Skip to main content

Good Friday: "And God Said It Was Very Good"


In the Beginning Jesus created everything with Father and Spirit (John 1:3, Genesis 1:27) and He said, "It was Good." There were seven days, that God The Trinity said, "It is Good." (). One of those days was made good again, Friday, when God who hade made the day and being in human flesh, died on a cross for all mankind (2 Corinthians 5:15) and those who believe in Jesus will have eternal life (John 6:40, Romans 10:9-10). That day two thousand and seventeen years ago was a Good Day, when propitiation and atonement for sins of all people was achieved, "And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins." (Romans 3:22-25). Today we celebrate this glorious good day, thanking our Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross. Good Friday isn't the end, For He is Risen and we celebrate the Resurrection on Sunday, but Friday is Good because God who is Good (Mark 10:18) and made all good things (Genesis 1:31, John 1:3, Colossians 1:16) made us good through His blood and death.

When God saw what He made He said, "It was very good." (Genesis 1:31). In same respect, we can say God who formed man in His Image (Genesis 1:27), having taken on that image and flesh (1 John 4:1-13, John 1:1-15) did something very good, He saved us (John 6:40). The gravity of God's love is fathomless and endless, the fact that He chose to become human and die for our sins, rather than let us receive the punishment and wrath (Romans 5:9 compared with Revelation 19:11-16) is marvelous, but more so the fact that God Himself humbled Himself, "You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God  and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:5-11). It is wondrous that He (God) let His creation kill Him so that His creation could be saved through His sacrifice and death (Romans 5:8-10, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 Peter 3:18). This is indeed so good that we might miss just how truly good it is! For instead of out casting us and being content to let us burn in Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:10) God made bridge through Jesus, the Only way of Salvation (John 14:6) so that we should not perish but have eternal life through the Son Jesus (John 3:16).

God's Love is boundless, that He would so humiliate Himself and suffer such severe pain and death for us should be sign that His Love is not light or weak, but that nothing can now separate us from His Love, "What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:31-39 NLT). How the Divine Hug of Jesus on cross, He is not some austere and far away God, but a relational and close Creator and Savior, He died to bring us to Him and so we could be with Him forever. If one wants to know how close Jesus is to us, look at John, "Then he (John) thus having leaned on the breast of Jesus, says to Him, "Lord, who is it?" (John 13:25). He is not distant warlord or indifferent king, He is Love itself (1 John 4:8) and He showed us His love by dying for us on the cross when we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). He showed us so much love by His sacrifice, because He actually took away our need to preform or prove ourselves through works, and instead His work alone save us, "But God had so much loving-kindness. He loved us with such a great love.  Even when we were dead because of our sins, He made us alive by what Christ did for us. You have been saved from the punishment of sin by His loving-favor. 6 God raised us up from death when He raised up Christ Jesus. He has given us a place with Christ in the heavens. 7 He did this to show us through all the time to come the great riches of His loving-favor. He has shown us His kindness through Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:4-7). We are liberated in the love of Jesus, if only we would stay free and not get bound up in the traditions of men (Mark 7:7, Matthew 23). Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and know His love, and remember today that the Crucifixion is not just God's Wrath swallowed up in the wounds of Christ, but the ultimate act of love and compassion and kindness to God's Creation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Israel’s Conquest of Canaan: The Nephilim and Giants

  Christianity Today asserts that the conquest of Canaan can be a “stumbling block” for believers. This probably is because of a foolish idea of comparing it to a modern conquest happening in our world. The truth is that God had Israel conquer Canaan because it was ruled by evil giants, “We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” (Numbers 13:33). These are Anakim or Nephilim, the children of angels and human women, “When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God (angels) saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. The...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dispensationalism

John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) was a man who did two things, he took 70th week of the Book of Daniel and stretched out to the End Times, and he was the father of  Dispensationalism , a belief system that God dispenses different peoples with separate blessings and covenants. According to Darb'ys doctrine of Dispensationalism, God dispenses different covenants. There are total of seven dispensations that divide the history of man: I. Dispensation of Innocence (prior to the Fall, "Do not east of the Fruit of Good and Eve, Eden), II. Dispensation of Conscience ( You must assuage guilt and sin with blood sacrifices.) III. Dispensation of Human Government (Multiply and Subdue the world, example the Tower of Babel Gen 11:1-9, and Genesis 1:28). IV. Dispensation of the Promise (Dwell in Canaan, Jerusalem) V. Dispensation of the Law ("Obey the Law of Moses and the Prophets"). VI. Dispensation of Grace (The Church, Jesus Christ has come...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jesus’ Name in Aramaic

There has been a trend to render Jesus’ name Hebrew, יֵשׁוּעַ , Yeshua. The problem is neither Christ nor his apostles, nor the Jews in 30-33 A.D. spoke Hebrew, they spoke Aramaic. A ramaic is the oldest language on earth and was the language Jesus spoke. In fact, the oldest Old Testament is the Septuagint a Greco translation around 132 B.C.E. (165 Years Before Christ)that was translated from Aramaic. The Masoretic Text, The Hebrew Old Testament most Bibles use, dates from 7th to 10th Century A.D. (Medieval Times).  This translation does not cross reference with the words of Christ in the New Testament which are Aramaic and Koine Greek.  If the Aramaic was what Jesus spoke, then by what name would have been called? Jesus’ name in Aramaic is Isho or Eesho, spelled ܝܫܘܥ . That is the name of our Lord in Aramaic! He would have heard his name in this dialect, “Hail Isho or Eesho!” as well as the Greek, Ἰ ησο ῦ ς , Iesous.  Aramaic is disappearing, only a few peop...
Post a Comment
Read more