Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, my God.’ ”
(Hebrews 10:5-7)
So what is so good about Good Friday?
As our COA instagram post puts it,
“If Jesus suffered and died, why is it called Good Friday?”
@COA.SG
We have all heard and read about the horrors of crucifixion. It is the most painful and cruel form of death possible. Yet Jesus did not just experience the physical torture of whip lashings and nails piercing his hands and feet, but also the mental anguish of rejection, taunts and abandonment from people. Last of all, he had to endure the spiritual agony of separation from God the Father.
Good Friday is good not because of the intense suffering that Jesus the Son of God had to go through, but because of what God has achieved on the cross for us through Christ’s sufferings. In other words, it is not the process but the result of Jesus’ sacrifice that makes Good Friday good.
Any sacrifice that is offered must make sense for it to be meaningful.
John Stott, the well-known evangelical writer puts it this way in The Cross of Christ:
“If you were to jump off the end of a pier and drown, or dash into a burning building and be burnt to death, and if your self-sacrifice had no saving purpose, you would convince me of your folly, not your love. But if I were myself drowning in the sea, or trapped in the burning building, and it was in attempting to rescue me that you lost your life, then I would indeed see love not folly in your action.”
In the same way, Jesus willingly came to earth as a man and went the way of the cross not to give up his life for nothing, but to offer his life to God as an offering for our sins. It was in the act of saving us that he paid the ultimate sacrifice – the loss of his life and alienation from God. Christ’s saving, and his passion for us in accomplishing our salvation, is what makes Good Friday good!
As we remember Good Friday today, let our hearts be filled with gratitude for what Christ has done on the cross for us.
Let us also not take his sacrifice for granted, but be willing to offer up to him the sacrifice of our lives for his purposes and glory. This may be costly but is our only suitable and right response to Jesus. As the Scriptures writes:
“And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” (2 Corinthians 5:15)
Have a meaningful Good Friday🙏