Every year we celebrate the darkest day in all of history: we look to the Son of God, bruised, bleeding, stripped naked and crucified.
What is so good about “Good Friday”?
Here are ten Biblical realities to be meditating upon this Good Friday as we consider, and remember “Why did Christ have to die?” (from John Piper, 50 Reasons Christ Came to Die).
To Absorb the Wrath of God
“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 Jn 4:10
To Show the Wealth of God’s Love and Grace for Sinners
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace” Ephesians 1:7
For the Forgiveness of Sins
“this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Matthew 26:28
To Provide the Basis for our Justification
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:23–24
That Completes the Obedience that Becomes our Righteousness
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21
To Make us Holy and Blameless
“he has now reconciled [you] in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.” Colossians 1:22
To Bring us to God
“For Christ also suffered[a] once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” 1 Peter 3:18
To Bring the Old Testament Priesthood to and End and Become the Eternal High Priest
“For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” Hebrews 9:24–26
To Create a People Passionate for Good Works
“who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” Titus 2:14
To Make His Cross the Grounds of All Boasting
“But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Galatians 6:14
