The Wages of Sin is Death
- 15 hours ago
- 1 min read
For the wages of sin is death...
Romans 6:23a (ESV)
Why is Good Friday so good? To the world it seems backwards, to say that the day on which the God of our religion died is such a good day. Who in their right mind celebrates a death with such joy and praise? Why is it good that Jesus suffered injustice at the hands of men, faced pain and humiliation in the scourging, and then was nailed to a cross as a public spectacle for the people of Jerusalem?
It is good because Jesus suffered all of this in our stead. The price of disobedience to the Law of God is death. And not just death, but the wrath of God. It wasn't just the cross that Jesus suffered; it was the fullness of the Father's wrath upon the Son. Wrath that was meant for us. Wrath that eradicates evil. Wrath that must be poured out on sin. Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin upon the cross as a propitiation (2 Corinthians 5:21). Christ crucified is our substitute.
Though we mourn that he would suffer such cruelty and anguish, we celebrate because he did this willingly for us. He endured a punishment that we cannot fathom, and he did this out of his great love for us (John 3:16; Ephesians 2:4). Rejoice this Good Friday. It is not death itself that we celebrate, but the mercy that God has richly "lavished upon us" through the blood of Christ (Ephesians 1:7-8).
