Good Friday Reflection: Jesus' Sacrificial Love Made Him Take God's Judgment For Sin For Us
The bloody death of Jesus can be viewed in a one-sided way. One side says it's only about sacrificial love while the other side says it's only about God's wrath falling into Jesus. Now both sides share only a portion of the truth. If we are to take a summary, it's this - the wrath of God should have fallen upon man but Jesus took it all because of His sacrificial love. Some Catholic faith defenders and some Independent Baptists have taken an erroneous view that it was only Jesus' sacrificial love while ignoring it was also God's wrath falling on Jesus Christ as well. Here's also reality... Good Friday is not a die for Jesus to die all over again, instead in Good Friday, we honor what was already finished. Hebrews 10:12 says that there is only one sacrifice for sins and it will never be repeated again. The Lord's supper is a memorial for Christ's death. Good Friday should be to honor what has been done, not to believe in a ridiculous notion that Jesus dies every Good Friday!
2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "He who know no sin became sin for us." That is, Jesus was not a sinner, He never sinned and since He was both God and man at the same time, He cannot sin and He would live to fulfill the Law (Matthew 5:17-20). When Jesus prayed at the garden, "Not My will but Thine", He was going to drink the cup of God's judgment for sin. All the sins of the world was going to be heaped upon Him, to show that only He can take the place of the sinner and only He can pay the penalty for sin. This was going to be the defeat of sin and salvation from sin. He would drink the cup of God's wrath out of His sacrificial life for people. At that point, he was going to be nailed among criminals, He was going to be rejected for His claims. Most of the very same people who welcomed Him on Sunday were soon shouting crucify Him on Friday. That Friday was a dreadful day on that day, but today we celebrate God's goodness on Good Friday.
So how did He become sin for us? He got the rejection He did not deserve. First on Thursday at the dead of night, He was given an illegal trial that happened dead at night. To do so, eighteen Jewish laws were broken. No trial was to be done at the dead of night, there were two false witnesses who twisted what he said, the whole process was a mockery of the Jewish system of justice. He had nothing on Him that would have him crucified. Pontius Pilate wanted to release Jesus for innocence but the crowd did not want anything to do with Him. Remember Jesus could have had called an army of angels, He could have controlled the events but He would not. At that point, a picture of salvation was about to come. The willful stupidity of the crowd chose Barabbas instead of Him who knew no sin. Yet it was necessary for Jesus who knew no sin to become sin for man. He was going to replace Barabbas the robber on that cross. Likewise, Jesus had become the sin substitute when he took the place of Barabbas. The Scripture however is silent of Barabbas' fate on whether or not he accepted Christ. But certainly, that was a picture of Jesus Christ in the place of the sinner.
Isaiah 52-53 talks about the suffering servant. Here we learn that Jesus' visage was far beyond what movies or comics can portray. The death of Jesus was very graphic as Isaiah 52:14 says that His visage was so marred, it was beyond the images of the sons of man. When I think about how he endured the whip of the cat-o-nine tails laced with sharp bits of glass, metal and bones I can imagine the flesh being torn away. Much blood was loss, the only miracle there that after the severe lashing, Jesus was still alive. Why was He still alive? John 10:18 says that no man can take Jesus' life except where He lays down His life and take it again. He was in complete control of His life and death in the situation, in full obedience to His Father. Isaiah 53 is all about how He is the suffering servant He was crushed for our transgressions, took our pain, bore our suffering and that all the sins were borne on Him. When He took the crown of thorns, remember thorns are a symbol of God's curse and He took the curse that was meant for man. The crown of thorns was a symbol of how sin destroyed the world.
What was amazing was the parallelism of two events. Holy Week takes place during the Passover, today is the start of the Passover. During the first Good Friday, two major events happened. Jesus was crucified on noon, the passover lamb was killed on 3:00 P.M., Israeli time. He became our Passover Lamb. Hebrews 9:12-14 states this fact that the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sins. The passover lamb was examined for three days whether it had any flaw before it was offered as it required a lamb without defect. The unblemished lamb was slain on 3:00 P.M. at the same time, Jesus had finished His sacrifice after He hang for three hours. Normally it took a crucified victim more than three hours to die, but Jesus had already laid down His life. He was in complete control... He could have healed Himself if He chose to but He was going to drink it in full. That's why He refused to drink the gall mixed with some kind of pain reliever - He was going to take the full wrath, full pain and a medical view of the crucifixion would be so painful. He was going to suffer crucifixion and all the pain at full blow all because He was going to fulfill the very will of the Father concerning man's salvation.
