Welcome to a special bonus episode on the For the Gospel podcast where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn, and today, as you reflect on the significance of Good Friday, I want to remind you to behold the cross. Today's not a day to rush. It's not a day for a lot of distractions or just the normal hustle and bustle of everyday life. Good Friday invites us to slow down and to behold the cross of Christ because before there was an empty tomb. And yes, Sunday's coming. There was a rugged, bloody cross. And my concern is that if we move too quickly past it, we will never really fully understand the weight of it and what the cost was on the cross. First, I want you to behold the weight of sin. I want you to think about that for just a moment. We often talk about sin, maybe in a casual way. I make mistakes, everybody slips up, I've got a struggle, you've got a struggle. But Good Friday reminds us that sin is not small. We behold the weight of sin. And that's a part of the cross. The cross shows us what sin actually costs. Every lash, every nail, every drop of blood, the Lord Jesus' death on our behalf. That's the price of sin. And it's not just sin in general either. It's your sin, my sin, very specific. Our pride, our lust, our anger, our selfishness, all of the things that nobody else sees or even maybe knows about. All of that sin nailed him to the cross. The cross is where God shows everyone this is how serious sin really is. And so we don't minimize sin. We don't excuse sin. We don't justify sin. We behold the cross and see sin was not small. I think of Isaiah 53 and what was placed upon Christ. And so, second, we behold the love of Christ. We behold the love of Christ. If sin is serious and it was put upon him, oh what love. And that's where the cross can be overwhelming in a good way. The cross doesn't just show us our sin and make us aware of the bad news, it shows us the good news and the love of Christ, Jesus. He was not a victim. He was not caught in this tragic moment of history. He didn't go to the cross begrudgingly. He knew the suffering was ahead, and he knew the wrath that he would bear. And he went anyway. He went anyway because he loves you and he loves me. John chapter 15, 13 says, Greater love has no man than this, than to lay his life down for his friends. And that's a wonderful truth. But have you ever imagined this? Jesus didn't just die for his quote unquote friends. He died for his enemies. He died for us. He died for sinners, the enemies of God, those who weren't reconciled to God. He died for rebels. He died for people who would mock him. He died for those who ignore him, reject him, and yet he stayed on that cross. And yes, they nailed him to it. But it was our sin that held him there. Behold the love of Christ through the cross. And all of this leads to us beholding the satisfaction of God. The satisfaction of God. At the center of Good Friday is one truth. It is that Jesus died in your place to satisfy the wrath of God upon sin and sinners. His death was not just an example. People say, oh, he was such an example of sacrifice. Yes, he was. It wasn't just an act of love. People say, Oh, so loving. What an example of love. To lay yourself down. Yes, but really, at the core of what the cross is, it was a substitution. He took what you deserved. He took the wrath of God, poured out upon himself. The book of Isaiah, chapter 53, says, Surely our griefs he himself bore in verse 4, our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. And then verse 5 of Isaiah 53, he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being. So the punishment, the discipline, the consequence for our own good fell upon him. By his scourging we are healed. Those are the words of the prophet Isaiah about the suffering servant. The punishment for sin, our sin was laid upon Christ. He was treated as if he lived your life, so you could be treated as if you lived his. Every sin accounted for, every debt paid. There's nothing left for you or I to earn, nothing left for you or I to prove. It is finished. Behold the substitution before you for the satisfaction of God. That's what's in front of you today, that you're reflecting on. And so I don't want you walking into church this evening as though it's just another another service or sort of just a religious tradition. As you walk into your Good Friday services, before the music, before the greeting of friends and family, before the fellowship, that is good fellowship that should take place within the church before communion. Just take a moment to think about the cross and what it cost to save you. And remember this as you reflect on the somber and serious weight of the events that unfolded today. Good Friday's not the end of the story. Now, it is the reason there's a story. Because without the cross, you have no forgiveness. Without the cross, you have no shedding of blood for the forgiveness and remission of sins. Without the cross, there's no hope. And without the cross, there's no resurrection. And so remember, as you consider the cross, Sunday's coming. A resurrection and a glorious one at that. I want to leave you with a clip of Alistair Begg talking about the beauty and glory of God's grace upon the thief who was on the cross with Jesus. This is one of my favorite clips. Maybe you've seen it circling around the internet during this week. If you haven't, this might become one of your favorite Easter moments or favorite clips on social media. It's a great one to remember that the man on the middle cross says, You can come.
SPEAKER_01Without the preaching of the cross, without preaching the cross to ourselves all day and every day, we will very, very quickly revert to faith plus works as the ground of our salvation. So that to go to the old uh Fort Lauderdale question, if you were to die tonight and you were getting entry into heaven, what would you say? If you answer that, and if I answer it in the first person, we've immediately gone wrong. Because I, because I believed, because I have faith, because I am this, because I am continuing. Loved ones, the only proper answer is in the third person, because he, because he. Think about the thief on the cross. What an immense I can't I can't wait to find that fellow one day to ask him, how did that shake out for you? Because you were, you were, you were, you were cussing the guy out with your friend. You've never been in a Bible study, you never got baptized, you never you didn't know a thing about church membership, and and yet, and yet you made it. You made it! How did you make it? That's what the angel must have said, you know, like what are you doing here? I don't know. What do you mean you don't know? Well, like, because I don't know. Well, you know, what you did Excuse me, let me get my supervisor. So with just a few questions for you. First of all, uh are you are you uh are you are you clear on the doctrine of justification by faith? Guys said, I've never heard of it in my life. And and what about uh let's just go to the doctrine of scripture immediately. This guy's just staring. And eventually in frustration, he says, on on what basis are you here? And he said, the man on the middle cross said, I can come. Now, now that's the that is the only answer. That is the only answer. And if I don't preach the gospel to myself all day and every day, then I will find myself beginning to trust myself, trust my experience, which is part of my fallness as a man. If I take my eyes off the cross, I can then give only lip service to its efficacy while at the same time living as if my salvation depends upon me, and as soon as you go there, it will lead you either to abject despair or a horrible kind of arrogance. And it is only the cross of Christ that deals both with the dreadful depths of despair and the pretentious arrogance of the pride of man that says, you know, I can figure this out and I'm doing wonderfully well. No, because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free for God that just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me. That's why Luther says most of your Christian life is outside of you, in this sense, that we know that we're not saved by good works, we're not saved as a result of our professions, but we're saved as a result of what Christ has achieved.
SPEAKER_00On behalf of our entire team, I pray that your Good Friday and your resurrection Sunday are filled with deep gratitude for our gracious and loving Savior. Happy Easter. I'll be back on Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.