Why Christians Still Miss The Meaning of Easter: Returning To Our Roots

The word “radical” is not only defined by people flying planes into twin towers, but Jesus flying planes into the twin towers of our knowledge of good and evil. The word radical comes from a Latin word meaning root or branch. Jesus reveals the root or origin of God, while also taking an ax to the root of the tree of knowledge as we understood it. His own message is still not popular among Christian’s who find themselves interpreting the cross through their knowledge of a good and evil, which is interpreting it through the same distorted lens Adam and Eve inherited by eating its fruit thinking they would now know what God is like. 

The word radical is also defined as someone who pursues a theory to its furthest limit, an extremist. We can see how this is both good and bad depending on the type of extremist we are speaking of. Here we are speaking of Jesus taking our theory of God to the furthest limit, thus uprooting all limits we have put on God by cutting them down at the root of where we misinterpret God’s nature, bringing us to the actual root of God’s extreme Love. 

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but will judge with righteousness… The Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious.” - Isaiah 11:1-4,10

“The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire of God’s love.” - Matthew 3:10

“He brought me to the banquet, and his banner over me was LOVE.” - Song of Solomon 2:4

Jesus is the Branch and Root, the original nature of God revealed, not judging by what he sees with his eyes, which is a direct contrast to the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil appearing to look good in revealing what God is like. Jesus will consume that knowledge through displaying the fire of God’s love, which is the only thing that bears fruit in reality. Jesus will place himself on the tree of knowledge (the cross) in order to reveal its fruit only leads to death, namely the death of our understanding of God, which will also reveal the actual nature of God that leads to Life. This message will appear foolish to people still eating unto death, yet He is the very food, the Bread of Life, we have been invited to consume at the banquet in order to know the Truth of Love on the inside.  

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to anyone who is missing the point, thus living in death while claiming life, but we who are being saved from missing the point, the message is the power of God!” - 1 Cor 1:18

Dear Christians, the message will appear foolish, radical, and extreme to you, and others, when you think God has saved you and not the entire human race. The message of the cross is far more radical and involves no sense of it being for us only, and not others, which would be the fruit of that ego knowledge of good and evil thinking only of itself. Christ has, is, and forever will destroy the wisdom of this world! Our message is not of this world, but is the power of the Spirit to reveal the real meaning of Easter to the world.

We do not write in a manner that thinks of ourselves as superior, which is to miss the point of what we are communicating. We write with the confidence of Christ to wake you up to your own message. We write to remind you of the liberation of the cross that frees us from the logic of human boasting, as if what we know is only for us, and not for everyone. If we misinterpret the message of the cross and bring it back under the distorted lens of legalism and judgment, we invalidate the power of its message in ourselves and the world.

“Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of the mystery, of the new reality compared to the old understandings, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills but the Spirit gives life!” - 2 Cor 3:4-6

“For consider your own understanding of salvation, not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth, but God chose what is foolish in the world to expose to the light, those who think they are wise; God chose what is weak in the world, to expose the light to those who think they are strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that appear right, so that no human being could boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your, and everyone’s life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” - 1 Cor 1:26-30

“We impart this secret and hidden wisdom of God, which was spoken before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, because if they did, they never would have crucified the Lord of glory!” - 1 Cor 2:8

“If we appear foolish and out of our minds, it is because of who God actually is; if we appear in our right mind, it is to reason with you, for the Love of Christ compels us, because we have reached the final conclusion: that one has died for ALL, therefore ALL have died; and he died for ALL that those who wake up to this Reality, would no longer live for themselves but for Him who for the sake of ALL, died and was raised. From now on, we are to regard no one according to the flesh, with all its labels, christian or not, even though we once regarded Christ in this immature way, we regard him like this no longer. Therefore if ANYONE realizes they are in Christ, they awaken to this new creation. The old understanding has passed away and the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled ALL to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ as Christ actually is with God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, to be reconciled to God in this way.” - 2 Corinthians 5:13-20

Are you counting trespasses? Are you judging by what your eyes see and ears hear? Are you condemning others as if they were not in Christ and as if all have not died and been raised in Christ? Let Love compel you and return to the Root of Reconciliation that awakened your own life from its sleep in the beginning! 

