Good Friday

Two days ago I read the chapter entitled "God Dies" in Driscoll and Breshear's Doctrine. It gives detailed descriptions about the events of the cross alongside the blessings available to sinners because of it. Examining the full scope of the cross is a good practice any day, but especially this Friday.

Here are some of the physical pains Christ took upon himself for us: (taken from Doctrine, pp. 248-252)

Gethsemane: sleepless night of extreme distress and eventual betrayal by a close friend

Scourging/flogging: designed to tenderize the body of a victim using pieces of glass, metal, and bone; the damage is similar to the "results of a shotgun blast"

Falling under the weight of the cross: trauma compared to the chest trauma caused by a car accident when the driver is violently thrown into the steering wheel

Crucifixion: nails driven into most sensitive nerve centers; bloodied backed constantly scrapping against the wood, loss of ability to control bodily functions

There was much more facing Christ. And they were just as horrible. But He did not suffer through these things in vain.

At last, with this foul taste on his lips, Jesus said in a loud voice of triumph, "It is finished." At this moment, the atonement for sin was made and the holiness, righteousness, justice, and wrath of God were satisfied in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Jesus then said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" Jesus reserved his final breath from the cross to shout his triumphant victory to the world by confirming that he had been restored to God the Father after atoning for human sin. (Driscoll & Breshears, pp. 252)