Easter is fast approaching, and so is the Friday right before, which is called “Good Friday.” As you probably know, Good Friday is the day when Christ sacrificed Himself on the cross for our sins before He rose from the dead on Easter morning.
I could certainly share a post about the incredible power Christ demonstrated through His resurrection or write about the importance of focusing on victory—rather than Easter egg hunts—this Sunday morning.
But I want to focus on Good Friday for this post. I want to take a look at the seriousness and significant implications of this day. After all, Good Friday isn’t an abstract day that we simply hear about in Sunday school. It has incredible significance for us.
My sins dug nails into His hands and feet.
My sins thrust a crown of sharp thorns onto His head.
My sins hung Him on a splintering wooden cross so that the world could watch His pain and mock Him relentlessly.
My sins cast Him into utter darkness—a world full of loneliness, shame, misery, gloom, frustration, rage, anguish, sorrow, despair, rejection, and pain.
Why would the King of Light dwell in the world of darkness?
Because He could not simply look at our sins and make them disappear. He could not reach out to push them aside. He could not even pick them up for a moment and hurl them into the sky. (Well, He could have. But He chose not to.)
He had to suffer. He chose to suffer.
Our suffering is but a taste of the suffering Christ endured on our behalf. We have never had to carry the evil of the entire world on our shoulders. But He did.
For you have been called for this purpose [suffering], since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. (1 Peter 2:21-24 NASB)
My sins were borne by Him.
Borne.
They were not discarded, cast away, or ignored…like I often try to do.
They were not whisked away or blown into the air to disappear…like I often wish would happen.
Rather, my sins were carried, sustained, and held in His nail-pierced hands.
In order for Christ to hold us now, He had to hold our sins as He suffered.
He held the divorces, betrayals, dishonesty, exclusions, neglect, disobedience, rudeness, deceptions, disrespect, immodesty, gossip, slander, ignorance, unkindness, sexual immorality, and idolatry.
He died for the time I lied to my parents and deceived my family. He died for the time I was impatient with my sister and snapped at her. He died for the time I talked meanly about a close friend.
The list goes on. In fact, it never ends.
But He died for our darkest secrets and our most defiant deeds. He felt every ounce of our black corruption and debauchery upon Him.
The idols I worship, the bitterness I harbor, and the apathy I allow were carried upon His shoulders—not for me to continue worshipping, harboring, and allowing—but so I will “die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24).
Though Good Friday was a day of darkness and despair, it was not completely black. Because of this day, we may live to righteousness through His righteousness, as 1 Peter 2:24 says. Christ conquered death and ascended to heaven in His glory!
But the implications of Good Friday didn’t disappear when He rose from the grave. They still apply to you and me. They still apply to our sins.
Jesus wants to forgive us and free us from those sins He carried. He doesn’t want us to carry them—or hold onto them—for a moment longer. Our job is to repent of those sins, turn to our Savior, and live in His righteousness and forgiveness.
I hope you have a wonderful Good Friday and a happy Easter!
Tizzie's Tidbits of Truth 