Before He Rose: Good Friday

Golgotha. It sounds like science fiction. But it’s where faith and truth intersected on Good Friday and saved us all from eternal death and separation from God. The Gospels make reference to the hill on which Jesus Christ was crucified. Matthew, Mark and John mention Golgotha by name, calling it “Place of a Skull” (Matt. 27:33, Mark 15:22, John 19:17). While not mentioning Golgotha, the gospel of Luke says Christ was crucified at “the place called The Skull” (Luke 23:33).

Both Golgotha and The Skull are fearsome, imposing names that actually seem appropriate for the site of such a cruel and brutal execution. But what was accomplished at this place changed the course of human history. In fact, after Jesus “yielded up His spirit,” (Matt. 27:50), the temple veil was ripped from top to bottom; there was a rock-splitting earthquake; and a large number of people who had died came back to life (Matt. 27:51-53).

Power was unleashed on that first Good Friday in Jerusalem. Power that shook the earth and raised the dead. Power that would transform lives for eternity. Jesus Christ had paid the ultimate price. He carried the weight of our sin—all of it—on His beaten and bloodied back. The Lamb of God took away the sin of the world by hanging and dying on a cross; pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5). He allowed himself to be made a spectacle, mocked and humiliated.

And don’t forget, crucifixion wasn’t the only pain and suffering Jesus endured. A day earlier, on Maundy Thursday, He went from sharing a Passover meal with His 12 closest friends to being spat upon, beaten and slapped (Matt. 26:67). Only hours after literally breaking bread with His Disciples—including the “Rock,” the “Sons of Thunder,” and the “disciple whom Jesus loved”—they all deserted, betrayed or denied Him.

The next day, things got worse. When Pontius Pilate asked the assembled mob what should be done with “Jesus who is called Christ,” they answered “Crucify Him!” (Matt. 27:22). So Pilate washed his hands of their demand and told the crowd that Jesus’ blood would be on their hands. In defiance, those assembled replied, “His blood shall be on us and on our children” (Matt. 27:24-25).

If only they knew what they were saying. For it is His blood—which they and He willingly shed—that takes away the sins of the world. Jesus’ blood that heals us, redeems us, sanctifies us, and marks us as those who truly belong to the Father (Isaiah 53:5, 1 John 1:7, Hebrews 13:12, Eph. 2:13).

Perhaps that is the best thing to remember on Good Friday. Without Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, without His shed blood, we would be dead to sin with no hope of redemption or reconciliation with our heavenly Father. We would have nothing to bridge the gap between a holy God and sinful man (Heb. 10:19).

Because of Good Friday and what transpired on a hill called Golgotha some 2000 years ago, we can still live in the confident assurance that Peter shared with fellow believers in the early Church. We can know we are “chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:1-4).

~ Dr. Charles Stanley