Dear Christian, would you never forget the payment that was required for your sin. Every piercing thorn into his skull, every flesh tearing lash of the whip, every painful gasp of air on that cursed tree, was because of your sin, and Christ’s immeasurable love to endure it.
Some time about 2000 years ago in a place half-way across the globe, our Savior hung dead on a tree. How can this be? The goodness of our God is displayed in a horrendous act of injustice, that through it, many would come to salvation and life. This Good Friday, remember the cost.
Romans 10:14-18 says,
For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Christ presented Himself as an offering for your sin. If you have chosen to believe in Him, then He has paid for all of your wrongdoings and has prepared an eternal place for you in Heaven. But how are we to live in light of the weighty truth of Good Friday?
Let’s use an analogy to help us fully grasp this importance.
Imagine a son and his father are hunting in the jungle when suddenly the son falls into a pit of snakes! The pit is so deep that the boy can’t jump out. As the snakes begin to curl around him and drag him deeper into the pit, the loving father then jumps in and throws his son out of danger while he himself is bitten by the venomous creatures and consumed by the pit.
The son is thankful to be safe, yet, once he sees the snakes again, he begins to miss the excitement he felt and the feeling of them pulling him down, so he decides to jump back into the snake pit and dies.
WHAT?!? How could he do this!?! The father laid his life down for him! How could he go back to the pit?
Dear Christian, you are the boy. How can you return to the chains and bondage of sin that your Jesus endured death to break? To fully grasp the death of Jesus Christ is to also walk in the power and strength over sin for which He died and rose again to give us.
May Good Friday serve as a weighty reminder of the payment for our sin, and a payment also to walk in present victory.
Emerson Collins is the Program Manager for Bring Your Bible to School Day and The Live it Challenge at Focus on the Family. He lives in Colorado Springs where he enjoys time with friends and family playing videogames, ultimate frisbee, and bringing his Bible with him everywhere he goes. If he isn’t out on adventures with his new wife and son, you might find him serving his local church in their pastoral residency program.
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