SPEAKER_02

But the the the beautiful story that you're talking about, where you know the most powerful being comes down and becomes a cell, becomes one of the, you know, one of the weak, one of the fallen in order to save them, that's an incredibly nice way to package it, but that's I I have, I guess, a completely different take on it, uh because the story is a little different. The story starts in Genesis where God creates everybody and then it all screws up, and then he tries to fix it and it screws up, and he tries to fix it and it screws up. It's this parade, it's this comedy of errors. And then you get to a spot where God, who's been demanding that we slaughter animals and burn them because he's likes barbecue, is now decided that he's going to come down and take human form and sacrifice himself to himself for a weekend to fix everything for everybody. That's not that's blood magic. That is sacrificial blood magic thinking and nothing to do about human value.

SPEAKER_01

Who actually believes that? What you what what you just described as a summary of Christianity? I mean, who actually believes that? How could you not? Besides Matt Delahunty, who believes that? Well, uh, we will see in this video how uh Easter is not God sacrificing himself to himself for a weekend, blood magic to fix everything for everyone. Uh that is not how Christians think about these things. And if we want to straw man Christianity as so eminently rejectable, well, there is no surprise if we then end up rejecting Christianity. But that is not the story, and we'll see why Easter is nothing to do with what Matt Dillahunty says here, and we'll see it in four, three, two, and one. Uh I've got four points for you, and we'll rattle through them as quick as we can to make sure that you have a happy Easter, a happy Easter that makes sense not only of the Christian faith, but makes sense of life. My name's Glenn Scrivener from Speak Life. We like to see all things through the lens of Jesus. Give the channel a subscribe if you'd like to put on some Jesus lenses and take a look around, at least for a little bit. Now, Matt Dillahunty says quite commonly that Easter is about God sacrificing himself to himself for a weekend to fix everything for everyone. Uh, we're gonna have a look at why that is not the Easter story. And in particular, we're gonna show how Easter is not a lousy weekend for the Son of God. That what Jesus endured on the cross is not him dipping his toe into death and then going, yikes, that was painful, and then coming back this side to tell us all about his one weekend of sacrifice. Easter is a totally different prospect. And here are the four stories I want to tell that will help you wrap your head around what Easter really is. The first of the four stories is a very simple one. Jesus is like the needle that pierces through the black shroud of death and comes out the other side. Isaiah says that there is a black shroud across the nations. Isaiah chapter 25 says that this shroud enfolds all the nations. It's like there's this weighted blanket that is on top of everything you ever see and say and do. We are constantly in grave clothes. There is a shroud that swallows everything that we do. Jesus, though, is the one who pierces through death and comes out the other side. He doesn't go into death and then come back this side. He pierces through death and comes out into incorruptible immortality on the far side of death. And we, if we are connected to Jesus by faith, we are like thread that gets pulled through death and out the other side. That is the first of the four stories. The second of the four stories is imagine that a storm has blown through an apple orchard and left in the middle of the apple orchard the next day is a single tree that has had all its leaves blown off, all its apples have been blown off, and it stands gnarled, weather beaten, but undefeated. Every other tree has been blown over. This one tree has weathered the storm. Now you might drive past that apple orchard and you look at that one tree and you think, oh, that tree didn't really feel the storm. But of course you'd be mistaken, that tree has felt the effects of the wind more than every other tree that was blown down. Maybe another tree got blown down in the first half an hour, and it did not feel the full weight of the storm. The one tree that is left standing after enduring that hurricane, that one tree has experienced the storm more than every other. And Jesus Christ going through the storm of death and coming out the other side. This was not one lousy weekend for the Son of God. He felt the storm of sin, death, wrath, and hell more than anyone else ever has. This is not just a lousy weekend for the Son of God. That's the second story. Here's the third story. Do you know the story of Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese explorer who in 1497 sailed down the west coast of Africa and rounded what had been called the Cape of Storms? Because the storms around the southern tip of Africa were deadly. Every other ship had been dashed to pieces on the Cape of Storms. But in 1497, Vasco da Gama pioneers a path through the Cape of Storms and up the other side towards the Spice Land of India. And because he pioneered that route towards the Spice Land, he enriched both himself and his whole kingdom. Now you might say that Vasco da Gama didn't really feel the Cape of Storms the way the others had. Of course you would be wrong. Vasco da Gama and the other three ships that were with him felt those storms more than everybody else had. For some, the Cape of Storms put pay to their ship within a matter of hours. For Vasco da Gama, he felt the full force of the Cape of Storms. And because he pioneered a path through it and out the other side, he had experienced the full weight of the storms, but he had also enriched both himself and his entire kingdom because he had gone through the storms and out the other side. This is who Jesus is, the great Vasco da Gama, the pioneer who felt the sin, wrath, curse, death, and hell of the cross. And felt those forces more than anyone has or anyone ever will, because he passed through those things and out the other side, not only to enrich himself, but to enrich his whole kingdom. That's the third of four stories. And here's a fourth story to tell you. About 10 years ago, Speak Life put out Cannonball. It's an animated story about what humanity is like. Here we are, born sinking into quicksand.