Just think of the pain that crucified victims have if you look at the picture. In Jesus' case, He was literally a bloody pulp as only by a bloody death can the wrath of God be satisfied. Hebrews 9:22 says, "For without the shedding of blood, there is no remission." Remember, it would not help if He just bled or if He just died, it had to be both. The passover lamb was to be drained of all its blood, it was to be drained into a basin, it was not a pleasant sight. Likewise on Calvary, Jesus was already demeaned beyond anything. He was badly beaten to a bloody pulp as all the sins of man were heaped upon Him. According to archaeologists and historians, crucified victims were stripped naked prior to being nailed to a cross. Crucified convicts were usually stripped naked as to make them a spectacle of shame. It was a multiple disaster situation - a crucified person was weakened, he was naked in the open, he has to support himself in order to breathe and the nails rendered so much pain and he wishes to cover his private part but his hands are nailed. He wants to live but he may also want to die. Death in crucifixion usually took days depending on a person's stamina, in Jesus' case it was three hours as planned. Three is the divine number of the Trinity. Jesus during that time on the cross in full control of His mind even after He was beaten beyond anything that can be portrayed because of His love for sinners who cannot save themselves.
When you think of the crucifixion, there was also that very annoying huge crowd of mockers. The Pharisees were certainly the most happy of the crowd. If you remember, the Pharisees were the religious leaders of a perverted Judaism. Caiaphas would be the pope of the Pharisees, the others were like the cardinals. Today the Roman Catholic institution's Pope is not the successor of Peter but of Caiaphas and the cardinals are not the successors of the Apostles but of the Pharisees. They gave the false convert namely Judas Iscariot reward money for a man who did not deserve to be executed. I could imagine by now the heavy insult, the heavy mockery that was happening and how awful it must have been. When Pilate placed the placard, I would dare think it was mockery. Perhaps it told the Jews, "You deserve such a king!" to them. Earlier, he did not want Jesus crucified but he became a fool for allowing the crowd to dictate him. It's no wonder why I get the statement, "Today the Pope is Caiaphas and the government is Pilate." The mockery went to question Jesus' authority. They were mocking Him, telling Him to show an immediate sign. I could imagine Satan who is at full work here, without realizing that Jesus' death would be his defeat (Hebrews 2:14). I would dare guess Satan was trying to get God the Father to curse God the Son, but instead, it became his ultimate defeat and anybody who receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will have God's grace to overcome any sin.
When I think of Jesus and the sponge stick when He said, "I thirst." in John 19:28, an act of insult was done to the Lord Himself. In John 19:29, vinegar was soaked right into a sponge on a stick. I hope I have not disgusted people with this idea. The sponge stick was what people used to today's equivalent of toilet paper. I revolted at the depravity of sinners who have sunk so low as to even take pleasure in ingesting human waste... sorry if that revolted you so I won't explain in further detail. What happened was this... Jesus having been fed vinegar from what I believe was a used sponge stick meant swallowing all the sins of mankind. Yes, it was a revolting idea when that happened. He was mocked for sins He did not commit. All the weight of the world was there. I could not help but think that Jesus literally swallowed dirt... and sin is indeed dirt and filth to the very being of humanity, it has become the reason why this world spirals downward at a daily basis and even now, at neck-breaking speed. No sin is ever clean and it was man who deserved that filthy bacterial treatment! When I think that the sponge stick was used as toilet paper back then, I could imagine all the filthy bacteria. I mean why is it that we must dispose of human waste according to medical instructions? Why do we dispose of our human wastes? It is because it is bacteria in our body, it is toxic to the body and it contains lots of harmful bacteria. It was a total insult to use something used to clean the dirty anus on the mouth of He who knew no sin. But He chose to, taking the place of man who deserved that dirty mockery.
During that time as we must remember it, one thief on the cross who previously mocked him, saw that Jesus did not deserve any punishment at all! The thief saw his errors, he rebuked the crowd and his companion, but that's not what saved him. True the thief had works manifested because he saw his error, but it was his faith. He repented of his sin in the sense, he saw himself as worthy of death and Jesus did not. As the hymn "There is a Fountain" says, "The dying thief rejoiced to see that Fountain in his day/Though there may I though vile as he/Wash all my sins away". The thief knew only Jesus could save him and by faith he said, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into Thy Kingdom!" in Luke 23:42. Jesus then assured the thief, "Today thou shalt be with Me in Paradise." The thief was going to Heaven, Jesus was going to take the penalty of man in Hell but the thief was going to Paradise. An innocent man given a criminal's death? Hard to comprehend by human standards but Jesus did it because of His sacrificial love for sinful man. The thief had seen how the man was innocent even if he previously mocked Jesus.
