Fast - Day Five
Good Friday, April 10, 2009
“It Is Finished.”
John 19:28-30 ESV
28) After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), "I thirst." A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
My fast is not finished, but Jesus’ work for salvation ends today. Today we ‘celebrate’ (or observe) Good Friday. Why is it “Good?” What “good” happened on this day? It was a brutal, bloody murder of an innocent man who was unjustly accused, unjustly convicted, and unjustly condemned to an excruciating death. Crucifixion was so horrible, they invented a word to describe the agony of it: excruciating, which comes from excruciate (which means “to crucify.) So it’s been said that excruciating means “from the cross” (or “of the cross”). How is that “good?”
I actually heard this question from another Christian, who has been a Christian for a long time. “I don’t know why they call it Good Friday, nothing Good happened on this day.”
It is good because the Gospel means “Good News.” The Gospel is this: we sinned against God, and God is Just so evil must be punished. But God is Merciful, and Good, and so He came into human history as a man, Jesus, the Christ (Messiah), who endured every temptation we can think of but never sinned; and so Jesus was a perfect man, the only man capable of being the pure and spotless sacrifice that God is worthy to receive to atone for our sins, to pay the penalty we owe. God put our deserved punishment on Him (penal substitutionary atonement). And He stands in our place, and suffers for us, taking our sin, and justifying us to stand before God and say, “I am blameless and clean because of Your Son.”
It is good because the Gospel was fulfilled. On the cross, Jesus said, “It is finished.” He still had work to do, but the work of salvation was complete. And those who believe in Him, who respond to Him with love and believe Jesus is God, can spend eternity with Him after our own earthly deaths...because today He died for us.
And yet, He GAVE His life.
John 10:17-18 ESV
17) For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father."
We murdered Him, but He did not resist and gave up His life willingly.
And as much as I want to shout and praise Him today (and I will), I reflect primarily upon His death, and my part in it. Because I sent Him to that cross. It was my sin that put him there. And so today, I reflect on the excruciating agony He endured, and my role in causing that, and the paradox that it is comforting and makes me want to praise Him.
Today’s song is by Kutless.
PASSION
By: Kutless
Within my mind's eye,
flickering from the past
come images that terrify and calm:
a paradox in me.
Nail pierced hands, they run with blood,
a splitting brow forced by the thorns,
His face is writhing with the pain,
yet it's comforting to me
He chose to give it all.
Jesus endured the pain,
paying a debt I owed and creating
a paradox in me
Nail pierced hands, they run with blood,
a splitting brow forced by the thorns,
His face is writhing with the pain,
yet it's comforting to me
And in my heart I know that
You're the only one
who could have came and died, a sacrifice,
as You're God's only Son.
Nail pierced hands, they run with blood,
a splitting brow forced by the thorns,
His face is writhing with the pain,
yet it's comforting to me
