A Good Friday
I love watching Food Competitions. In one particular episode a amateur chef submits his dish to the judges. After tasting it, the Judges ask the amateur chef to come to the table and taste the dish he had created. After tasting it, they asked him if he thought it tasted good. Without hesitation the chef responded, "Absolutely! I only serve food that looks good and tastes good." The judges smiled and replied, "It is absolutely a beautiful and delicious dish. We just wanted to make sure that you felt the same way about your dish."
From the beginning everything that God has created, including us, was declared "Good". In fact, when Adam chose to disobey God and ate the fruit from the tree that God had told him not to eat from, God already had a plan for man's redemption, and by the way, "it was good" too. But there was cost; Blood had to be shed. And there was a requirement; It had to be pure. Behold, God had created a plan for someone who could meet this impossible demand: It was his Son.
Hebrews 10:14-20 describes what God did for us through his Son: 14 It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process. 15 The Holy Spirit confirms this: 16 This new plan I'm making with Israel isn't going to be written on paper, isn't going to be chiseled in stone; This time "I'm writing out the plan in them, carving it on the lining of their hearts." 17 He concludes, I'll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins. 18 Once sins are taken care of for good, there's no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them. 19 So, friends, we can now - without hesitation - walk right up to God, into "the Holy Place." 20 Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God.
God's plan guaranteed that though a Friday was coming that would demand this sacrifice to be offered up and it would be both brutal and bloody, it would ultimately be overwhelmed by His plan of redemption which had been in place from the very beginning before Adam took his first bite from the forbidden fruit. Once again what God had created for us would be declared by God as "good" and not even the sins of all mankind could take that away from God.
From the moment Jesus entered our world, he was sentenced to die, a "dead man walking". His every step in this life drew Him closer to his earthly destiny-The Cross. He showed up to "Roll Call" and when the executioner called our name, He answered, "Here I Am". He finished what he had started and God saw that it was "Good"!
Isaiah 53:10-12 states, "10 But it was the Lord 's good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord 's good plan will prosper in his hands. 11 When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. 12 I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the sinners.
He bore the sins of many and interceded for them. Yes, our sins may have grabbed the Son of God like a mighty vicious "python" literally squeezing every breath of life in him right out of him until there was nothing left but an "empty shell". But when the gates of Hell welcomed him into their realm they had no idea that what they thought they were gaining was only coming to take back what was never theirs in the first place. It was a Good Friday! God saw to that personally.
John 3:16, 16 "For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Believers let us rejoice in our Hope! And if you are reading this today and do not know this Hope, take comfort in knowing that this Hope is for you today because it is for anyone and everyone! Today is your day of salvation!