“Awake oh sleeper, arise from the dead, as you realize Christ is shining in you!” -Ephesians 5:14

Do not be deceived about the simplicity of the Gospel by reverting back to legalism and judgment, as to put yourself under the blindness of human logic again. This Gift is freely given to ALL and the Gift was never of our own doing.

“Because of God’s great love for ALL, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses, it is by grace we are saved, this was never from our own doing as if we could boast, and God raised all up to be seated with Him in heavenly realms in Christ Jesus to display His kindness forever! This is grace and a pure gift not coming from yourself, but from God! How could we boast in anything else?” -  Ephesians 5:2-8

Speak and live from the kindness of these heavenly realms where you are seated, not from the conditional and judgment systems of the earth that misinterpret God’s nature. Christ saved you from those systems! You are not of this world! You are not to eat of the knowledge of good and evil choosing sides. Help others realize the same so they can wake up to where they really are in Christ.

Jesus has cast out the ruler of this world which was rooted in judgment and conditional systems, which is what led people to boast in their salvation, while thinking others are not included. Proclaiming the Good News of what Christ has done, and is forever doing, is the ministry of reconciliation that participates with the reconciliation of all things, whether in the heavens or the earth.

“For God was pleased to have his fullness dwell in Jesus and through Him to reconcile ALL THINGS, whether in the heavens or in the earth, making peace through the blood of the cross.” - Colossians 1:19-20

“Do not call unclean what I have called clean.” - God (Acts 10:15)

All things were created in and through Christ, there is no other place you, or anyone else, can be found! (Col 1:16-18)

Does this message of the cross and Christ still seem foolish to you?

Remember, the cross is the wisdom and power of God, all other wisdom and human reasoning will fail, so let it die along with any misunderstanding of the bible, as the Spirit gives you life, revealing the resurrected essence of what the letter was always pointing to. God was in Christ reconciling the entire world. We are in Christ reconciling the entire world. God is All in All. Now that Christ was lifted up on the cross, and even higher in the heavens, we participate in this newness of understanding that is drawing ALL to Himself. 

“When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” - Jesus

I know this is hard to understand when you look at the flesh, at the world around you still lost in its blindness, but that is why the light must shine unconditionally in your hearts! You are the light of the world. You are to uncover the light hidden in those who are asleep to help wake them up to the gift of what is already theirs in Christ!

This is all a free gift, which is not like the trespass of the knowledge tree, for what Christ has done is far more powerful. We must not view the cross through a sin consciousness, this is exactly what we are freed from! As the first human trespassed leading to the sense of condemnation for ALL, so one act of righteousness leads to the justification and life for ALL! We are not to view the cross as if we are saved and others are not, therefore condemning them with the condemnation we’ve been freed from. There is no condemnation in Christ. None. We wake them up into the freedom of what has already been done!  

Shall we then encourage people to go on sinning because of this extreme, radical, and unconditional love of God? 

Of course not! How then are we missing the point again? Do you not know that ALL have been baptized into his death and are to be united in a resurrection like his? It is time to live into that resurrection now! We have the first fruits of this reality, why then shall we eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge again? Why put up a no trespassing sign to the Good News because we think people don’t deserve it? This was never about deserving, but unconditional loving! We are not to be those who resurrect sin from the grave but are those who assist the resurrection of Christ in others! (Romans 5-9)

When you put a no trespassing sign to the Tree of Life, you show you do not yet understand all people were already put there in Christ. Christ is the Tree of Life revealed! We live according to his act of righteousness, not according to a trespass mentality by telling people they cannot eat of the Tree of Life, relegating them to our knowledge of good and evil, the law, of which we have been freed from!

“You are not under the law, unless you keep insisting on living like it, you are under grace!” - Romans 6:14

“In all of this, I am speaking in human terms due to your natural limitations of understanding the mystery.” - Romans 6:19

This is not about “cheap grace”, both those who misuse the term, and those who judge others as promoting it. This is the most expensive and lavished gift in the entire universe! Receiving it completely puts to death all ideas that we, they, or anyone, are separate from God. Jesus revealed this with his own blood! There is no other place we can find ourselves, unless we think someone is absent, especially thinking God is absent, which is impossible. Thinking in absence is the very fruit of the knowledge tree causing people to think they can run and hide from God.

