Good Friday

In Him God makes Himself liable, at the point at which we are accursed and guilty and lost. He it is in His Son, who in the person of this crucified man bears on Golgotha all that ought to be laid on us. And in this way He makes an end of the curse. […] And God does this, not in spite of His righteousness, but it is God's very righteousness that He, the holy One, steps in for us the unholy, that He wills to save and does save us. […]

'His Son is not too dear to Him,
He gives Him up; for He
From fire eternal by His blood
Would rescue me.'

That is the mystery of Good Friday.

—Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline, 118.

Good Friday is truly the most amazing day of the year, it seems to me. Christmas is the stunning entry into this world of the very Son of God. Easter is His triumph over death. But Good Friday is the day that God gave up His son to the cursed death that belongs on me.

It was the third hour, and they crucified him. The superscription of his accusation was written over him, “THE KING OF THE JEWS.” With him they crucified two robbers; one on his right hand, and one on his left. The Scripture was fulfilled, which says, “He was numbered with transgressors.” […]

When the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. At the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is, being interpreted, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

—Mark 15:25-28, 33, 34.

What wondrous love is this?