3 min
Easter Series | Good Friday: Where is the good? Serene Truth Resource
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- Cristianismo
2023 Easter Series
Written + read by Nokuthula Lumba
1 Peter 2:24 (ESV)
He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.
The puzzling nature of the word “good.”
One would expect that a day such as this would in the very least be labelled “bad”. Where is the good in Good Friday? Is it in the betrayal of Jesus (John 18:2-6)? Is it in the way Peter denies Jesus (Mark 14: 53-54, 66-72)? Does it take its root from the way the soldier’s mock Jesus and cast lots for his garments? Or is it in those nails that pierced through our Saviour’s skin.
A crucifixion was considered the most humiliating of deaths. Reserved specifically for the worst of criminals. Christ was given a crown of thorns, beaten and mocked. And His death on the cross likely came by asphyxiation or suffocation. Why was the sinless Saviour meant to suffer the penalty for crimes he did not commit by such a gruesome death? And to top it all off He felt God’s abandonment as He turned His face away from His only Son who hung on that cross bearing the full weight of humanity’s sin and God’s wrath for it. The wages of sin is death.
But again you ask, where is the good?
Romans 5:8 (ESV)
But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Where else could greater love be found than on that rugged cross? The sinless lamb of God bore the wrath meant for us upon Himself, that we might be reconciled to God. The debt has been paid once for all. The good is in this sacrifice that was made for undeserving people who have done nothing to warrant such pure love.
D.A. Carson wrote, “It was not nails that held Jesus to that wretched cross; it was His unqualified, resolution, out of love for His Father to do his Father’s will- and it was His love for sinners like me”
Your cross O LORD taught me to see
That though I fail you every day
Your steadfast love will not fail me
But gladly bears my sins away
©2023 Nokuthula Lumba | Forthwith Records. All rights reserved.
2023 Easter Series
Written + read by Nokuthula Lumba
1 Peter 2:24 (ESV)
He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.
The puzzling nature of the word “good.”
One would expect that a day such as this would in the very least be labelled “bad”. Where is the good in Good Friday? Is it in the betrayal of Jesus (John 18:2-6)? Is it in the way Peter denies Jesus (Mark 14: 53-54, 66-72)? Does it take its root from the way the soldier’s mock Jesus and cast lots for his garments? Or is it in those nails that pierced through our Saviour’s skin.
A crucifixion was considered the most humiliating of deaths. Reserved specifically for the worst of criminals. Christ was given a crown of thorns, beaten and mocked. And His death on the cross likely came by asphyxiation or suffocation. Why was the sinless Saviour meant to suffer the penalty for crimes he did not commit by such a gruesome death? And to top it all off He felt God’s abandonment as He turned His face away from His only Son who hung on that cross bearing the full weight of humanity’s sin and God’s wrath for it. The wages of sin is death.
But again you ask, where is the good?
Romans 5:8 (ESV)
But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Where else could greater love be found than on that rugged cross? The sinless lamb of God bore the wrath meant for us upon Himself, that we might be reconciled to God. The debt has been paid once for all. The good is in this sacrifice that was made for undeserving people who have done nothing to warrant such pure love.
D.A. Carson wrote, “It was not nails that held Jesus to that wretched cross; it was His unqualified, resolution, out of love for His Father to do his Father’s will- and it was His love for sinners like me”
Your cross O LORD taught me to see
That though I fail you every day
Your steadfast love will not fail me
But gladly bears my sins away
©2023 Nokuthula Lumba | Forthwith Records. All rights reserved.
3 min