If Christ's death had not accomplished that, He would not have rose from the Dead, and everyone who He died for would still be in their sins 1 Cor 15:17
Why?
... and ... why is it called Good Friday?
Jesus did not die as a sacrificial lamb 'dumb before the slaughters'. Jesus was not some sort of sanctimonious victim. Death at the hands of evil is not cause for celebration.
I posted this elsewhere.
Just exactly what is 'good' about Good Friday? I know I have glibly acknowledged Good Friday in the past but it is only recently when I have confronted with the thoughts of Roger Haight, who has a refreshing view of Jesus' death, that I have been forced to rethink past attitudes.
The main point of Haight's thesis is that there is nothing 'good' about the false arrest, torture and murder of an innocent - we have to call it for what it was/is - that such acts are evil.
To venerate the cross then is to venerate the instrument of torture and death and to do so is therefore macabre as it is bizarre - it suggests that the God we worship is grotesque if not the epitome of evil itself.
We have something crossed here - but what is it that we have messed up? What we have messed up are the symbols of God.
When Jesus set out on his ministry he knew exactly what he was going to do and where it would all end. His biggest problem was selecting and teaching those who were to follow to accept what seemed to be the impossible. Indeed, it is Peter who saw it more clearly than the other disciples. At least he was thinking ahead and he saw no good coming up. When he voiced those thoughts Jesus had to be as firm as he had with anyone. In fact Jesus uses the very word - evil. There was no thought of turning back from the path he had chosen.
As this is where 'good' comes into the picture.
Jesus was not shaped by culture as we inevitable are so shaped. Jesus was not performing some 'act' - some mortality play. He was not 'acting' out a role. He was demonstrating what God would be like if he became human. And that 'God likeness' is demonstrated in Jesus' confrontation with the evil inherent in society at every turn. Recall the temptations in the desert.
This is what is 'good' about Jesus' life and death - that he followed through in confronting evil even as he hung on the instrument of torture and death - even as evil had apparent victory.
As Haight points out, it is 'gravely misleading to suggest that the cross' is the focus of salvation as it 'subtly turns something intrinsically evil into a good' (p 92). But the cross does not save - God saves. God saves through grace as we, who are laden with sin, can only imagine. Jesus defines God and reveals that God will love us unconditionally even as we sin. Jesus demonstrates 'good' even as evil wields the instruments of torture and death.
I am reminded, yet again, of what happened in Pennsylvania (USA) in October 2006 following the gunning down of five schoolgirls by a lone gunman. The Amish offered no statement, no TV interviews were given, no commentary was offered, and no calls for justice made. Their only response was an act of forgiveness that allowed the distraught wife and children of the deceased gunman to go on living with dignity and hope.
That is what 'good' about Good Friday - it allows us to go on living with dignity and hope.
Awesome thread savedbygrace. ....I only disagree with the 99.9% you mentioned in opening this, but if used for baiting I'll go along with it. However, that number might be close.