I could imagine the pain that Mary, the mother of Jesus must have had. Now Roman Catholics take the incident out of context when Jesus said to John, "Behold your mother." But notice, Mary is called as "Woman, behold your son." It was not for us to acknowledge the earthly mother of Jesus was our mother, no it was he tasked John to take care of His earthly mother now He had fulfilled the will of His Father. When I think of Mary, she was fully obedient. When she told people to do whatever Jesus told them to do, clearly she must have wanted us to realize that she could not intercede between them and Jesus. When she was there at the cross, she was not working as a co-mediator, she knew that her firstborn son was the Son of God, that He came before her and that she would be her savior. Also during that time, Mary's children with Joseph were all but unconverted as Scriptures tell us that neither did they believe in Him. While the early Reformers did not carry out the heresy in Psalm 69:8 which says that Jesus became a stranger unto His mother's own children. The half-brothers and half-sisters would not believe until His ascension and later, James and Jude became part of the workforce for Christ in Jerusalem. If during that time the half-brothers have not yet been converted, only John the Apostle would have been the best choice to take care of Mary.
What is also amazing about Jesus' death was this... most likely He had very little blood left in His systems. When He had already given up His life as the sacrifice was finished, the soldier pierced the side and all the blood was poured that water also had to come out. A dead man's blood always comes out with water, that is proof that the swoon theory could have not worked out. All the blood was poured out. The Passover lamb was slain at the same time all of Jesus' blood was drained out. It had to be a complete draining. It was not enough to kill the Passover lamb, all its blood had to be drained away from its body. Then the blood was applied at the doorposts - first at the lintel then the two doorposts. I would dare believe it formed the prophetic sign of the cross. Jesus was crucified on Passover, the day He became the Passover Lamb and only those who trust in Him can live. It's no wonder Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus." That is, sin really sent Jesus to the cross, we all die someday because we are sinners. Jesus who became the sacrifice for sin as Hebrews 2:9 states that He tasted death for every man. Death is the penalty of sin, He who knew no sin became sin for us and this was finished once and for all.
In short, Good Friday is indeed good because it was where Jesus' goodness for man was fully shown. I was thinking what that first Good Friday was and how the disciples were. Remember Judas Iscariot would later commit suicide instead of asking Jesus to forgive him and betrayal was not an unforgivable sin either. What I thought of that first Good Friday (which was still a Jewish Thursday), what must have been in the mind of people. What if some followers of Jesus were appalled to think that it should have been Barabbas who should have suffered all that. Instead, it was the sinless Son of God who gets all that trashy treatment humanity had to offer, they did the much they can to make Jesus' death slow and agonizing. When the gentle Savior was stripped off everything for the world to see, what was in the mind of the other followers of Jesus? I could imagine the angels watching in shock and horror as God the Son was submitted to pain. They must have wanted to save Him but His love held them back. The Father and the Holy Spirit knew what They were doing. Jesus the Son was in full awareness, He was ready and prepared to carry out the sins of the world. Perhaps, not so many were fully aware of why Jesus took Barabbas' place. In fact, Barabbas represents the sinfulness of man, man's wrong choices and Jesus not intervening, was indeed a picture of Christ's death in the place of those who deserve it.
What amazes me until today is the forgiveness Christ offered even unto those who crucified Him or took part in the foolishness when He said, "Father forgive them for they know what that they do." I would imagine that was absurd by human standards but not by God's standards. Even one of the centurions in Matthew 27:34 was amazed to say, "Truly this man was the Son of God." and I would assume that such a person became a convert, seeing that day an innocent man was slain. Perhaps he was the one who pierced the side to verify if Jesus had died. Later on in Acts 2, we see that some of the people who were responsible for crucifying Jesus were preached to by Peter. Jesus offered forgiveness even to the people responsible for His death, a death that He freely accepted so they can be forgiven. Even so, one of the Pharisees, Saul of Tarsus had a life changing conversion. I was even imagining what if Saul of Tarsus before he became Paul the Apostle, was also part of the group who had Jesus tried illegally? I mean, the timeframe between Jesus' resurrection and ascension was 40 days, that means the Book of Acts' starts with events just a short time after Jesus' ascension. Saul would later persecute the believers with much vigor and he was also partly responsible for Stephen's death yet Jesus still offered him forgiveness on his way to Damascus and changed his life from persecutor against Christ to persecuted for Christ.
