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And that’s why we call the Friday before

sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6, 8).

Easter, Good Friday. That one word—

Jesus fully paid the judicial price: “For our

“tetelestai!”—triumphantly shouted, says it

sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no

all! Christ accomplished everything required

sin, so that in him [Jesus] we might become

to gain salvation for lost sinners…for us.

the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Jesus’ triumph makes the Friday of his death

With the demands of God’s justice satisfied,

infinitely good!

“There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). In fact, Jesus promised that those who trust in him for the forgiveness of their sins will receive eternal life and a resurrection body as well! “For this is the will of my Father, that

Have you trusted in the risen Christ who died on Good Friday and rose again so you could have the forgiveness of your sins and the gift of eternal life? —Ron Eggert

everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day….whoever believes has eternal life” (John 6:40, 47).

It is finished—paid in full! Christ’s resurrection was God’s “Amen!” to Jesus’ “It is finished!” “God raised him up… because it was not possible for him to be held by [death]” (Acts 2:24).

Good News Tracts 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, IL 60187 For helpful Christian literature, please write to the address above or visit our web site at www.goodnewstracts.org. Bible references: ESV.

his love for us in that while we were still

GOOD F R I DAY ?

GOOD F R I DAY ? Who came up with the idea of calling the Friday before Easter “good”? When we think through the last weeks of Jesus’ life and ministry, the focus draws us to the events of Friday, the day of his death (the Bible in John 18-19). Beginning with

hours-long untold brutality and humiliation,

been translated with the accounting term,

leading up to that horrific moment when Jesus

“Paid in full!”

cries, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”(Mark 15:34). There is no way we can fully capture the horror of that fateful Friday.

That designation would be a terrible misnomer but for one word. That word was uttered at the very climax of those horrendous weak, last dying gasp. It was, with

all that the prophets had foretold in the Old Testament, all the penalty demanded by

And we call that day…“Good Friday”?

events of that day. It wasn’t a pitiful,

In other words, all that Jesus came to do,

the justice of God for our sins, all that God had decided to provide for our undeserved redemption—all that had been fully accomplished—completed, paid

It wasn’t a pitiful, weak, last dying gasp. It was, with all the strength

Thursday evening we see Jesus in the agony

all the strength that the dying God-

of prayer in the garden, followed by his

Man could muster, a rousing shout

that the dying God-Man

betrayal with a kiss by his supposed friend,

of triumph. As Max Lucado has said,

could muster, a rousing

Judas…then having all His disciples forsake

had his hands not been nailed down

shout of triumph.

him and flee to save their own skins.

he would have shot a fist skyward in

We see him going through the mockery of those illegal trials during the night, the unimaginable pain of the flogging, the

in full—once and for all! At that moment on that Friday, our salvation and forgiveness were made possible, and our eternal destiny was provided for. Satan, the enemy of our soul, was

a gesture of victory with the exclamation of that

defeated. Hope was restored to a beleaguered

one word!

world. As Isaiah had seen centuries before,

That word is “tetelestai” in the original Greek

“Out of the anguish of his soul he [God] shall see and be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:11).

humiliation at the hands of rough soldiers

language of the New Testament of the Bible.

who laugh and mock him unmercifully. We

English Bibles translate that word as “It is

Jesus died in our place when “at the right

finished!” (John 19:30). It could also have

time Christ died for the ungodly….God shows

witness the horrors of the crucifixion, with its

And that’s why we call the Friday before Easter, Good Friday. That one word— “tetelestai!”—triumphantly shouted, says it all! Christ accomplished everything required to gain salvation for lost sinners…for us. Jesus’ triumph makes the Friday of his death infinitely good! Have you trusted in the risen Christ who died on Good Friday and rose again so you could have the forgiveness of your sins and the gift of eternal life? —Ron Eggert

Good News Tracts Good Friday? How could the day of Christ’s death be good? Because he paid our sin debt in full, making salvation possible. Bible references: ESV. Package contains 25 tracts.

EASTER