Why Do We Call Good Friday “Good”? Because Our King Suffered And Will Reign Forever (Isaiah 52:13-53:12)
Why do we call Good Friday “good”?
Jesus Christ, the only perfect human being to walk this planet was betrayed by a friend, wrongly accused of a crime, placed underwent a mockery of a trial, was mocked by leaders, mocked by soldiers, beaten with fists, a crown of thorns was placed upon His head, the crowd chose to release a murderer instead of Him, He was scourged with a device meant to tear the flesh away from His back…and it did, He was forced to carry His cross…the device that would be used to kill Him to the place He would die…where he was nailed to that cross, hung naked for all to see, and was again mocked and ridiculed, and there He died.
Why do we call Good Friday “good”?
This is the bleakest moment in history. If there was nothing more wicked and vile then all of this falling upon the world’s most righteous person, then how can we call it “good”?
The rightful King had come to Jerusalem under a hale of “Hosannas” and honor and worship on Sunday, and on Friday all of this happened to Him under a hale of “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”.
Why do we call this good?
Hundreds of years before Jesus went to the cross we were given that answer. Hundreds of years before Jesus was scourged, beaten, spat upon, mocked, and crucified, God informed everyone as to the importance of this event. And He did so through His prophet Isaiah.
And that’s were we will be today, Isaiah 52:13-53.
Isaiah 52:13-15 works as an overview of what we read in Isaiah 53. God’s servant, Jesus is the topic throughout. And from that outline we understand that Jesus would come and prosper and be greatly exalted (Isaiah 52:13). His appearance would be greatly marred (Isaiah 52:14). Jesus would purify, or make righteous, many nations (Isaiah 52:15). And He would subdue the kings of the Earth (Isaiah 52:15). That is the summary statement given before Isaiah goes into the details of chapter 53. And so, as we read the text we will be helped by keeping all of this in mind. It will aid our interpretation of certain aspects of the text. But there is something quite peculiar about this summary. One would think that it would the reign of God’s servant would come about through warfare or great battles of some sort. But that is not the case.
What we find as we read through Isaiah 53 is that all of this will happen because of Good Friday.
Jesus Was Crushed In Our Place By God (Isaiah 53:1-10).
Isaiah 53 begins with a sense of astonishment. This King and His Kingdom does not grow or come about in the typical way of kings and kingdoms. Who can fathom the way things would work out?
The King would come when the tree of David’s Kingdom was cut down. He would spring up like a shoot form a stump or a root out of dry ground. His coming would be completely unexpected and would seemingly come out of nowhere.
His life would not be all that regal either. There would be nothing in His appearance that would attract people to this king (Isaiah 53:2). And rather than living a royal life, His life would be filled with sorrow and grief, not the esteem that most kings receive.
Jesus had a sort of, upside down kingship, if one considers how things often worked out in ancient times. If anyone suffered it would not be the king. But Jesus would carry the sorrows and griefs of His people (Isaiah 53:4). And this happened to such an extent that we look at what was done to Him, and it causes us grief to consider. We consider the mocking, the beating, the scourging, the nails being pounded into His hands, and we shudder at the thought. But this suffering did not take place because He was sinful. He did this for His people. His suffering was on behalf of His people.
Jesus was not the king who sends people out to war so that He could enrich Himself. He is not an American politician getting wealthy off His Office. He took suffering upon Himself for His people.
And Isaiah doesn’t slow the pace here. God has more to say about what Jesus would do. He was pierced for our sin, chastised to bring us peace, wounded so that we would be healed (Isaiah 53:5). Why were the nails driven into the hands of Jesus? For our sins. Why was Jesus beaten and flogged, chastised? To bring us peace. Why was Jesus wounded? So that we would be healed.
We sinned. We went away. We turned away from God in rebellion. We earned for ourselves God’s wrath and His justice. And God placed the punishment for all of it upon Jesus, His Son (Isaiah 53:6). Christians know this by heart. It is part of the great truths that we think on and sing about so often.
“Because the sinless Savior died, my guilty soul is counted free, for God the Just is satisfied, to look on Him and pardon me.”—from the Hymn “Before the Throne of God Above
“Was it for crimes that I had done, He groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity! Grace unknown! And love beyond degree!”—from the Hymn “Alas and Did My Savior Bleed
“This gift of love and righteousness, scorned by the ones He came to save, ‘til on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied, for every sin on Him was laid. Here in the death of Christ I live.”—from In Christ Alone
He did not fight this either. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7).
Consider these things. When the betrayer, Judas, kissed Him and signaled to the guards who Jesus was so that they could arrest Him, Jesus did not struggle. He just went, and commanded His disciples to back down. And there was no struggle or fight as He stood before Caiaphas. Nor was there a struggle as He stood there undergoing the mocking from Herod. He did not call down an army of angels to protect Him before Pilate. Nor did He defend Himself when He was beaten, spat upon, mocked, and flogged. Then he obediently carried His cross to the place where He would be nailed to it and die. Jesus did not fight it. He went. He went to bear the sins of God’s people, and He did so like a lamb to the slaughter.
