There was pain. There was suffering. There was fear. There was confusion. There was agony. There was shouting. There was uncertainty. There was grief. And there was death.
All of these things were overwhelmingly present amongst the crowd as Jesus Christ hung on a wooden cross some 2,000 years ago on the very first “Good Friday.” So the question is:
How could any of that be “good”?
How could fear, pain, suffering, uncertainty, grief, and even death be classified as “good”? Few, if any, of us would raise our hands or voluntarily sign up to feel those feelings. Truth be told, most of us believe those things are the opposite of good.
But “good” came when Jesus – in His final breath – uttered the words,
In that moment, what was once scary and devastating was finished. Jesus took upon Himself the sin of the entire world and broke down the barrier that separated humanity from God. At that moment, Jesus’ work was done. His mission accomplished.
Our sin made us worthy of death, but Jesus came to pay the price for our sins. He lived a sinless life and willingly laid down His life on that cross so those of us who believe could experience eternity with God.
Jesus knew there was no way around it – salvation could only come through the cross. Even as Jesus hung on the cross, He could have easily saved Himself. But…
Jesus’ mission was to save everyone BUT Himself!
So when He spoke those final words and breathed His last breath, what appeared to be evil ended up actually being for our good!
The cross is a reminder that God loves us more than anything, and He demonstrated it by sending His Son to pay our price.
This is why Good Friday is Good!
This post was written by the Faithbox Team. To learn more about Faithbox, visit our website.