Is Good Friday Actually Good?

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Today was a day divinely appointed. A day like none other. A day in which our Lord and Savior willingly laid His life down so that we might truly live!

It was a day signified by horrific brutality – a callous response to life, to His life, to the ONE who was from the beginning, to the GIVER of Life!

“Jesus’ totally naked body was flaunted in humiliation before a watching world. His flesh was ripped to shreds; His body was bruised from head to toe; He had to heave His body upward for every breath He breathed; and His nervous system sent constant signals of excruciating pain to His brain. Blood drenched Jesus’ face and streamed from His hands, His feet, and from the countless cuts and gaping wounds the scourging had left upon His body. In reality, the Cross of Jesus Christ was a disgusting, repulsive, nauseating, stomach-turning sight – so entirely different from the attractive crosses people wear today as a part of their jewelry or attire… If we don’t deliberately choose to meditate on what He went through, we will never fully appreciate the price He paid for us… When we fail to remember what it cost Jesus to save us, we tend to treat our salvation cheaply and with disregard.” -Rick Renner, Sparkling Gems from the Greek, April 24

He endured the full weight of our sin, even refusing ANY drink that would even minimally diffuse the immense pain He was under. His sacrifice was ONCE, for all. It was a finished work, a complete work. There was NO lack in what He laid down. He was the PERFECT sacrifice.

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live [together] with Him, because we know [the self-evident truth] that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin [ending its power and paying the sinner’s debt] once and for all; and the life that He lives, He lives to [glorify] God [in unbroken fellowship with Him]. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin [and your relationship to it broken], but alive to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.… Rom 6:8-11 AMP (emphasis mine)

The immensity of what was before Him was experienced in its entirety. He was distressed to the point of sweating blood and yet… Fully man AND fully God, He knew. He KNEW He would be raised up. He KNEW He would conquer death. And yet…

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And taking with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee [James and John], He began to be grieved and greatly distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, so that I am almost dying of sorrow. Stay here and stay awake and keep watch with Me.” And after going a little farther, He fell face down and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible [that is, consistent with Your will], let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” Matt 26:27-39 AMP

THREE times He asked the Father the same thing. ‘IF it is possible…but not MY will but YOURS be done.’

Three, shelosh[f.], sheloshah [m.] means harmony, new life, and completeness…Sometimes three is used as an emphatic Semitic triplet to describe the intensity of something. It’s not just holy. It’s holy, holy, holy…However, typically, three means something complete and good. Satan does often like to take something good from God and corrupt it, much like the number three and the concept of the Trinity. -Hope Bolinger, “What Does the Number 3 Signify in the Bible?” Crosswalk

Holiness was wrapped up in the sacrifice, in the willingness, in the completeness of His surrender.

Fully man… Anyone who is human knows the struggle in distress. We can KNOW what the Lord is asking of us, KNOW what He is teaching us…and yet still ASK, ‘Lord, if it’s possible, if I can learn this thing any other way…if you could use something else to bring about the same end result…’ The God of the Universe! And yet, in order to fully experience and understand our weakness and temptations – He chose to come live amongst us and become like His creation, one of us.

For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize and understand our weaknesses and temptations, but One who has been tempted [knowing exactly how it feels to be human] in every respect as we are, yet without [committing any] sin. Heb 4:15

For the joy set before Him He endured the cross. He CHOSE it. He CHOSE us!

So then, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us, too, put aside every impediment — that is, the sin which easily hampers our forward movement — and keep running with endurance in the contest set before us, looking away to the Initiator and Completer of that trusting, Yeshua — who, in exchange for obtaining the joy set before him, endured execution on a stake as a criminal, scorning the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Yes, think about him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you won’t grow tired or become despondent. Heb 12:1-3 CJB (emphasis is mine)

Friends, He paid the ultimate penalty, paid the FULL PRICE OF THE RANSOM for you and me. The Master of the Universe decided that YOU were worth the price to send His only Son so that whosoever should believe in Him would NOT perish but have ETERNAL LIFE! Eternity is MARKED on our hearts! Because HE LIVES, we can face tomorrow. Because tomorrow is not guaranteed. BUT we are forever His when we can on HIM as our Lord and Savior! Eternity is ours to behold!

His majesty beckons us in. SO many don’t recognize Jesus as being Messiah, but the reality is that His payment shook the heavenlies – a literal earthquake as He breathed His last breath. When it was finished, the earth shook as it felt the loss!

It was complete. It was finished.

Let’s live today with the reality that we once were dead in our sin and transgression but NOW we are ALIVE in Christ!

In the same way, consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God, by your union with the Messiah Yeshua. Rom 6:11 CJB