Today is Good Friday and it seems unfitting to call a day when Jesus was crucified on a cross after being severely beaten, “Good.” What Jesus experienced that day and what led up to it, epitomizes the concept of suffering, which we rarely, if ever, label as good. However, when we zoom out and see what God does after Jesus’ death on the cross, our perspective changes, doesn’t it?
God RAISED Jesus from the dead!
Romans 4 tells us:
23 “The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
Did you notice what verse 25 does? It gives a reason for Jesus’ death AND a different reason for His resurrection. His death was for our sins, however, His resurrection was for our justification.
Romans 5:1 gives us some additional insight, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,…”
What justifies us? Faith. Faith in what? In the resurrection!
According to the bible
It’s easy to believe that someone died but believing that someone was raised from death to life – that’s hard. Remember “Doubting Thomas?” He didn’t doubt Jesus died, he doubted that He was raised from the dead. See John 20:24-29.
Believing Jesus was raised from the dead requires faith – faith that the One who created the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them, raised Jesus from the dead. This is the faith that was, and still should be, proclaimed.
Paul, in Romans 10, explains the message of faith that he and his companions proclaim:
8 … “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,”[d] that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”[e]
Not only does Paul speak of these things but notice what Peter does as he begins to preach the Gospel. Acts 1:21-22 stresses the need for finding someone to replace Judas, the betrayer, to “become a witness” of Jesus’ resurrection. There is no indication in the Bible that every apostle saw Jesus die on the cross, in fact, only John is mentioned by name. However, we do know that all of them saw Jesus after God raised Him from the dead.
21 “Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, 22 beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”
Acts 10:39-43 emphasizes what we just read in Acts 1.
39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.”
So as we think about “Good Friday,” let us remember that Jesus was crucified for our sins but He was raised for our justification. If Jesus had not been raised from the dead, the apostle Paul writes that we would still be dead in our sins.
1 Cor. 15:17, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”
Let us rejoice that our faith is NOT futile, that we are NOT still in our sins, for us who believe, because God raised Jesus from the dead and it is no longer we who live, but Christ in us!
Let us go be radiant, reflecting this truth as we celebrate Easter this Sunday. Wishing you a very joyful Easter!
Go Be Radiant 