should live in Him. In Christ, all the fulness of God dwells in bodily form. He is the head over every power and authority. When we were dead in sin, God made us alive together with Christ, canceling the record of debt that stood against us – nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the powers of darkness through the cross.
Hebrews 9:1-28 – Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All
The old covenant required repeated sacrifices that could not perfect our conscience or cleanse us completely. But Christ secured eternal redemption for us with His own blood, through the greater and perfect tabernacle. He entered heaven to appear on our behalf, having offered Himself unblemished to God to cleanse our consciences and secure our inheritance. His sacrifice was once for all time.
Hebrews 12:1-3 – Fix Eyes on Jesus
Since we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, let us run our race fixing our eyes on Jesus, who endured the cross and now sits at God’s right hand. Consider Christ who endured such hostility from sinners so that we will not lose heart or grow weary. He gives us an example of endurance and the joy set before Him as He submitted to death on a cross for us.
1 Peter 2:18-25 – Christ’s Example of Suffering
Christ left us an example – though reviled, He did not retaliate but entrusted Himself to God. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross so we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds, we have been healed. We were straying like sheep but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. Praise God for Christ’s example of submission.
1 John 1:5-10 – Walk in the Light
God is light and in Him is no darkness. If we claim fellowship with God but walk in darkness, we lie and don’t practice truth. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and Christ cleanses us from sin with His blood. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. But if we confess our sins, He forgives and cleanses us.
1 John 2:1-6 – Christ Our Advocate
If we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ the Righteous. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but the sins of the whole world. By this we know we have come to know Him – if we keep His commands. Whoever claims to abide in Christ must walk as He walked. He laid down His life for us.
1 John 3:13-24 – Love One Another
We know love by this – Jesus laid down His life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for one another. If we have the world’s goods but close our compassion, how does God’s love reside in us? Let us not love merely in talk but in truth and action. We know we belong to the truth when we love one another as Christ commanded.
1 John 4:7-21 – God Is Love
Let us love one another, for love comes from God. This is love – not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. If God so loved us, we ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us. We love because He first loved us and gave His Son for us.
On this third day of our Easter reading plan, we are reminded of the beautiful yet sobering truth that Christ’s death was an absolute necessity so that we could have eternal life with God. Jesus willingly allowed Himself to be crucified, even though He was completely innocent. He took the punishment that we rightly deserved. As Isaiah 53 prophesied, “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities…and by his wounds we are healed.” Christ’s great love for us compelled Him to lay down His life so we could be freed from the grip of sin and be reconciled to God. This wondrous gift of salvation can be ours if we humble ourselves, confess our need for the Savior, and believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins. As we walk with Christ, may we grow in grace, hope, and love.