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The Word in the Wings > Good Friday – The Triumph of the Cross
Good Friday - The Triumph of the Cross
By: Lee Giles
Colossians 2:13-15 “You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us. He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”
In a moment, it was finished. Jesus gave up His life so that we could receive it. It was a moment accomplished before the foundation of the world. It was a moment accomplished through agonizing prayer, giving up self-will. It was a moment that was accomplished through God’s intricately perfect design arranging people, times, and circumstances. It was accomplished by a Father’s heart that is entirely self-giving because He is love.
What was accomplished in that moment? Death and life. Erasure of debts. Forgiveness of sins. Conquering of powers. Triumph.
It was a good Friday, even though the agony of the cross was real. Jesus felt pain. He was a man. He was abused and tortured. He was beaten so badly that His image was beyond recognition. He did it so that His image in us could be restored.
It was a good Friday, even though those closest to Jesus abandoned Him. He was denied, mocked, and accused. He did it so that His followers would always live accepted, favored, and justified.
It was a good Friday, even though it ended in death and the sky went dark and the earth shook. He did it to tear open access to the Father, to pour out His light throughout the whole earth, and to give resurrection life to the saints.
It was a good Friday because, though there was pain, there was joy. Jesus did it for the joy set before Him. Jesus lived for His Father’s pleasure. He did it for love of His Father. His Father did it because of His love for us.
"it was a good Friday because, though there was pain, there was joy."
That Love is our salvation. It gave of itself, its own lifeblood, to wash us of our iniquity, the guilt-stain of our sin, but also to wash away our sin, turning us into new creations without spot or blemish, completely blameless before God.
Jesus is able to present us to the Father faultless because of His love poured out on the cross and because of His love poured into our hearts. By the Holy Spirit given us, we can live in, and live out, the power of love.
The power of Love in us is God’s transforming work that frees us from sin and gives us the power to overcome not just sin, but self and the world. It’s the power that seats us in the heavenly places and causes us to walk in our high places so that the enemy cannot touch us, though surely he will make as much noise and disruption as he can to try and distract us from our mission of love.
What is our mission of love? It’s to love others. It’s the only command we need to remember. Paul tells us it’s the sum of all the others. What does that love look like? It looks like Jesus. It speaks the truth. It responds with compassion. It seeks the Father’s glory. It’s entirely self-giving and never self-serving.
Just like we have only one command, to love others, so also we have only one need – to know God, for to know Him is eternal life. Knowing God isn’t the “going to church and reading Christian books” kind of knowing Him. That’s knowing about Him. To know God in the Biblical sense is to experience God. To experience God is to know His joy, His peace, and His love.
In God’s presence there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. Have you experienced the joy and pleasure of His presence?
God guards our hearts and minds with His peace when we trust Him in prayer. Do you know the peace of Christ that comes from conversation with God where you are able to trust Him with everything and thank Him for taking care of all that concerns you?
And God loves with an everlasting love. Do you know the personal love of God that never wanes, that isn’t here one day and gone the next, that isn’t reliant on our performance, that never fails?
Do you know Him?
If you know Him, you’ll understand your one purpose in life. It’s to be like Jesus and live to please our Father.
We are to be like little children and thrill in seeing our Father’s smile, our proud Papa. He’s the joy set before us.
"to experience god is to know his joy, his peace, and his love."
It pleased the Father to bruise the Son. It pleased the Son to submit to the Father’s will. We joyfully give up our lives daily, knowing its end is hope. We endure the trials and troubles patiently with joy to please the heart of our Father and for the sake of others, that the image of Christ might be restored in us, that we might present Jesus to those around us.
The triumph of the cross was the restoration of what was lost in the garden: the perfect image, the intimate relationship with God, the reliance on God for all things.
The blood of Jesus cleanses away and makes new. We die to self so that the Spirit can produce the resurrected Christ’s life in and through us, that we may bring God’s love to the world. That’s the triumph of the cross in our lives: our death to self and resurrection in Christ so that we can live out the perfect law of love to the Father’s joy and ours.
About the Author: Lee Giles is the creator of Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool, a free online Christian homeschool curriculum providing quality education for children around the globe in order to offer families the option of homeschooling whether or not they feel the lack of time, money, or know-how.
Her family lived for fourteen years overseas, splitting the time between North Macedonia and Turkey. They worked with the Roma people, as well as with refugees, prostitutes, and the homeless.
She has written many Christian books, devotionals, and Bible studies, all of which can be found for free on allinonehomeschool.com.
