And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. Matthew 27:50-53
New International Version
You may be wondering, why on earth do we call today Good Friday when it’s the day we remember Jesus’ crucifixion. It’s really easy to understand if you know the rest of the story.
See, when we look at Jesus’ crucifixion, we’re not stopping at His death, we’re realizing that He will resurrect and He is alive today. We don’t celebrate today because we’re morbid. We celebrate today because we have set aside this day to remember that Jesus destroyed the power of death.
What does it mean that Jesus destroyed the power of death? Well, if you remember in the Old Testament Adam and Eve sinned by eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God gave them tons of trees to eat from, but still provided them with the free will to decide whether they would choose His perfection, the hundreds of other trees, or their own desires to be superior to Him, the forbidden tree.
As you can see in the book of Genesis, Satan took full advantage of humanities free will and convinced Eve to eat from the forbidden tree and then Adam ate from it too. Out of love for His creation, God then made it so that man would die instead of have to suffer on the earth with their sin for an eternity. However, death is two-fold. It is both a blessing and a curse. Yes, He blessed us by not being able to live eternity in an imperfect sinful world. However, He also allowed death as a penalty for walking away from Him.
Even with the penalty God still provided a generous offer for His people. He made a covenant with the Israelites in which He allowed them to sacrifice animals to die in their place for their sins. Even though an animals life is not worth the same as a human life, out of God’s enormous generosity, He said He would accept their sacrifices so their sins could be forgiven.
I know some of you may have just opened another tab and are Googling what animal you need to buy and kill for that not-so-nice thought you had about your neighbor right now, but hold up just a minute and hear what comes next. See, now we get to understand why Good Friday is so good.
Instead of making us have to keep sacrificing animals for our sins, God had another plan ready and waiting. He sent His Son, Jesus, to the earth as the final sacrifice to cover all sins for all times. Yes, Jesus died on the cross to replace the animal sacrifice. Go ahead and close all those tabs you opened looking for a sheep to sacrifice, you don’t need it!
So, what about the human participation part? You know, humanity participated in bringing sin into the world so shouldn’t we be involved in making ourselves right with God, just like with the animal sacrifices? Well, yes, we still are involved, we just don’t have to kill anything any more.
Now, to be made right with God, we have to repent, reconcile, and reverse. Ok, let me explain this a little more. Our first step is repent. To repent is to realize that you are living in sin. This step involves stopping making yourself feel good about what you know is wrong and start admitting to God (and usually others) what you have done wrong and ask for forgiveness.
The next step is reconciliation. This step can only happen after repentance. There is no reason to try and reconcile if you aren’t willing to admit you’re in the wrong. Reconciliation is when you actively work on changing your behavior, cutting off bad influences, and altering your way of living so that you honor the Lord and do what He asks of you. Think of it this way, you cannot be reconciled with your best friend if you and they separated because you kept stealing their food and you refuse to stop stealing their food. Your former BFF is never going to want to be your BFF again if you aren’t willing to start acting better so that you aren’t abusing your friendship anymore. Well, when you reconcile with God, you’re actively altering your behavior so you stop abusing God’s kindness and love.
Then we have reverse. I know many of you probably already knew what I was talking about when I said repent and reconcile and now you’re scratching your head because of reverse. Trust me, this is just as easy. Reverse means you’re giving God everything He gives to you. He gives you His heart, attention, care! So, reverse, give Him all that back and more! He may not give you everything you want, but that does not mean He does not give you everything you need. So, He needs some TLC from you too. Basically, a one sided relationship with God is not a relationship at all. If you expect God to be with you but you do not expect yourself to be with Him, I’m sorry, but that is not how a relationship with God works.
So, where do you stand with God? Are you consistently repenting, reconciling, and reversing? Or have you been too scared, ashamed, or prideful to even start doing it? Let me tell you one thing, God already sees all the things you do, whether you do it alone behind locked doors or with others in the open. He knows every dirty thing you’ve every done and He’s never stopped loving you, but He has never loved the sin. There is no reason to cling to sin like a lifeline. The only real lifeline is Jesus. Let go and draw near to God, accept freedom! I hope that you decided to start a relationship with God. Have a wonderful Good Friday and thank God for His generosity.
