Happy Easter!

It’s that time again…when we eat candy, go on Easter egg hunts, and most importantly, go to church and celebrate our risen Lord. But, it seems like in this time of the year many Christians glance over one of the most important parts of these springtime festivities. How many of you actually even considered the importance of this past Friday? All of us seem to have gotten caught up in the Easter hype, forgetting the importance of what happened on Friday.

Another reason that Good Friday has become a lost practice in most of the churches today is that we have forgotten when our salvation was actually won. I hear all about Christ and Salvation around this time of the year, but it seems like, to many people, we believe we receive our forgiveness of sins through Jesus rising from the grave.

Think about it for a minute…what actually makes Good Friday so good? That is the day that we remember our Lord and Savior being flogged and crucified while bearing our sins. It is the day we remember the pain and suffering of His Passion. Most importantly, it is the day we remember His Death. Why would all of this be good? By the world’s standards this was one of the most humiliating and brutal death sentences ever done. Dying on the cross was the ultimate way to die during that time for a convicted criminal. Why the heck would we think this is so good?

Okay…okay…I think you know were I’m going with this now. So many Protestants out there would say that Good Friday is good because it’s the day that Christ died so that he could be raised from the dead and therefore bringing salvation to all men. What is wrong with this statement I just wrote? Yeah, it looks pretty good on the surface, but read deeper into it. Where does our salvation come from? Where was sin actually conquered for us? It was on that cross! It was when Christ our Lord gave up his very own life to be our sacrificial lamb. “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

As Saint Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15: 3-4 (ESV)…

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with Scriptures.”

Our salvation was won on the cross not in the grave. Christ rose to proclaim his victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil, but he died to pay the price for our miserable sins. Praise be the Lord and Bless be to God, that we have such an almighty Savior! Remember always the importance of the Cross.

I will leave you with a few final words once again, from Saint Paul and one of my favorite hymns from this past Lenten season.

“Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you my belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.” – Romans 7:4-6

“Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted” –By Thomas Kelly (Hymn #153 from TLH)

Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,

See Him dying on the tree!

‘Tis the Christ by man rejected;

Yes, my soul, ‘tis He! ‘tis He!

“Tis the long expected Prophet,

David’s Son, yet David’s Lord;

Proofs I see sufficient of it:

‘Tis the true and faithful Word.

Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning,

Was there ever grief like His?

Friends through fear His cause disowning,

Foes insulting His distress;

Many hands were raised to wound Him,

None would interpose to save;

But the deepest stroke that pierced Him

Was the stroke that Justice gave.

Ye who think of sin but lightly

For suppose the evil great

Here may view its nature rightly,

Here its guilt may estimate.

See who bears the awful load;

‘Tis the WORD, the LORD’S ANOINTED,

Son of Man and Son of God.

Here we have a firm foundation;

Here the refuge of the lost;

Christ’s the Rock of our salvation,

His the name of which we boast.

Lamb of God, for sinners wounded,

Sacrifice to cancel guilt!

None shall ever be confounded

Who on Him their hope have built.