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Born sinking into quicksand, a stick line, the pit time. From the first time, the first line down a black hole grave, a black hole cave, but nothing to say.

SPEAKER_01

All our lives, all our greatest experiences and accomplishments, they end in the grave. It's like we are being pulled inexorably towards the pit. Everything we ever do is headed for death. And we cry for salvation. Is anyone up there?

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Does anyone know? Do they hear us down? Will anyone rescue and lift us down?

SPEAKER_01

And the answer of heaven is not to send a rescue rope down to us so that we might dip our toe in death and then be yanked back up again. No, the answer of heaven is not a rescue rope, the answer of heaven is a cannonball. This cannonball from heaven is Jesus, who goes down into the deepest pit and experiences the pit at its worst, blasts a hole through death, and comes out the other side. Hey, last year someone met Jesus because of a four-pound Facebook ad, and we need your help to do it again in 2026. There is something strange happening right now. People are searching for Jesus again, but when they look, they often find stuff that is confusing or shallow or downright misleading. So we created 321 as a free online introduction to Christianity that meets seekers where they are. In just the past two years, more than 35,000 people have signed up online, and many more people have done the course in person. But the best part, lives are changing. Stories like Michael's get me every time. He just watched some really disturbing news online, the kind that makes you question everything. Having opened Facebook, just scrolling like we all do, and he saw an ad for 321, it felt like a sign from God. So he took the course. Now he's reading the Bible, he's growing in faith, his whole direction has changed. And here's the crazy part: it costs just four pounds to show him that ad. Four pounds. That's all it took to put the message that led him to Jesus right in front of him. Stories like Michael's are happening again and again because this generation is more open than we think. The soil is ready. But moments like this don't stay open forever. So this Easter, we're asking 100 people to step in and help us reach more seekers like Michael. It only costs four pounds to show Michael that ad that led him to Jesus. So just think what you could make possible with 20 pounds a month. More people could encounter Jesus through your generosity. And right now at Easter 2026, every gift is being doubled for the first year. So if this story moves you, this is your moment to help someone else find the hope they're already searching for. This is a moment to sow in faith and trust God for the harvest. Will you be one of the hundred? Will you give for gospel growth? If you give before Easter Monday, your donation will be doubled by a generous match funder for the first year. So your 20 pounds would be worth 40. Visit speaklife.org.uk slash growth to give now. That's speaklife.org.uk slash growth. Thank you and God bless. Now that raises the question of the three, because Matt Delahunty doesn't understand. It's God sacrificing God to God? Like how does that even work? Well, actually, the truth of three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is at the heart of that answer. Let's check out what happened in the debate. Did God come down and become human, sacrifice himself? God the Son became God our brother. He's still God. God the Son.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

God our brother.

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_01

But Sun the Son of the Him.

SPEAKER_02

Are you a non-Trinitarian? Sorry?

SPEAKER_01

That that's no precisely because I'm Trinitarian. God the Son became God our brother, full of the Holy Spirit, in order to unite us as family back to the same source, back to the Father. This is basic Trinitarian theology.

SPEAKER_02

Did God not sacrifice Himself?

SPEAKER_01

The Father sent the Son.

SPEAKER_02

But they're the same.

SPEAKER_01

They're not the same.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, they are definitely trying to do it. They are one, right? They are definitely part of the tribe. Are they one, though?

SPEAKER_01

The Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. So that they are united on a level that is far superior to ours. But they are not the same. Why does there need to be a blood sacrifice? And then we move on to that issue. And so the three in one is at the heart of Easter, actually. Who is this Jesus who's dying on the cross? And my claim is that here is the Maker taking responsibility for his handiwork. God did not send a lesser being to deal with sin. The Father sent the Son filled with the Holy Spirit. He is God from God, light from light, very God from very God. They are one, they are united at the most profound and eternal level. But Jesus is not a lesser being, even as he is a distinct person. The three is at the heart of actually understanding the cross, understanding Easter. The one who dies is our Maker. But the one who dies is also man. And that's the truth of two that Matt and I get into. Remember, Matt's big question is, what's going on with all this blood sacrifice? But they are not. Why does there need to be a blood sacrifice? Well, because to to walk away from God, to be disconnected from life, means death, right? And in the Bible, the bl the life is in the blood. Well, who made that rule? It's it's the nature of the case, don't you think? If God is life, wouldn't God have done it differently? Well, here if God is the source of life and we reject life, what does that leave us with? Death. If God wants to unite with us in our death, what will he have to take on?

SPEAKER_02

Our death. So first of all, you're speaking kind of metaphorically here, because I'm not rejecting life. I'm rejecting a proposition that there's some eternal life because I don't see sufficient evidence for it. If there is, cool.

