Good Friday? Is that a joke? Why would the day that Jesus died be considered good? In one very real sense, the death of Jesus is the worst thing ever to happen in history; it simply is not Good. However, in another sense, without the Cross history would be without hope. Below are five reasons that Jesus’ death was a good thing.

1. His Death is Good Because It Reconciled Us 

"this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself." - 2 Corinthians 5:18

We were in need of reconciliation. All humans, without God’s grace are called God’s enemies (Romans 5:10), alienated and hostile to God (Colossians 1:21), and were objects of God’s wrath (Ephesians 2:3), which is severe relational discord. We had a broken relationship that needed mediation, and Christ is the “one mediator between God and man” (1 Timothy 2:5). In absorbing and therefore removing the wrath of God that we had upon us (the specific theological term for this is to make propitiation), Jesus removes the sin-barrier in our relationship to God and thus reconciles us to the Father. This is the essence of forgiveness: the substitutionary death of the Son on our behalf reconciling us to the Father.

2. His Death is Good Because It Redefines Power

"He emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." - Philippians 2:7-8

We tend to have terrible views of what power and authority are and what they are for. The Gospel is the story of the King of the Universe becoming a Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53). The Gospel is the story of the Most High doing the jobs reserved for the most low (John 13). The Gospel is the story of the Holy One associating himself with the unclean (Luke 7:38). The Gospel is the story of the heir of a throne spending time with the marginalized of society (Matthew 15:21-18). The Gospel is the story of The First making himself The Last (Matthew 20:16). Power is not something to exercised for personal gain, rather, power for Jesus is something to be used for the service of others. The Lord of all dies naked on a cross - the powerful willfully becoming powerless so that the hopeless would have hope. The Suffering Servant calls us to follow him as suffering servants as long as we live.

3. His Death is Good Because It Redeemed Us

"In him we have redemption through his blood." - Ephesians 1:7

Redemption is slavery language; when a slave was purchased out of slavery, they were redeemed. We, along with the cosmos, were in slavery to sin and death. Through the blood of Christ, we are purchased out of slavery to sin. Thus, freedom in Christ has to do with no longer being slaves to sin; we are free because we can now follow Jesus. “Christ redeemed us at infinite cost to Himself so that we might be free to serve Him” (Trevin Wax).

4. His Death is Good Because It Radicalizes Love

"In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." - 1 John 4:9-11

Love is a cheap word in the English language. The Cross of Christ will not allow us to maintain our “easy” view of love. Because of the cross, we can see that “all love, all real, life-changing love, is substitutionary sacrifice” (Tim Keller, Jesus the King). We will absorb pain on behalf of others if we truly love them. The path of least resistance is not the path of the Cross.

5. His Death is Good Because It Removes Our Shame

"Fear not, for you will not be ashamed." - Isaiah 54:4

Isaiah 53 is a prophecy of the coming of the Suffering Servant. Isaiah 54 speaks to the benefits that followers of the Suffering Servant will reap from his dying on the cross. One of those outcomes is that God’s people will not be put to shame. Jesus did not just absorb the wrath our sin deserved, but, in hanging naked on the cross, he absorbed the shame our sin deserved. Sin is objectively shameful; on the cross that shame was taken. Sometimes people will say, “I know God forgives me, but I cannot forgive myself.” This is what shame sounds like - even though someone might believe the cross saves them from God’s eternal wrath, in the here-and-now one might still feel “dirty” or “unclean”. Christ took our shame away just as much as he took our wrath away. We must look “to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, awho for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 12:2).