Very Good Friday
This Friday is good, because we are not.
Well, I suppose it’s not quite that simple. You see, seven times God declares His creation is “good” right out of the gates in Genesis chapter 1. He was not content to move on in His description of what was created next before expressing His delight in what He’d just made – first, the light to divide night and day (v.4) and the division of land and sea (v.10), then seed-bearing vegetation (v.12) and our sun and moon (v.18), finally creatures to fill the sea and sky (v.21) and creatures to fill the earth. But it is only in v.31, after mankind has been made from the earth and in the very image of the triune God, that God modifies His description; He still uses the word good but this time adds the Hebrew word meod (meh-ode) to communicate that now, with the addition of man, His Creation is very good.
What a glorious spectacle creation must’ve been. Chewing on the fact that there was once a time when these things were not is enough to convert any biology or earth science classroom into a place of worship! Behold our eternal creator God, who makes all things good! And then to think that He steps back to look at you and I and effectively says, “There! That’s it!” Creation was complete and the Father of all creation rested from His work. I liken it to the satisfaction and pride I sense after a few hours of yardwork – the lawn is mowed, edges and swept up – but multiplied by… infinity! He is pleased.
At this point in the story, there was no need for the Friday we celebrate today. But what happens next would not surprise Him. In fact, the need for redemption, reconciliation and re-creation were baked into His plan from the beginning. Peter writes that Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times (1 Peter 1:19-20) and John writes about those whose name have been written in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). It was all mapped out - the perfect design, the inevitable fall into hopelessness, the divine solution and complete restoration!
Simply put, our first parents disobeyed – they sinned against God. On the surface, it doesn’t seem all that bad – they ate fruit they weren’t supposed to eat. If only the worst thing we did as children was eat a papaya when were supposed to have a pomegranate! But below the surface lies the problem. Here, in the heart of these very good creatures something sinister was awakened though temptation. Doubt. Selfishness. Pride. Not good; not good at all! And not just for these two, Adam and Eve. No, as a result of their sin, every subsequent generation, from that day in the garden to today, shares their sin guilt and fractured relationship to God. This is what Paul refers to when he writes, “in Adam all die” (1 Cor. 15:22) and that we are “dead in trespasses and sin” (Eph. 2:4). This inherent need for forgiveness is what David speaks of when he writes, “I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps. 51:5).
Make no mistake, even in our sin we bear the image of our God. In fact, that is why our sin is such a problem and why we deserve such severe punishment. But it’s also what provokes God to do what He planned next… In Ephesians 2:3-6, we read,
…we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
But before we are raised to be with Him, and even before He was raised to return to His heavenly home, Christ would be raised on a Roman cross (John 12:32-33). This brutal and bloody crucifixion would take place on a Friday, during Passover when the lambs were prepared for slaughter. But our Lord was no lamb, He was the lamb. And He was not merely the best God could do, He was perfect, sinless, innocent - without blemish! Despite this, He was betrayed by Judas in His arrest the night before, falsely accused, illegally tried and convicted by a kangaroo court of corrupt Jewish leaders, unjustly treated and openly denied by His closest friends. There was nothing good about this Friday. Except… except that such a sacrifice would put God’s holy character on full, vibrant, undeniable display. And such a price paid by the sinless God-Man would be sufficient to cover the sin-debt of all who would see their sin and their need for a Savior and believe.
What a profound collision of justice and grace! What a scandalous show of love! What an unexpected reversal, perhaps best described in 2 Corinthians 5:21, when Paul writes, “for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” By faith, we are declared righteous, forgiven of our sin and reconciled to God! It doesn’t get better than that!
And this is the Good News of the Gospel that makes Friday good, …heavy, even sorrowful, but very good!
Spoiler: Sunday’s coming and things get even better!