Good Friday
Friday's good 'cause Sunday is coming
Don't lose hope 'cause Sunday is coming
Devil, you're done, you better start running
Friday's good 'cause Sunday is coming
I’m constantly amazed at how song lyrics can have such an emotional impact on me, at least. I write this considering Good Friday morning. I was listening to the song :Sunday is Coming” by Phil Wickham. I remember hearing it on Palm Sunday about the upcoming Good Friday service and how most people relate Good Friday with Jesus’ death on the cross as a somber, sad event but without his sacrifice Sunday could not come. To add weight to my thoughts, I just read a devotion by RC Sproul entitled “Jesus, Our Substitute.”
Pastor Sproul does have the ability to explain things in a very charismatic way. He starts, in a very RC Sproul fashion, by leaning on the definition of words like vicarious and substitution to create the mental image of Jesus’ sacrifice for our atonement. Then he paints the scene of John the Baptist and his confusion when Jesus came to him to be baptized. I never considered how confused John must have been, recognizing the sovereignty of Jesus, and being asked to baptize him. Anyway, he concludes his article (which is a small piece from his book, The Truth of the Cross) with “at the center of His teaching was the assertion that He was doing this not for Himself but for us - to redeem us, to ransom us, to save us.”
With all the activities around the major holidays, it’s easy to get lost in the activity and forget or minimize the reason for the holiday.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” - John 3:16-18 ESV
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” - Romans 5:12-21
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to think of Good Friday as a somber, sad day anymore because: Friday’s good, cause Sunday is coming.