Jesus Christ has made a will, and he has left to his people large legacies by that will. Now, wills do not have to be sprinkled with blood, but wills do need that the testator should be dead, otherwise they are not of force.As it was not possible that Christ should die other than a violent death, seeing that he must die as a sacrifice, the term "blood" becomes in this case tantamount to "death". . And so, first of all, the blood of Jesus Christ on Calvary is the blood of the testament, because it is A PROOF THAT HE IS DEAD [emphasis Spurgeon's], and therefore the testament is in force (MTP, vol. 26, p. 632).
What is this "blood of sprinkling"?In a few words, "the blood of sprinkling" represents the pains, the sufferings, the humiliation, and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, which he endured on the behalf of guilty man. When we speak of the blood, we wish not to be understood as referring solely or mainly to the literal material blood which flowed from the wounds of Jesus. We believe in the literal fact of his shedding his blood; but when we speak of his cross and blood we mean those sufferings and that death of our Lord Jesus Christ by which he magnified the law of God; we mean what Isaiah intended when he said, "He shall make his soul an offering for sin"; we mean all the griefs which Jesus vicariously endured on our behalf at Gethsemane, and Gabbatha, and Golgotha, and specially his yielding up his life upon the tree of scorn and doom. "The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed." "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission"; and the shedding of blood intended is the death of Jesus, the Son of God," (MTP, vol. 32, p. 123).
But what does "the blood" mean in Scripture?It means not merely suffering, which might be well typified by blood, but it means suffering unto death, it means the taking of a life. To put it very briefly, a sin against God deserves death as its punishment, and what God said by the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel still standeth true, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." The only way by which God could fulfill his threatening sentence, and yet forgive guilty men, was that Jesus Christ, his Son, came into the world, and offered his life instead of ours (MTP, vol. 40, p. 325).
Sad to say but some born again Christians also have a bizarre notion that in Heaven today. That is there is a literal fountain where the blood is continuously offered. Jesus' blood is back to where it belongs... in His Body. When He got to Heaven, He sat down at the Right Hand of His Father, having completed the task that was required of Him. The blood refers to more than literal blood. Now remember, a lot of people that day of the crucifixion were splattered by the blood of Jesus. Those who flogged Him were splattered by that blood, it's impossible to do a flogging without being splattered by blood. Those who mocked him were also stained by blood. His bloody footsteps are no longer there. Why? It's because the blood of Jesus is back to where it belongs... in His body. When the blood is being sang, it talks about not just bleeding or dying, it talks about BOTH His bleeding and His dying. A lot of people that day were splattered by Jesus' human blood but they would not be saved if they did not believe. Therefore, it is not a literal application for everyone who believes the Gospel of Jesus bloody death, burial and resurrection or all genuinely born again believers would be soaked in literal blood the day they got saved.
To close, I must address this. Now people say, "Why must I receive Christ if He already died on the cross?" That is a good question as one must think of it that in order to receive the benefits of Jesus' sacrificial death, one must in place, believe on Him. It's like if I opened a party with free admission, you must attend the party to benefit from the party. Likewise, to benefit of Christ's sacrifice, you must accept it in its totality. John 5:40 warns of people of who will not come. John 3:36 warns that whoever believes not in Jesus is condemned. A man must accept the payment for sin. Jesus provided the bail, man must accept that bail. Jesus' bloody death paid for the sins but you must accept that payment. Remember the message is in Romans 10:9-13 that if you confess theLordJesus Christ with your mouth (not necessarily an audible confession) and believe in your heart that He rose from the dead, you will be saved and whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
But why do so many people refuse to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior? Simple - they either love sinning so much or they are engrossed in self-righteousness. While it's possible to repent of your sins without repenting of unbelief, but a person will refuse to repent of unbelief without a repentance of sin. While a perfect repentance cannot be expected, as repentance is not only during salvation but also during sanctification, but refusing to repent of one's sins makes one reject the true Gospel. No Gospel preaching is ever without repentance of sin as the Bible says in Luke 24:47 that it the preaching is on the REPENTANCE and REMISSION of sins. Unless a man is even willing to turn from sin, they will refuse to trust the Savior. After all, the message of salvation is, "For He shall save the people from their sins." not "For He shall save the people in their sins." When a man truly believes upon the finished work of the cross, it does not only acknowledge one's helplessness to save one's self but also, the knowledge that sin sent Jesus to the cross. It creates an attitude of gratefulness to live for Christ from the day they got saved until their very last day.