“For I am convinced we are more than conquerors in God’s Love, God’s actual Essence and Nature, for I now know that nothing can separate us from the love of God, neither death nor life, nor angels, nor worldly rulers, nor demons, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height not depth, nor anything in all creation.” - Romans 8:37-39

Christ has revealed Love is the highest Reality. The cross has revealed God’s nature is completely self-giving, unconditionally loving, unconditionally forgiving, and is the substance we are made from to live in. Anything less is death and amounts to nothing, but God will even create Love out of nothing!

“God gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” - Romans 4:17

“Love is the fulfillment of everything. Besides, you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed, I Am has always been with us showing the Way.” - Romans 13:10-11

Dear Christian, we know how easy it is to say God is Unconditional love, yet hard to believe how its message is embodied in the world of pain, suffering, and evil, but this is the message of Jesus’ embodiment and cross. This is what was on full display in apparent weakness. This is the Way to life, to take up our own cross and follow this Way of Love regardless of how things look to our eyes and regardless of what is done to us. This shows we know the Way, Truth, and Life, rather than the ways of law and death. Our God goes into the deepest dysfunction to set us free from it!

There is no other message. 

“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” - 1 Cor 2:2

Rest in this Reality. 

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone wakes up to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, they find God is the one living in them and they are living in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of decision: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates people is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” - 1 John 4

“I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” - 1 John 5:13

Easter reveals the Way for everyone. We proclaim the message to all who sleep in order to wake them up to what is already done for them. To wake them to the Love that loves them before they ever realize it. While dead in their trespasses, they have been made alive in Christ. It’s only a matter of time before they realize it, why not let today be the day of salvation! Yet ALL will know, as every knee will bow to this Reality eventually, whether in this life, or the next, or the next.

So let us be those who live from eternity now. Let us be those who speak to the earth from the heavenly places where we’ve been seated in Christ. Wisdom is from above. Let ALL know where they actually reside: In God and God in them.

“God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery hidden for ages, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” - Col 1:27

Even if what we are saying is an aroma of death to some, it is really the aroma of Love for all!

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us as bound up in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.” - 2 Corinthians 14:17

This is why I do not charge for my writings, they are freely given as God is!

We understand the aroma of death is for those who misunderstand the unconditional love of God because a veil remains over their minds and hearts when they read the scriptures or filter life through the knowledge of good and evil. Their interpretation of the letter and the cross is death. Yet the message behind all scripture, regardless of its immediate context, is found in the Larger Context of the Aroma of Love being revealed on the cross. The Spirit gives the ultimate interpretation!

“Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the scriptures are read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” - 2 Corinthians 3:12-18

A veil is that which covers people from seeing Reality. It is that veil that has been removed, yet continues to cover people lost in their blindness. The Truth awakens hearts to turn towards who Christ actually is, thus seeing the veil removed. Christ has done this, so we invite ALL to the banquet!

“On this mountain the LORD of Hosts will prepare a banquet for all people, a feast of aged wine, of choice meat, of finely aged wine. On this mountain He will swallow up the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the veil that covers all nations; He will swallow up death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth.” - Isaiah 25:6-8

Go tell it on the mountain! Go tell it everywhere! Oh death where is your victory! Where is your sting! But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

“Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, and we are the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam ALL die, so in Christ ALL will be made alive.” - Romans 15:20-22

Friends, we have all died, and we will all be made alive. It’s inevitable. The message of the cross is to participate with that aliveness now. It’s to wake up all to come out of the tomb now and know what resurrection is. It is the realization that you can’t actually kill God, for even when humanity poured out its wrath on the Son (Not God pouring out his wrath), the Son and the Father forgive humanity!

Then boom, the resurrection reveals how foolish our wrath and misunderstanding is. Death cannot last. Resurrection is inevitable. The aroma of Christ fills hell and the grave, the heavens, and the earth! 

Now read the entirety of Romans 15. See how we must not regard anyone or anything according to the flesh, according to the perishable world of reason and the foolishness of human logic.

The Easter message is this: We are all moving towards immortality. 

And this is the doing of Christ that cannot be undone.

So let us practice immortality now. 

Let us practice resurrection now.

Is this too radical?

It should be.

Happy Easter!

-PH

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom EVERY family in heaven and on earth derives its existence. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may live in that power, together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses the knowledge of good and evil—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in all as in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” - Ephesians 3:14-21