How can Good Friday be ‘good’?

 How can Good Friday be ‘good’?

How can Good Friday be good when there was a worst kind of misjustice carried out and an innocent person was put to a cruel death? Many do not know that it was God the Father who sent Jesus intentionally to the cross (Isaiah 53:5). Jesus voluntarily came forward to take up the rescue mission. Jesus's death was not an assassination. It was a voluntary death (Galatians 1:4).

Why did Jesus die on the cross?

According to God's holy and just nature, evil or sin had to be punished. But God also being full of selfless love and deep compassion promised that one day he would send someone to take the punishment - for all evil, in all people, of all generations, once and for all. Without exception we all have sinned (Romans 3:23). The wages of sin is death. Sin brings us under extreme anger and judgment of God (Ephesians 2:1-3). Death is certain to all. Each one is answerable to God individually (Ezekiel 18:20). Without shedding of the blood there is no remission of sins (Hebrews 9:22). Sacrifices of animals cannot take away the sins of people (Hebrews 10:3-4). Jesus is the sinless ‘lamb of God’ that takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). 

God did not abandon us. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. While we are yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins (Hebrews 10:11-12). 

He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit (Romans 8: 3-4).

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous one for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the body, but made alive by the Spirit (1 Peter 3:18). He paid the price and set us free (Mark 10:45). He removed the anger of God and brought us peace with God (1 John 2:2). Now there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

God’s redemptive plan:

 In Genesis 3, there is a story of Adam and Eve. They were tempted by 

Satan and ate the fruit of which they were warned by God not to eat. They realized they were naked. They made for themselves coverings with leaves. That was not good enough for them. 

God made garments of skin and covered them (Genesis 3:21). That means God had to kill an innocent animal to provide coverings for them. God sent Jesus who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 1:30). 

This points to what Christ did on the cross. He became sin for us, took our punishment, died in our place, so that we are covered by his righteousness.In Genesis 3:15 God said to Satan, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.” On Good Friday Jesus crushed the head of Satan by taking our sins and nailing them to the cross (Colossians 2:14). Now, Satan can no longer have a claim on us or blackmail us. Final crushing of Satan’s head will take place in the future (Revelation 20:10). Good Friday is good for us because it is the day God through Jesus Christ rescued us, redeemed us, reclaimed us, and set us free from the curse of sin and control of Satan. Jesus emerged as a conquering King. 

Impact:

• Christ defeated Satan (Satan’s head is crushed) - Revelation 20:10; under Jesus’s feet . 1 Cor 15:25; under our feet - Romans 16-20

• Through his death, Jesus conquered death: 1 Corinthians 15:55

• The veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom, signifying that we have access to God through Christ: 1 Timothy 2:5; Mark 15:38

• Animal sacrifice for sins is no longer needed: Hebrews 10:3-4; Ephesians 1:7

• Our sins were placed onto Christ and nailed to the cross. We are forgiven and set free: Colossians 2:13-14

• Christ paid the price by taking God’s 

judgement upon himself and appeased the anger of God: 1 John 2:2

• Jesus set people free from fear of death with the promise of an eternal life in His 

presence: Hebrews 2:14-15 

• Salvation is open to all because Jesus was slain, with his blood he has purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation: Revelation 5:8-10