SPEAKER_01

Just interestingly, on that, I I think Christians and non-Christians get this wrong all the time. When we talk about eternal life, we often think it's just I've got a golden ticket to Willy Wonka's factory, and that's what eternal life is. Christians and non-Christians get this wrong all the time. Eternal life is the life of God. It's the life of the three. It's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit united together in love from before the foundation of the world and on into eternity. Eternal life is that. Eternal life is God's life. And therefore, to reject God is of course to reject eternal life. It is, of course, to reject this life of mutual, indwelling love, right? Of course rejecting God means rejecting life. Christians and non-Christians, I think, wrap themselves up in all sorts of complexities that they don't need to when we just recognize it. Eternal life that we're talking about is not some abstract pleasures in the ninth dimension. It's it is to share in the life of God. Therefore, to reject God, this God, is to reject eternal life. Anyway, let's keep going.

SPEAKER_02

God the this notion of why does there need to be a blood sacrifice at all? I uh at some point we were running around killing animals and doing it because God loved the smell of burning flesh.

SPEAKER_01

Literally, it says that. So we're back at why were there sacrifices in the Old Testament? And the answer really is that those Old Testament sacrifices were a pageantry, a multimedia presentation that was teaching you a deeper truth about life. If God is life, then man has rejected God, and therefore man is now dwelling in death. To reject God is to reject life and to be in death. What is God going to have to do if God is going to unite with us in our death and bring us into his life? Well, he's going to have to take that life on himself and therefore to take that death on himself. It's the nature of the case, it's not a rule, it's not this arbitrary thing where God thinks, I know, let's have this weird blood magic that happened one Friday. It is literally the nature of the case that if man is separate from God, then God to enter into our life means to enter into our separation, and therefore something like what happened on Good Friday is the nature of the case if God is going to redeem at all. And this is the truth of the two. There is a two-ness to this world, a splitness to this world, and life in separation from God is well summarized, well represented by Adam. Adam is life as it is in its disconnection from God. Who is Jesus? He is the second Adam. The number two, he is the representative of life as it's meant to be. And the second of the three becomes the second of humanity. Jesus becomes the second Adam to take on himself our death and curse. Who is the one on the cross? He is man. He is our maker, and he is man. But then the final truth that we need to consider is that he is mine. Jesus is not just maker, he's not just man, he's also mine. And this is the truth of the one. To be in union with Jesus means that he takes my sin and death and wrath and curse and hell, so that I, in union with him, can have his life and righteousness and eternity and immortality and incorruptible joy. It is union with Jesus that makes sense of the whole thing. Here's how I try to explain the Old Testament sacrifices to man.

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Aaron Ross Powell What is it about killing something that God needs you to do in order for God to forgive you? Because if God is the creator of everything, including the rules of how all this works, couldn't he have come up with rules that don't involve killing things?

SPEAKER_01

Well, I mean, first of all, the priest was many other things, but he was also your butcher, right? Um you you would eat the lamb after you sacrificed it. You would eat the the bull. You know, we we we still go to the butcher, we still sacrifice our animals. And in that sacrifice, even today, in a very secular sense, uh the death of that animal means our life. In in in that in that very literal sense, okay? That animal dies so that we might live. And it's just that in the Old Testament, it was also teaching a spiritual dimension. On top of the barbecues that we all love. You're from Texas, I'm from Australia, we love barbecues, okay. The vegans are gonna hate us. It was a great conversation with Cosmic Specs Skeptic, by the way. Um on top of that butchering, there was also a spiritual lesson being taught. And the and the spiritual lesson being taught was not that the blood of this bull is paying for your sin, but that but that there is a Messiah who is coming who will pay for your sins. Because no, the blood of goats and bulls cannot pay for sin, but God can take responsibility for his handiwork. And God did take responsibility for his handiwork, and it was his death that actually paid for sin. That's that that's the story. That's the story. God is taking responsibility for his handiwork. The Son of the Father becomes our brother, he takes on himself all our sin and curse and wrath and death and hell, passes it through that furnace of affliction, and he experiences it at its worst. He experiences it more than anyone else experiences it. And he comes out and he says, You've been one with Adam, be one with me. In the Old Testament, you would have to lean on your sacrifice, put your hands on the head of the substitute, lean on that animal that dies in your place. And Jesus says, lean on me, identify with me, be one with me. And if we give him our sin, he will give us his righteousness. If we give him our darkness, he will give us his light. If we give him our disconnection, he will give us his love. If we give him our sin, he will give us salvation. Adopt it into the life of the three. One with Jesus, we get his father as our father, his spirit as our spirit, his future as our future. And it's all because he has pioneered that path through death at Easter. Hallelujah. He is the needle passing through the black shroud of death. He is the apple tree who has felt the storm at its worst, but it's still standing. He is Vasco da Gama pioneering a path through the storms and out to the spice lands of eternity. He is the cannonball shot from the heart of heaven to blast a hole through death. Come out the other side and say, I am the door. Come to me. Do you know Jesus like that? There's a great way of getting to know Jesus like that. Go to 321course.com and you can learn all about the three, the two, and the one. It's life according to Jesus. What a great thing to do this Easter if you're a Christian or not, to immerse yourself in that story yet again. Well, if you've got this far in the video, surely it deserves a like and a share around the place and do subscribe to us so that we can catch you on the next one. God bless.