This Friday is “Good Friday”.  “Good Friday” marks the day Jesus suffered and died on the cross.  Really?  The Church refers to the day on which their Savior and King suffered and died as “good”?  Anyone who has had even a small degree of earnest exposure to the Christian faith knows that it is chalk full of paradoxical professions like this.  Perhaps you have heard something of the fact that Christians believe that the Son of God willingly submitted Himself to being born into the broken and vexed world called “planet earth”; and moreover that He willingly humbled Himself to be born into a family of low condition, which would afford Him the unglamorous life of a Jewish carpenter.  And the most fundamental and foundational belief, and proclamation, as to WHY the Son of God chose to do this is in order that He might chiefly accomplish the all-important goal of getting Himself tortured and hung on a cross.  In short, according the Christian faith, the ENTIRE SCOPE of redemptive history, the mission planned from all eternity, was for Jesus to endure the penalty, suffering, and death of the cross.  The biblically revealed reason as to WHY Jesus setout to do this is in order to pay the just penalty of our sins for us.  So …if you’re tracking with this, the first reason Christians refer to it as “GOOD Friday” is because it commemorates the day that the Son of God once and for all delivered from their debt those who put their faith in Him.

But I would assert that there is a more substantial way in which the Christian faith understands this once and for all act of the Son of God as “good”.  A portion of Scripture that helps to provides an understanding regarding “GOOD Friday” is James 4:4-10.  In this passage we see that, to put it simply, God takes His love for us, and His subsequent relationship to us, VERY seriously!  In fact, He takes it so seriously that He views even the thought of idolatry in our minds, or the impulse of idolatry in our hearts as being completely unfaithful and adulterous (Jas. 4:4; Ezek. 16:32).  The true, sincere, definitive, and objective perspective of God views all misprioritizations of our relationship to/with Him as being contemptuous and hostile toward Him (Rom. 8:7; Matt. 6:24).  And logically we might think that this would ensure our doom (seeing as how God is perfect in His assessments).  But shockingly we see that God takes His relationship with us SO seriously that He is unwilling to give up on us – even in light of our ongoing and persistent unfaithfulness.  God’s love is so jealous for us that not even our wretchedly obstinate and adulterous hearts will deter Him from pursuing us (Jas. 4:5).  God knew that no amount of commanding us to trust Him would be effective - our hearts were too deeply proud and depraved to submit to, and fulfill, the perfect law of God.  God knew that the only way to capture and enrapture our hearts to the degree that His infinitely jealous love necessitates is by pouring out the full extent of wrath which our sins and transgressions deserve upon His only Son.  And thus the day that Jesus hung on a cross is deeply “GOOD” for us, because of course it accomplishes a perfect atonement regarding a penalty that we (even at our “best”) could never pay, and additionally it explicitly and overwhelmingly reveals to us that we have ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO DOUBT GOD’S LOVE FOR US.  The cross definitely demonstrates that God loves us more than we love ourselves.  The cross communicates that even when things seem nightmarish, God is still LOVINGLY in control (Rom. 8:28).  The cross reveals that our disobedience and unfaithfulness toward God is utterly incoherent and infinitely more heinous than we are able to comprehend.  The cross overwhelmingly shows us that we cannot simply “laugh-off” the brokenness and depravity of our lives and the world we live in (Jas. 4:9).  The cross eliminates the cancer of pride in our hearts and brings us to a place of true humility where we can actually submit to God (for His glory, and our own well-being) (Jas. 4:7-10).  Every moment of the Christian life (not just “Good Friday”) the disciple of Jesus is privileged to practice the Words of 2 Corinthians 7:10, which says “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”

Contemplate the cross.  Realize that God REALLY LOVES YOU.  He seriously and lovingly created you.  He seriously and lovingly promised to redeem you from your sin and its consequences.  He seriously and lovingly has patience with you daily.  He seriously and lovingly fulfilled His promise by dying in your place.  Contemplate these things.  Ask yourself, “What does the cross say ABOUT me?”  Somberly contemplate the cross.  Allow yourself to experience Godly sorrow, so that you might truly come to see the necessity of repentance, that you might truly be humbled, that you might truly come to apprehend and cling to salvation, so that you might (being ushered into heaven by God’s free grace) have no regret.

We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).