On Good Friday

It is good to let our hearts and minds spend some time considering the meaning of Good Friday. The death of Christ is the depiction of the earnings of our sin and the unfettered wrath of the Father. How easy it is to go about our day, thankful we are forgiven, enjoying the sweet fellowship Christ has provided us through His death, and not stop to consider the weight of what He has rescued us from. The righteous wrath of God against sin is beyond our understanding, and by Christ's obedience, as Christians, we will never receive it. Christ drank so fully of the cup of the wrath of God, that not even a drop is left for us to partake in. And what is truely the crux of the sacrafice is the innoscence of Christ, His full obedience to the will of the Father, and the clearest expression of love that could possibly be demonstrated was carried out for sinners- who could never pay the debt incurred by their rebellion against the Father. As we think about this, it should remind us to be sharing the truth of Christ's death and resurrection with those who do not yet know Him- and to pray for them ever more fervently.

Rob referenced an article on Justin Taylor's blog (his blog is linked under "blogs i like") which talks about the physical death of Jesus Christ, and was published in the American Medical Association Journal. Good Friday is a day of somber rejoicing. Somber as we remember that we do not deserve to be ransomed, and that the death of Christ is what we deserved for our sin. Rejoicing as we praise the Father for the sacrafice of His Son, for the model of obedience, and the atonement of all of our sins.

This Good Friday, I am reminded that the wrath of the Father against the sin of His people was satisfied by the death of Christ on the cross. This has two implications (among many). 1. We can not add anything to our own justification. Christ's work on the cross was sufficient, and there fore we can not do anything to make ourselves more acceptable to the Father. In fact, when we struggle with feeling as though we're just not "put together" enough to come before the Lord, we are sinfully believing that the Lord needs us to add something to Christ's sacrafice before He can accept us. This is a truely prideful response to Christ. 2. There is no sin that we can struggle with that Christ's death has not sufficiently atoned for. We need not be dismayed as we fight against unbelief, apathy, anxiety, or any other temptation or doubt. Christ, in deed, sufficiently payed the penalty for all sins- not just the ones we are ok with Him taking care of. Christ drank fully of the cup of the Father, there was no portion left for us to drink, there were no sins kept from Him on the cross for which we must now attempt to make atonement. The resurrection of Christ is evidence that God's wrath has been fully dispensed and that the sacrafice of Christ was both acceptable and sufficient.

Here is the link to the article on Christ's death: http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/deathjesus.pdf