5 Good Things about Good Friday

1.       On Good Friday, 2009, my Joy-Ride became mine.  In the five years that have since passed, we have traveled many roads together…nearly 50,000 miles, 20 states, 1 province and 5 trips from the border state of Texas to another (Canadian) border state (New Hampshire/Maine).  Our trips have been quite the Joy-ride, filled with bumps, hills, plains, valleys and mountains but it’s been neat experiencing this adventure with my faithful car.  I’ve always said home is wherever my car is parked and my pillow is laid.

2.       Now to switch gears to the Good Friday that took place nearly 2,000 years ago.  Christ’s march to the cross at Calvary was one of the most decisive turning points in human history.  It changed the way we see God, the way we relate to God, how we can know God and where God lives.  Instead of being isolated in the holy of holies where only the high priest could meet with God, Christ paved the way to have an individual relationship with the one true God in which He makes our bodies, His temple (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), and the priest no longer has to mediate for us because Jesus Christ Himself is our Mediator.  1 Timothy 2:5-6 “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”

3.       Though it is called Good Friday, it had nothing to do with me.  There is nothing good in me.  Romans 3:10 says “There is none righteous, no not one..”  Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  If I’m such a failure, what’s the Good News about?  Well, though Romans 6:23 starts out with “the wages of sin is death” it finishes with “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  And only He could pay that price because though I’m not perfect, He was, so His payment was suffice.  Hebrews 9:22 says that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness and in Jesus shed blood, He was finally able to say “It is finished.” (John 19:30)

4.         Because of what Christ did on the cross, taking on my sin and shame, I can be forgiven and restored in right relation with Him.  2 Corinthians 5: 17-19 says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.  Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” 

5.       So much good comes from utter brokenness.  Through Christ’s broken body, I can break free from my enslavement to sin and the flesh and be called His.  It so often takes brokenness to be healed.  Romans 6:6-7 says “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.”  Galatians 2:20 says “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  Through brokenness there is a way to freedom.

What about you?  Have you been broken before?  Broken over the wretchedness of this world?  Broken over the weight of your own sin and guilt?  Well, may I invite you, this Good Friday, to hear of the Good News of Jesus.  That He came, He lived, He loved, and then He died, not for any wrong He had done, but because of His great mercy, He saved us sinners by paying the debt of our sin that we could not bear, and replacing our shame with His coat of righteousness (Titus 3:5).  Have you received this gift yet? When Jesus died on that cross conquering death, He did not stay dead, but rather He rose again conquering sin and death.  And someday He is coming again to redeem His children and bring them Home (John 14: 2-3).  Will He call you His own? 

Acts 16: 30-31

“What must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved”

Until next time,

In Christ,

Joy Lynn