Why Is Good Friday “Good?”

BECAUSE GOD’S GOODNESS TO US IS ON MOST GLORIOUS DISPLAY IN THE CROSS OF CHRIST

Today, we mark the death of a Rabbi from Galilee who was beaten, tortured, and crucified though perfectly innocent of any crime. By all accounts, this seems like a very bad Friday, indeed. So why do we call it good? Because in the death of this man, Jesus, God in all his goodness, was giving us the greatest gift imaginable. He was giving us his Son.

God did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all (Rom 8:32). Putting him “forward as a propitiation by his blood” that his holy justice would be served and his righteous wrath would be satisfied (Rom 3:25). In love, he gave his only begotten Son so that his enemies could become his friends and enter into life with him (Rom 5:6-11). He died for us while we were still sinners so that we could become reconciled to God through him.

Good Friday is “good” because on the cross, Jesus took on all our badness so that we could come into the goodness of life with God through him (2 Cor 5:21). On the cross he took our sin, bore our curse, absorbed our wrath, suffered our penalty, and paid our debt. In exchange, he gave to us his righteous standing and status of sonship before God, set us apart for life with God, and brought us into every other blessing of the gospel. Though we weren’t looking for it and didn’t deserve it, God lavished us with all this goodness in the cross of Christ. He gave those who were the worst and deserved his worst, the very best.

There is no better news than this. Whatever else may seem ‘bad’ to us right now, would we rest in this greatest of goods today: that Jesus died for our sins.

BEHOLD THE MAN

As we celebrate God’s goodness toward us on this Good Friday, would we behold the man he put forward for us upon the cross. And beholding him afresh, would we boast in his cross and every good that has come from his broken body and flowed out of his shed blood.

For further reading on the glories of Good Friday, enjoy “Why Is Good Friday Good?” by Jon Lee.