Today is Good Friday!
If we are going to truly appreciate how good Good Friday is, we need to grasp how bad we are. We need to feel how dark our sin really is.
Dr. Matin Lloyd-Jones suggests,
If we are going to truly appreciate how good Good Friday is, we need to grasp how bad we are. We need to feel how dark our sin really is.
Dr. Matin Lloyd-Jones suggests,
“No one will ever have a true conception of the Biblical teaching with regard to redemption if he is not clear about the Biblical doctrine of sin…you cannot possibly understand the death of our Lord and what He did there on the cross unless you are clear about this doctrine of sin.”
In fact, the cross itself gives us a taste of how terrible our sin is.
We see the depths of our sin in the extent of Jesus’ suffering. Jesus didn’t die for fancy; He didn’t suffer for some sadistic pleasure. Jesus didn’t endure the cross for kicks any more than you would face open-heart surgery just for the fun of it. No! Jesus died because of our sins.
His death involved the worst form of torture and prolonged suffering.
Jesus didn’t suffer simply because of a lack of judgment on our part, or a mis-calculation, or a raw luck of the deal; Jesus didn’t endure the cross because of an innocent accident, or poor environmental factors. Jesus was crucified for your sin!
We can sometimes be so quick to jump to what God has given us; so quick, even, to jump to the resurrection – to Sunday – to the life we have because of Jesus, that we forget to reflect on the dark, dank depths of our sin!
But when we see Jesus on the cross; when we hear the screams and face the horrors, as much as we feel the darkness – we can’t ignore our sin.
It was our sins that put Him there in the first place.
As another old Puritan writer, Stephen Charnock, has put it,
We see the depths of our sin in the extent of Jesus’ suffering. Jesus didn’t die for fancy; He didn’t suffer for some sadistic pleasure. Jesus didn’t endure the cross for kicks any more than you would face open-heart surgery just for the fun of it. No! Jesus died because of our sins.
His death involved the worst form of torture and prolonged suffering.
Jesus didn’t suffer simply because of a lack of judgment on our part, or a mis-calculation, or a raw luck of the deal; Jesus didn’t endure the cross because of an innocent accident, or poor environmental factors. Jesus was crucified for your sin!
We can sometimes be so quick to jump to what God has given us; so quick, even, to jump to the resurrection – to Sunday – to the life we have because of Jesus, that we forget to reflect on the dark, dank depths of our sin!
But when we see Jesus on the cross; when we hear the screams and face the horrors, as much as we feel the darkness – we can’t ignore our sin.
It was our sins that put Him there in the first place.
As another old Puritan writer, Stephen Charnock, has put it,
“We can’t go on loving the sin that led our dear Saviour to the horrors of the cross.”
This is why we fervently and desperately pray, each day, "Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil."
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF
- How does the cross show us our sins?
- How does the cross prepare us to see and confess how bad our sins are?
- How do these thoughts, especially on Good Friday, lead you to pray?
You can listen to Martin Lloyd-Jones' sermon containing the quote above here.
The quote from Stephen Charnock is from Tim Chester's Lenten devotion, Oceans of Grace. Perhaps you could order it in time for next Easter.
The quote from Stephen Charnock is from Tim Chester's Lenten devotion, Oceans of Grace. Perhaps you could order it in time for next Easter.