Are you tempted to skip Good Friday and hop straight over to Easter? I hear you. I think it’d be great to pretend that all the cruel things on Good Friday did not happen. And, especially, denying our part in it, right? But that’s not how God planned out our salvation. It does involve blood, suffering, and dying. All for our sake.

Our salvation was costly. We can’t forget that. We can’t skip Good Friday. Otherwise, our Easter joy would be hollow. There’s no grace without the cross. There’s no resurrection without Jesus dying for our sins. There’s no Easter joy without the sacrifice of Jesus. And that was not done in a sterile vacuum. It was not painless. And it did not happen without excruciating suffering.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. (1 Peter 3:18, NIV,*)

Jesus chose to do it for you and me and every single person on this earth. He did it with exuberant love. He was sacrificed for our sins and all the ugliness and messiness in our lives. He died so we could live. Not because we’d ever deserved it. But because he loves us so very much.

We can’t skip Good Friday because if our sins were not paid full, there would not be any Easter joy. We don’t need empty celebrations, we need forgiveness. We don’t need pretending and painting over our brokenness, we need salvation. And that why we can’t ever forget the cross. Because Christ was crucified, we can be made right with God. Because of Good Friday, we can have Easter joy without end. Thank you, Jesus!

 

Gracious God,
The gift of salvation is tremendous,
don’t let us ever take it granted.
Don’t let us ever skip Good Friday.
Don’t let us ever forget the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.
We are so thankful, Lord.
We praise you forever and ever!
In Jesus’ precious name,
Amen

Q4U: Do you wish you could skip Good Friday all together? How do you commemorate Good Friday?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you embrace Good Friday, the cross, and Jesus!

* [As you might have noticed, I enjoy reading the Bible in different translations and love comparing them. I have started linking the Bible verses to Biblegateway.com so you can easily read (and compare) them in the different versions I’ve used while preparing each post.].

Image courtesy of creationswap.com, design by Mari-Anna Stålnacke. Linking up today with Dance with Jesus, Faith-filled Fridays, Five Minute Friday.