How was GRACE delivered to you? To me? To everyone who believes by faith? It happened one Friday long ago. On that day, GRACE was delivered in six painful hours.
Welcome to Faithful Friday, dear friends. And what an exceptional Friday it is. Good Friday. A day we remember.
Why do we call it Good Friday? Doesn’t it seem like a bit of an oxymoron to you? The short video below explains why we, as Christians, call this day good.
On Mindful Monday we continued our exploration of GRACE by learning how God delivered His amazing grace to all by the sacrifice Christ made on the cross. You can read that post HERE if you missed it.
And while this GRACE is a free gift available to everyone who accepts it by faith, it is not cheap. It cost Christ his life.
And on this Good Friday, we need to pause and ponder this sacrifice.
We need to remember those six agonizing hours Christ suffered at the hands of his enemies to deliver this free gift of GRACE. He went willingly without a word to defend himself. He did this for you and for me.
Take some time on this GOOD FRIDAY to read the chapter from ISAIAH 53 and watch the video clip from THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. I want to warn you that the movie contains some graphic scenes, but I still urge you to watch it. It shows in painful detail exactly how Christ suffered to grant us the GRACE that covers you and me.
Isaiah 53 (The Message)
53 Who believes what we’ve heard and seen?
Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?
2-6 The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
on him, on him.
7-9 He was beaten, he was tortured,
but he didn’t say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he’d never hurt a soul
or said one word that wasn’t true.
10 Still, it’s what God had in mind all along,
to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.
11-12 Out of that terrible travail of soul,
he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
will make many “righteous ones,”
as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—
the best of everything, the highest honors—
Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch,
because he embraced the company of the lowest.
He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
he took up the cause of all the black sheep.
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