This week Christians around the world are remembering and celebrating the most momentous event in history – the death and resurrection of Jesus. There are endless depths to the meaning of all Jesus accomplished, and there will be much we will still have to learn in eternity. But as I reflect this Holy Week, I see three aspects of our redemption that we do well to ponder and embrace.

We in the western contemporary church are usually trained to think that the cross is about Jesus “paying the price for our sin.” Thank God for forgiveness! Hallelujah! And there are many passages in the New Testament speaking of sin and forgiveness. This is real – and glorious!

But “paying for our sins” is not the primary paradigm with which early Christians understood Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Their primary focus was on Christus Victor – Jesus gaining complete victory over the kingdom of darkness, and what that means for us today.

Our sin problem is much deeper and broader than most of us realize. There are sinful acts that we do, for which we must have forgiveness. But we also are deeply wounded. Our very nature – our DNA so to speak – has been harmed, marred. And we are in hostile enemy territory, constantly under assault by the kingdom of darkness.

You can’t repent your way out of woundedness, or heal your way out of sin. And you can’t heal or repent your way out of spiritual bondage.

If God’s goal for us is to become like Jesus, to fulfill His original design for which He created humankind in the Garden, to rule and reign in the world, perhaps the universe, with Him, we’ve got a long way to go!

This is why simply getting more information doesn’t help.

Imagine this contemporary example. Lindsey Vonn, the most decorated female alpine skier ever, suffered a devastating leg fracture while competing in the recent Olympics. Forgiveness would be like saying, “Oh, you messed up and didn’t finish the race. I’m giving you the gold medal anyway.” But that would do nothing to heal her devastating injury. And what if in her weakened state she had also been taken hostage by terrorists? That begins to picture the horrendous human situation in which Jesus found us.

And Jesus dealt with all three aspects of our problem through His life, death, and resurrection. Let’s reflect on all three.

Forgiveness for our Sin

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

We have sinned. Every one of us. It’s our very nature. We have done things that have harmed ourselves and others and broken God’s standard of righteousness. We have failed to do what we ought in loving God with our whole hearts and loving our neighbors as ourselves. All of us have erected idols in our hearts and lives and gone after lesser lovers.

And Jesus dealt with all of that on the cross. He paid our debt, a debt we could never repay. This is much more than a forensic declaration; Jesus carried it all and removed it from us “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). Thank God for forgiveness!

Our role, our “job,” in this aspect of our redemption is to repent. To turn. That’s what repent means; to stop going one way and begin going another way. Repentance has nothing to do with groveling or self-contempt; it’s simply agreeing with what God says about our condition, turning from worshiping our lesser lovers, and moving toward the only One who has always and will always love us.

Healing for our Woundedness

“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5).

Our souls are sick. Our bodies are sick. Like Lindsey Vonn and her leg injury, we need surgery, rehab, and a great deal of healing. And we cannot do that for ourselves.

If every sinful act we had ever done or ever would do was forgiven, we would still be “toast” if we did not receive healing. Forgiveness is not enough to restore us to who God created us to be. God’s goal for us has not changed; we are to fully display His image and to rule with Him for eternity. And forgiveness itself will never get us to the place where we can do that.

A large aspect of healing is the rebuilding of our neural networks, our natural responses, our very brain pathways, so that we actually do become like Jesus – fully integrated and whole, fully differentiated and unmoved by circumstances around us, and with a default response of loving our enemies.

What a tall order! Is that possible?

Our role, our “job,” in healing is to choose it and take it into our being. To keep showing up to where Jesus is doing His work, and to keep saying Yes to what the Spirit wants to deal with in our stories, our hearts, our very being.

Deliverance from Spiritual Bondage

“He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (Colossians 2:15).

“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

Not everything is spiritual warfare; we need forgiveness and healing. But without some usable perspective on the cosmic war we are living in, nothing much makes sense. For first 1000 years of the church, Christus Victor, Christ as victorious over the kingdom of darkness, was the primary understanding the church had of what Jesus came to do and what He accomplished.

Jesus coming into this world was an invasion into enemy territory, to confront the “strong man” (see Luke 11:21-22), to undo all the stealing, killing, and destroying the thief has been doing (see John 10:10), and to win human hearts back to recognizing and falling forever in love with our divine Lover and experiencing the ecstatic intimacy with Him for eternity that we were made for.

Our role, our “job,” in this warfare is to stand. It’s not going out swashbuckling against the devil; Jesus already fought that battle – and won! By taking your stand firmly on God’s side and using your spiritual weapons to stand there, you become a living advertisement for the gospel – that God is who He says He is, that the devil has been defeated, and that Jesus wins.

Living in Easter

Because of Holy Week, because of Good Friday and Easter, we can experience all aspects of redemption; forgiveness, healing, and deliverance.

So, turn from whatever is wrong, choose healing, and stand in victory.

That’s what you can celebrate this upcoming Resurrection Day. He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Your Turn: Which of these three aspects of our redemption – forgiveness, healing, or deliverance – have you focused most on? Which aspect do you most need to experience from Jesus now?  Leave a comment below.

Want more? On the podcast this week I unpack these ideas a bit more personally. Listen or watch.

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• You can’t repent your way out of brokenness. You can’t heal your way out of sin. And you can’t repent or heal your way out of spiritual bondage. We need all three aspects of our redemption: forgiveness, healing, and deliverance.    Tweet that.

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