Easter. Resurrection Sunday. The culmination of Passion Week. Without question, the most important day in all of human history. But how can we honestly say that? How can we believe that one day in history exceeds all others in terms of significance and importance?

Admittedly, there have been numerous days of momentous importance in the scope of human history. Days of national significance; days of international significance; days of such immense significance that they altered the course of world history. However, in comparison with this one day – resurrection Sunday – all other days of significance fade into nothing more than blips on the timeline of humanity. No other event in the history of the world comes close in comparison.

So, you might ask, what makes this day so important, so significant? The answer is so simple, yet so profound. It is on this day, resurrection Sunday, that one man, Jesus Christ, did what no other man had ever done. He descended into the darkness of physical death, into the realm of spiritual death, and faced the punishment of eternal death. Think with me about the three-fold death of Jesus for a few moments.

First, let’s think about His physical death. Biblical as well as secular sources verify the fact of Jesus’ death. He was falsely accused of blasphemy by His enemies. They asserted that Jesus claimed He was God, an assertion that would be totally absurd if it had not been true. Jesus, was, is, and always will be, in fact, God. The enemies of Jesus denied Jesus’ deity, and therefore concluded that He was guilty of blasphemy and worthy of death. Thus, His physical death is a matter of record.

Second, think with me for a moment about His spiritual death. God the Father and God the Son (Jesus) had enjoyed unbroken, intimate fellowship until the very moment of Jesus’ death. It was on the cross that Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” It was in that moment, for the very first time, that the Father and Son were separated, as Jesus experienced the anguish of spiritual separation from His Father.

Yet, that was still not the most awful part of this experience. From eternity past God the Father had made a decree that sin would result in death. The decree would include physical death, spiritual death, and eternal death. In order for Jesus to pay the penalty decreed by His Father, He would have to suffer the full brunt of death: physical, spiritual and eternal. The difficulty we have in understanding this is that we think of the word “eternal” in terms of time. Yet, God exists outside of time, and therefore is not subject to time. The death of Jesus met the requirement for eternal death in that His separation from the Father, and His descent into hell, paid the penalty imposed by the Father for those who sinned, which is each and every one of us.

Therefore, resurrection Sunday is without question the most important day in all of human history because it was on that day Jesus won the ultimate victory over death, hell and the grave. And what makes this so unbelievable is that He did it for us! For me; for you! We can be the recipients of the amazing, saving grace of God because of what Jesus did on resurrection Sunday over 2000 years ago.

Don’t miss out on the true meaning of Easter. Let Jesus’ victory become your victory by placing your faith and trust in Him as the One who faced and conquered death so that you might have life.