And His death was not one of happiness and joy. He died oppressed and judged (Isaiah 53:9).
Though He had committed no wrong, the people shouted “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”.
Though He had done no wrong, He was nailed to a cross to die between two thieves. He died among the wicked (Isaiah 53:9).
But, even though He was oppressed and judged, He was buried in a rich man’s tomb (Isaiah 53:9). It happened when Joseph of Arimathea offered up his tomb for Jesus’s use (Matthew 27:57-60).
These are horrific events that took place in the life of Jesus. But verse 10 makes the jaw hit the floor.
“Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush Him; He has put Him to grief; when His soul makes an offering for guilt,…” (Isaiah 53:10).
Jesus’s death was not a plan gone wrong. It was not plan B. this was God’s Plan A. This is how God accomplished the redemption of His people. Jesus was crushed as an offering for guilt.
God sent His Son into the world, to live a perfect life and to die on a cross as the punishment for sin. We rebelled against God. We earned God’s righteous justice and punishment. But God’s Son willingly bore God’s wrath and punishment for all who would ever believe. He took their place. He took the punishment that everyone who would ever believe owed. And He paid that punishment in full.
Our response to this message is repentance and faith. We turn from ruling our own lives and entrust our selves to Him.
Jesus Was Crushed, So I Could Be Counted Righteous (Isaiah 53:11)
Why was Jesus crushed?
Jesus was crushed so that I and every other believer could be counted righteous in Him.
This anguish of Jesus was going to bear a certain fruit. And the fruit would be that many people would be accounted righteous in Him. He would “bear their iniquities” and because of this they would be counted righteous.
It is not only that our sins are paid for. It is that we are no longer reckoned as guilty by God. Because of the work of Christ, I can be counted as righteous.
I had a record of debt that stood against me. Every wicked thought and deed that had ever been part of my life stood against me. And it is that way for every single person.
“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:13-14 ESV)
The debt was cancelled along with all the legal demands of that debt. They were all set aside. They were all nailed to the cross. And because of the finished work of Christ, I am declared righteous by God.
I am no longer reckoned a sinner in the eyes of God, but because of the finished work of Christ I am counted righteous in God’s courtroom.
This is what we need. As rebel sinners who stand condemned before God, we need our sins to be forgiven and to be counted righteous before God. There is no other way for us to stand before the Lord and live in eternity before Him in His presence without this. Praise God that He made a way!
Jesus Was Crushed, And Now He Reigns (Isaiah 53:10b-12)
Had we not thought through the introduction to Isaiah 53 and looked at the end of Isaiah 52, this ending might come as a surprise. Who has ever heard of a king gaining a kingdom by His own sacrificial death? But that is how it is with Christ.
Because of the finished work of Christ, many people will be justified (Isaiah 53:11). And because of this, the offspring of Jesus will be many (Isaiah 53:10). There will be a number too great to count in the New Heavens and Earth of people who have come to Christ from every tribe nation and tongue (Revelation 7:1).
And through this grown of His Kingdom, the growth in number of His offspring, His rule and reign will prosper. Many people will be counted righteous because of what He did. And He will be counted as great and strong because of the many people in His Kingdom (Isaiah 53:12).
And it’s not because He waged war against them. It’s because he made intercession for them. He laid His life down as a guilt offering for them. And many, many, people placed their faith in Him (Isaiah 53:12).
Jesus was crushed in the place of sinners. And as we go forth and declare that message, people from all over the world are coming to be part of His Kingdom. His Kingdom is growing, but it is not growing through military might. It’s growing through the proclamation of forgiveness that is found only in Christ.
Conclusion
Read Luke 23:33-43. On Good Friday, Jesus was hanging on the cross. He was being crushed by the Father as the sacrifice for our sins. Jesus freely offered Himself up as the sacrifice on behalf of sinners. From the cross he heard the mocking of people, religious leaders, soldiers, and others. He was naked, beaten, and struggling for breath as He stood in place of sinners. The wrath of God was falling upon Him amid the mockery of the people. And one of the criminals joined in the fun with his own dying breaths. But the other rebuked him.
“Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And He said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” (Luke 23:40-43 ESV)
You see, we all stand condemned before God. We have all gone astray. We have earned for ourselves God’s wrath and judgment. And here we are as those criminals were, condemned for the crimes we have committed. We will receive the “due reward of our deeds”.
That is, unless we entrust our selves to the Lord and cry out like the thief on the cross. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
“The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day; and there may I though vile as he, wash all my sins away.”—There is a Fountain Filled with Blood
Why do we call Good Friday “good”?
Because God the Son took on human flesh and dwelt among us. He made Himself killable, able to be a sacrifice. And He lived a perfect life, becoming a spotless sacrifice. And He took the punishment that we owed upon Himself. He bore God’s wrath in place of guilty sinners. And because of this, He now rules and reigns and is bringing condemned sinners to Himself.
Why do we call Good Friday “good”?
Because we are guilty and condemned criminals who earned for ourselves God’s wrath and justice, but have been given the right to come into Christ’s Kingdom through the sacrifice of Christ.
R. Dwain Minor