This Friday is still good

Word from the Center
Written By Dr. Gregory Seltz

“It is finished” (John 19:30). God has eternally executed His justice on humanity’s rebellious sinfulness and made a merciful reboot for our eternal life with Him possible in this life and death moment of Jesus the Messiah. Salvation is God’s work alone. Only the cross can absolve and transform human hearts. Today, we are tempted to look past the cross or to avoid it altogether. The modern “heresy” (or better, “blindness) is the notion that our best efforts and the power of the “benevolent, secular state” is all that is needed for “life and salvation.” It is modern foolishness of an age-old problem.

Absent any political “solutions” for our deepest problems, Christians around the world focus why this Friday is still good for us and for all. The day that Jesus the Messiah died on the cross is “good.” Why? Because that’s what ultimate victory looks like in the Bible. When Jesus allows His perfect life and His innocent death to be exchanged, substituted for our sinful life, real, eternal life is possible again for us, for those who put their trust in God’s redemption through His Son. On Good Friday, Pontus Pilate, one of the political power brokers of that day, ironically and ignorantly snarled at Jesus, “Don’t you know that your life is in my hands?” Well, such arrogance then and now misses the whole point. Jesus’ life was, even then, in Jesus’ own hands to give up freely just for you and me. Good Friday is what justice being served and mercy being offered looks like. Good Friday is repentant sinners, captive to their own sin and rebellion, mercifully being set free from the eternal consequences of their sin. Just look!

Today, in the shadow of the cross where the Son of God gives up His life so that we might live, we repent of our sin and shame, our guilt and greed, pleading to God for His mercy. We do that for ourselves and for our nation too. We watch this Jesus, the God-man like no other, march to and through the cross so that sin, death, and even the devil himself might be vanquished for all time. As we engage our culture, as we serve our nation, we are always mindful of the reason that we do all that we do. We do it so that people might know of this Jesus who has done all things well for all.

It’s Good Friday. It is finished. The victory is won. Easter joy is mere days away. But such joy is always anchored in Good Friday’s Good work, God at work in Christ for you!

Every day, we proclaim to a broken world that God is good, that He does all things well. We proclaim that no matter what is going on at this very moment, God is at work to preserve and to save. Today we see the uniqueness of that salvation for each and every one of us, even as we protect the right to proclaim it so that all might hear and be saved! A blessed, Good Friday to you all.

The Rev. Dr. Gregory Seltz is executive director of the Lutheran Center for Religious Liberty.

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