Good Friday 2007
Approximately one thousand nine hundred seventy seven years ago God incarnate hung on a Roman cross just outside of Jerusalem. He had come unto His own, and His own had not received Him. Instead, they had turned Him over to the their oppressors, and demanded that He be killed. None of this surprised Him. He and the Father had planned these events from before time.
This is not just a story. Jesus literally hung on a wooden cross in agony. He in whom the fullness of deity dwelt was separated from God. In once sense, it is the height of arrogance to call this "good" Friday, because the only good Man who ever lived was killed by wicked men, men like me. But He was "delivered up according to ithe definite plan and jforeknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23). When Peter indicated that Jesus should not die, Jesus called Peter "Satan". The crucifixion was no accident and we call this Good Friday because of what God has wrought from the greatest crime ever committed.
Jesus suffered as no other man has ever suffered. The One who had eternally been in a love relationship with the Father was rejected and bore the Father's wrath. Not because He deserved it, but in our place - because we deserved it. This act was the act of sacrifice to redeem His chosen ones. This act was the act of love to reconcile those estranged from God. This act was the act of atonement to pay the penalty for our sins. This act was the act of propitiation to allow the Father to justify us.
Praise God who can take our vilest act and use it to cleanse us from all our sin.
Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?(ESV)
This is not just a story. Jesus literally hung on a wooden cross in agony. He in whom the fullness of deity dwelt was separated from God. In once sense, it is the height of arrogance to call this "good" Friday, because the only good Man who ever lived was killed by wicked men, men like me. But He was "delivered up according to ithe definite plan and jforeknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23). When Peter indicated that Jesus should not die, Jesus called Peter "Satan". The crucifixion was no accident and we call this Good Friday because of what God has wrought from the greatest crime ever committed.
Jesus suffered as no other man has ever suffered. The One who had eternally been in a love relationship with the Father was rejected and bore the Father's wrath. Not because He deserved it, but in our place - because we deserved it. This act was the act of sacrifice to redeem His chosen ones. This act was the act of love to reconcile those estranged from God. This act was the act of atonement to pay the penalty for our sins. This act was the act of propitiation to allow the Father to justify us.
Praise God who can take our vilest act and use it to cleanse us from all our sin.
Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?(ESV)
posted by Taliesin at 10:26 PM
4 Comments:
I'm not sure how the crucifixion could be the "greatest crime ever" if, as you suggest, God and Christ conspired from all of eternity for it to attain in reality precisely the way that it did.
Sounds more like framing humanity for the carpice of the divine will.
Sorry E.D. but the debate is old - you and I have been around the mulberry bush too many times.
Happy Easter
Thank you for that, Eddie.
One of my favorite sections from the Valley of Vision:
"Thy blood is the blood of the incarnate God,
Its worth infinite, its value beyond all thought.
Infinite must be the evil and guilt
that demands such a price."
Acts 2:23
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