Important Information.

STOP PRESS: The third book in my series - "Defending the Faith" - is now available, as a paperback, at
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1791394388
Please note that ALL royalties, on all three books, now go directly to Release International in support of the persecuted church. E-book now also available at
https://tinyurl.com/y2ffqlur

My second book - Foundations of the Faith - is available as a Kindle e-book at https://tinyurl.com/y243fhgf
Paperback available at:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/151731206X

The first volume - Great Words of the Faith - is available at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009EG6TJW
Paperback available at:
https://tinyurl.com/y42ptl3k

If you haven't got a Kindle, there is a FREE app at
https://tinyurl.com/35y5yed

ALL royalties now go to support the persecuted church.

I may be contacted, personally, at author@minister.com




For those who are bi-lingual, I now have a second blog, in the French language, that publishes twice-monthly. Go to: https://crazyrevfr.blogspot.com/

22 Apr 2011

Good Friday

Well, the Friday bit, anyone can understand.  It's simply a day of the week.  But why is it called "Good" Friday?  After all, hasn't it got to do with Someone dying on a cross - one of the most excruciatingly painful methods of executing the death penalty that the twisted mind of mankind has invented?  What's good about that?

If it was just any man who had died like that, I suppose that there wouldn't be anything good about it.  But this wasn't just any man.  This was the One known as Jesus of Nazareth; the One Who was the Creator God in human flesh.

Some years later, a man named Paul referred to that crucifixion in a letter to some of the disciples of Jesus in the city of Corinth.  He wrote: “For our sake He (God the Father) made Him (God the Son) to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”  (II Cor 5:21; RSV)
John, one of the earliest disciples of Jesus, affirms to us that “God is love” (I Jn.4:8, 16).  And he isn't claiming that God is merely the highest form of love; but that He is the very essence of love.  Without God, love would not exist; without love, God could not exist. 
Paul, in those words to the Corinthian church, is telling us that when He hung on the cross, Jesus, the sinless, holy, perfect and without blemish Lamb of God, did not merely take my sin upon Himself, and pay the penalty that I owed.  He says that He became the very essence of sin.  He didn’t just die for my sins - amazing 'though even that would have been; He became all that sin is – all the ugliness, and blackness, and virulence, and bitterness, and maliciousness, and pollution, and poison, that is sin.  I wonder, was that what Isaiah saw as he was allowed to look over the horizon of time and get that glimpse of Calvary centuries before the event?  “He had no form or comeliness that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.” (53:2).  No wonder that, for a brief moment of human time, the Father could not even look upon the Son, causing Him to cry out, in anguish, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
And He did all of that; He became sin; for you, and for me!  The hymn-writer didn’t quite get the message when he wrote “O help me understand it, help me to take it in; what it meant to Thee, the Holy One, to bear away my sin.” (K.A.M.Kelly).  H.G.Spafford was closer when he wrote “My sin – oh the bliss of this glorious thought – my sin, not in part, but the whole is nailed to His Cross, and I bear it no more; Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul”
And that is why this is Good Friday.  Because it was on that first Good Friday that sin was defeated; the devil conquered; and the way made open for sinful men and women to commune, directly, with their Creator.  And, of course, that wasn't the end of even that part of the greatest story ever told.  But that's for the day after tomorrow!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just looking at some of your latest posts, including the nasty homophobic stuff ( I'm married and straight BTW, before you jump to any conclusions about me being an 'evil' homosexual), and I couldn't help but notice that you're receiving absolutely no comments.
Had it ever occured to you that this might be because people have absolutely no interest in your bigoted rants?
(I bet you delete this comment as I doubt you can take any sort of criticism. However, I challenge you to let my comment stand - if you don't, then I'll know you have no real faith in your own convictions.)

CrazyRev said...

Not only do I have the courage of my own convictions, but I also have the courage not to hide behind "Anonymous"!!
You should check back, and you will discover that I do receive comments - although I do tend not to publish those from "Anonymous" or those that use language that I would not use myself! Of course, the blog is, like all blogs, a means for me to make comment - not an endeavour to receive comments in reply.
With regard to you allegation of "homophobia", I will definitely plead "Not Guilty". You, it appears, are incapable of differentiating between the perverse, and unproductive, activity of homosexuals, and the persons so involved. I happen to go along with the old maxim of "Hate the sin, but love the sinner".
My challenge to you is to "come out" (!!) and identify yourself. If you don't, then I'll know that you have no real faith in your own convictions. (Now, where have I read that, recently??!!) Otherwise, I will delete your anonymous comment in a week or two.
BTW, you had sufficient interest in my "bigoted rants" (to which I am fully entitled on my own blog!) to comment. There is no such thing, it has been said, as bad publicity!!!!

CrazyRev said...

Forgot to mention - the 14 "followers" of my blog, and the number of whom I am aware who have set up RSS feeds so that each post goes directly to their e-mail inbox, further belies your "no interest" assumption!!
Just as well that I am not a betting man - otherwise, you would have to pay up!! (I'm assuming that you would be honest enough to let me know the stake upon which you had decided!!)

All is One said...

Heya i’m for the first time here. I found this board and
I find It really useful & it helped me out much. I hope to
give something back and aid others like you aided me.
Why Is It Called Good Friday