Good Friday is a solemn day—or should be in
proper reflection. Before Jesus made His way to the cross, He had a battle to overcome in the Garden of
Gethsemane. This is where Jesus had an intense spiritual battle and through His
struggle remained obedient to God and submitted Himself to the will of the
Father. He agonized as He pondered what was to come and prayed for the cup to
pass. Through His love for us, He remained obedient; He saw beyond the cross to
those that He loved and desired to redeem. He chose to obey the will of the Father and to endure His impending suffering.
Jesus chose the way of obedience, and the Lord sent an angel to minister to
Him.
“And He withdrew
from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying,
‘Father, if You are willing, remove
this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.’ Now an angel
from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him” {Luke
22: 41-43 NASB}.
Jesus received His strength from the Lord. When the
Lord sent the angel unto Him, the Father strengthened Him and enabled Him to
remain obedient until death.
Jesus suffered immensely on our behalf, and it is important to remember
that He not only died for us, but He also died in our place and on our behalf.
The brutality that Jesus experienced absorbed God’s wrath and reconciled us to
the Father. He exhibited the grace and mercy of God on behalf of sinners and conquered death. He was the last
and perfect sin offering.
“This is the law
of the sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is killed, the sin
offering shall be killed before the Lord. It is most holy” {Leviticus
6:25 NASB
Christ—the holiness of God, beautifully
prophesied in the Old Testament, just as the high priest was adorned with the
words holiness unto the Lord, Christ was holiness in the deepest and fullest sense of
the word. The Old Testament tells the story that Jesus completes in the NewTestament. We would not have the New Testament without the Old.
Leviticus
chapter four details the requirements for the sin offering, I encourage you
to read it, it is too lengthy for the space
here. Here is a brief summary;
The sacrifice for the sin offering offered at
the Tabernacle had to be the first-born
male, without spot or blemish. The sacrifice was required to be inspected by
the priests to ensure the sacrifice satisfied God’s requirements. In the New Testament Jesus fulfilled this requirement, as He, upon inspection seven times,
was found to be without fault.
1. Pilate: John 19:4; Pilate came out again and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him” {NASB
1. Pilate: John 19:4; Pilate came out again and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him” {NASB
2. Herod: Luke 23: 14-15; “You brought this man to me as one who incites the people
to rebellion, and behold, having examined
Him before you, I have found no guilt in this man regarding the charges which
you make against Him. No, nor has Herod, for he sent Him back to us; and
behold, nothing deserving death has been done by Him” {NASB}.
3. The High Priest: John 18 says after Annas sent Jesus to Caiaphas; he could find no fault with Jesus.
4. Caiaphas:
Matt. 26:57-75; Could not get the
witnesses to agree on any wrongdoing by Jesus.
5. Judas: Matt. 27:4; “I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood”
{NASB}.
6. The Centurion: Matt. 27: 54; “Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping
guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were
happening, became very frightened and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’”
{NASB
7. The thief on the cross: Luke
23:40-41; “But the other answered,
and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God
since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we
indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for
our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong” {NASB}.
Jesus
is not only our sin offering, He is also our Passover Lamb. It is no accident
that Christ was crucified on Passover. He was not only crucified on the day,
but also at the same hour.
“With this many
lambs, it was necessary for the Jews to prepare them for sacrifice at nine
o’clock in the morning…they then killed them at three o’clock that afternoon so
that the Passover could be completed before six o’clock, which would begin a
new day.”[1]
As Israel was slaughtering the lambs with
knives, spikes were driven into the flesh of our Lord; fulfilling Isaiah’sprophecy…He was wounded for our transgressions….
“Then at three
o’clock as the people were praising God and slaughtering the lambs, Jesus died.
Mark was careful to note the time and wrote that it was the ninth hour (three
o’clock Jewish time) when Jesus breathed His last breath (see Mark 15:33-37).”[2]
On Passover, the Israelites were to take hyssop and apply the blood of the lamb on the
lintel of the doorway and on each side post. Now as Christ hanged on the cross
dead, His blood is applied to humanity, and the destroyer has to Passover at the presence of the Blood.
The only way to the Father is to believe that Jesus Christ died
and rose from the dead for our sin; to attempt any other passageway is to negate the cross. In the
Tabernacle there was only one door;
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and
the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” {John
14:6 NASB}.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it… And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” {John 1: 1-5, 14 NASB}.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it… And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” {John 1: 1-5, 14 NASB}.
“Who is the one who overcomes the
world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the
One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but
with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three
that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in
agreement” {1
John 5:5-8 NASB}.
“And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament,
that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were
under the first testament. They which are called might receive the promises of
eternal inheritance” {Hebrews
9: 15 NASB}.
Dear Jesus, thank you for being the perfect sacrifice for sin.
Thank you for loving the world so much that you died to redeem it. Father, I thank You for the many that You used
to bring forth the birth of Your Son. I honor them today for obedience to You.
I acknowledge Jesus Christ as my only mediator and propitiation for my sin and
I give you all the glory, honor, and praise. Jesus,
You are our Paschal
Lamb, and we apply Your blood over the doorpost and lintels of our homes;
hyssop in hand reminding us of our humanity and sin that runs rampant in the earth. Thank You for Your shed blood that marks us for You and sends
the destroyer on his way. In Your precious Name, Amen.
[1]Booker, Richard, Celebrating Jesus In
The Biblical Feasts (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, Inc.,
2009), 42-43.
[2]
Ibid.
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