Each year during Easter week, I try to intentionally carve out space for extra reading, thinking, meditating and praying about what Jesus accomplished for us through His death and resurrection. While I try to think well during these times, my primary goal is to stir up stronger feelings and affections. Even as the Scriptures instructs us to:

• love and serve God with all our heart and soul (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)
• be zealous for good works (Titus 2:14)
• delight ourselves in the Lord (Psalm 37:4)
• let God be the desire of our souls (Isaiah 26:8)
• rejoice and be glad (Matthew 5:12)

In a sense, I want to be wrecked again by the high price Christ paid to atone for my sins and to overflow with love for and faith in our Savior.

This year, I’ve been reading through John Piper’s short book Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die. Piper offers 50 biblical reasons why Jesus died for us. This Easter, take time to meditate on all Christ accomplished for you through His death and resurrection. May a deeper knowledge, faith and love be yours in Christ Jesus.

Christ Suffered and Died…

1. To Absorb the Wrath of God
2. To Please His Heavenly Father
3. To Learn Obedience and Be Perfected
4. To Achieve His Own Resurrection From the Dead
5. To Show the Wealth of God’s Love and Grace for Sinners
6. To Show His Own Love for Us
7. To Cancel the Legal Demands of the Law Against Us
8. To Become a Ransom for Many
9. For the Forgiveness of Our Sins
10. To Provide the Basis for Our Justification
11. To Complete the Obedience That Becomes Our Righteousness
12. To Take Away Our Condemnation
13. To Abolish Circumcision and All Rituals as the Basis of Salvation
14. To Bring Us to Faith and Keep Us Faithful
15. To Make Us Holy, Blameless and Perfect
16. To Give Us a Clear Conscience
17. To Obtain for Us All Things That Are Good for Us
18. To Heal Us from Moral and Physical Sickness
19. To Give Eternal Life to All Who Believe on Him
20. To Deliver Us From the Present Evil Age
21. To Reconcile Us to God
22. To Bring Us to God
23. So That We Might Belong to Him
24. To Give Us Confident Access to the Holiest Place
25. To Become for Us the Place Where We Meet God
26. To Bring the Old Testament Priesthood to an End
27. To Become a Sympathetic and Helpful Priest
28. To Free Us From the Futility of Our Ancestry
29. To Free Us From the Slavery of Sin
30. That We Might Die to Sin and Live to Righteousness
31. So That We Would Die to the Law and Bear Fruit for God
32. To Enable Us to Live for Christ and Not Ourselves
33. To Make His Cross the Ground of All Our Boasting
34. To Enable Us to Live by Faith in Him
35. To Give Marriage Its Deepest Meaning
36. To Create a People Passionate for Good Works
37. To Call Us to Follow His Example of Lowliness
38. To Create a Band of Crucified Followers
39. To Free Us from Bondage to the Fear of Death
40. So That We Would Be With Him Immediately After Death
41. To Secure Our Resurrection From the Dead
42. To Disarm the Rulers and Authorities
43. To Unleash the Power of God in the Gospel
44. To Destroy the Hostility Between Races
45. To Ransom People From Every Tribe and Language
46. To Gather All His Sheep From Around the World
47. To Rescue Us From Final Judgment
48. To Gain His Joy and Ours
49. So That He Would Be Crowned With Glory and Honor
50. To Show That the Worst Evil Is Meant by God for Good

Source: 50 Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die by John Piper