3. WHAT REALLY HAPPENED ON GOOD FRIDAY?

A. In limiting our study to the Cross of Christ we must pass over many relevant and interesting matters, for example:
1. The ‘trial’ of Jesus (which was no legal trial at all).
2. The cowardly roles of Herod and Pilate.
3. The shouts and demands of the people.
4. The role of the Roman soldiers.
5. The burial of Jesus.

B. Good Friday must be understood by the Holy Spirit, not merely from the external act of the crucifixion.
1. An old spiritual asks: ‘Were you there when they crucified my Lord?’
(a) The truth is, had you been there you would have seen nothing but a spine-chilling crucifixion: ‘When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away’ (Luke 23:48).
(b) There was nothing that you could have seen at the time that would have told you that this was the atonement for the sins of the world, that it was when God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself.
(c) More likely one would concur with Isaiah’s prophecy that foretold how the Jews felt safe in their self-justification: ‘We considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted’ (53:4). It looked as though God was against Jesus and that Jesus was getting what he deserved.
2. The only way the events of Good Friday can be accurately interpreted is by the Holy Spirit.
(a) Even after the resurrection itself the disciples did not know why Jesus was crucified—or why he was raised from the dead.
p 103 (b) It was not until the Spirit fell on the disciples at Pentecost that the whole event came together. Then Peter and the disciples understood it all for the first time.
(1) They then saw that it was for our sins that Jesus died.
(2) They saw that it was all a part of God’s pre-determined plan: ‘This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross’ (Acts 2:23).
3. Therefore, to examine the four Gospels apart from the Holy Spirit and to look for the meaning of the crucifixion is almost like looking for a needle in a haystack!
(a) Of course, with the Holy Spirit and the Bible we can understand it all very well.
(b) But to put yourself back at the scene of the Cross without the aid of the Holy Spirit is to find little evidence that God was at work.

C. There is proof, however, that God was at work at the time.
1. The tearing of the curtain of the Temple from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). This was no coincidence for it came ‘from top to bottom’, proving God did it. And it came at the precise moment that Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘It is finished.’
(a) This tearing of the curtain showed divine affirmation of the Cross. This showed that God put his own seal of approval on what Jesus did. It officially ended the sacrificial system as far as God was concerned.
2. The bodies of many saints arose from the dead.
(a) This showed God’s approval (Matthew 27:52–53).
(b) It was an immense encouragement to those who had been believers.
3. The confession of the Roman centurion. ‘When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” ’ (Matthew 27:54).
4. One might be inclined to add the words of Jesus, ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30).
(a) But this too is only grasped by the Spirit.
(b) ‘It is finished’ is the English translation of tetelestai, a colloquial expression in the ancient marketplace that meant ‘paid in full’.
(1) But those who heard the Aramaic may have assumed Jesus only meant ‘It’s over’—or that he had paid for his own sin.
(2) Only the Spirit will make tetelestai precious to us.

D. What ought those present to have seen?
1. The fulfillment of Passover.
(a) It was the very time of Passover.
(b) All that happened when Jesus was hanging on the Cross mirrored the shedding of blood.
(1) ‘When I see the blood, I will pass over you’ (Exodus 12:13).
(2) ‘Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the door-frame. Not one of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning’ (Exodus 12:22).
2. The fulfillment of Isaiah 53.
(a) A part of this chapter shows how the Jews would regard their Messiah (Isaiah 53:2–4).
(b) But the truth was: ‘The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all’ (Isaiah 53:6).

E. What is it that we grasp by the Spirit?
1. Jesus bore the punishment of our sins.
(a) He did not die for his own sin; he was sinless.
(b) He died for our sins.
2. Jesus was our substitute.
(a) He got what we deserve—the punishment of God’s wrath.
(b) He literally took our place.
3. That Jesus’ blood satisfied the justice of God.
(a) ‘When I see the blood, I will pass over you.’
(b) God looked at that blood and passed over our sins.

CONCLUSION
The relevance of all this for us is that what happened on Good Friday is the way—and the only way—we are saved. We should honour what Jesus did by recalling these words from Paul: ‘For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified’ (1 Corinthians 2:2). The Cross, the greatest possible stigma, was to Paul the greatest thing one could uphold. Instead of presenting Christianity in the ‘best’ possible light to a godless generation, Paul put forward the ‘worst’ possible offence! ‘May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world’ (Galatians 6:14).
This is the heart of the gospel. It is God’s way of saving us. It is the only way we can be saved, assuming that the Holy Spirit has worked faith in our hearts.

Kendall, R. T. (1996). Understanding Theology, Volume One (pp. 102–104). Ross-shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus.