Betrayed. Beaten. Abandoned. The Son of God, nailed to a cross and brutally murdered.

So why “Good” Friday?

Jesus said:

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

–John 10v10 NIV-

Wherever Jesus goes, He brings life.
 

He takes sorrow and turns it into joy.

He takes brokenness and turns it into a new creation.

He takes lost dreams and despair and turns it into hope.

He takes the cross, a symbol of punishment and death and turns it into a declaration of freedom and life.

This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.

–John 3v16-17 MSG-

 

Jesus took a day that should be the saddest day and turned it into a good day. Because when he took our punishment and died on that cross, Jesus said, “ ‘It (sin and death) is finished’..but I’m not finished yet!”