Good News From a Good God

April 14, 2008

By Christina Quick

"Why do we call Good Friday good?" my 9-year-old daughter asked last month as we  prepared to celebrate Easter. "I mean, it’s the day Jesus died, right? What’s good about that?"

Indeed, there are a great many things about Jesus’ death that aren’t good at all.

The sin that led Christ to Calvary — our sin — is ugly and vile. It separates people from their Creator. It enslaves, maims, kills and leads to eternal punishment. It is expressed in anger, bitterness, strife, murder, selfishness, jealousy and every other act and characteristic that is unlike God. Sin is not good.

Christ’s trial was the greatest injustice in history. It’s hard to comprehend the atrocity of God’s own Son being falsely accused, spat upon and beaten as an angry mob demanded His murder. It was a moment that revealed the depths of human depravity, and it was anything but good.

Historians have described crucifixion as the most horrendous form of execution ever devised. It is slow, agonizing and barbaric. As Jesus hung on the cross, the only thing greater than the physical torture must have been the burden of bearing our guilt. Scripture tells us He felt forsaken even by His Father and cried out to Him in anguish.

That original Good Friday was a horrific scene for those who witnessed it. As Jesus’ followers watched the life drain out of Him, they probably had little hope that anything would ever be good again. What they didn’t yet understand was that good had not been defeated. Good had instead triumphed — a truth that was confirmed three days later, at Jesus’ resurrection.

I explained to my daughter that through the cross, God made a way for us to experience all the good things He intended from the beginning: a relationship with Him, freedom to live according to His will and eternal life in His presence. And because of Good Friday, the worst moments of our lives — the days when we experience sadness, disappointment or rejection — can still be good because we serve a good God and look forward to a good future with Him. That’s the good news of Christ.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28, NIV).

— Christina Quick is staff writer for Today’s Pentecostal Evangel and blogs at Refrigerator Art (cquick.agblogger.org).