When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:30, ESV)

It’s Good Friday—the day that Jesus was Crucified.

How? You ask. How can it be “good” if it is the day commemorating such a heinous death penalty? As a matter of fact, how can any death be looked upon and seen as good? The answer to this important question is in what happened on that first Good Friday. I’ll not go into detail about how awful the practice of Roman crucifixion was. Plenty of preachers have done that in the past. If you really want to know the cruelty of this form of punishment find a copy of The Passion of the Christ and watch it.

It isn’t that Jesus was crucified that makes today such a good day, but why He died and what He accomplished by going to the cross. Simply put, people are sinners. We are born that way. We can’t avoid it any more than I can avoid having blue eyes and curly hair. It is part of who we are. We defy and disobey God every opportunity that we get. The price of that sin is death, our death. Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross (because He was sinless) paid the price of our sin for us.

Why “Good Friday”? Because on the Good Friday Jesus made the escape from sin punishment possible. So celebrate! Sin is conquered through the crucifixion of Christ. It is Good Friday!

Father, Thank you for sending Jesus to make my sin payment and conquering my sin when He died.