"Good" Friday?

So today is Good Friday. I remember over the years before I came to faith in Jesus Christ wondering why it was called "Good" Friday. I mean after all, what a tragic event occurred on this day. The innocent man Jesus was unjustly tried and found guilty and cruelly executed by crucifixion on this day. How on earth could any of that be considered good? Oh sure, I knew that He didn't stay dead, that three days later He rose from the grave, that's what Easter Sunday was all about. That sounded really good. But Friday, Good? Just didn't make any sense to me. But praise be to God by His marvelous grace that He sovereignly chose to bring me to faith in His Son, and opened my eyes and mind and heart to be able to understand the truth of the Cross.

Because this day can be called "Good" by all who have trusted in the One who was killed on this day. It's Good because it was the ultimate act of God's goodness. The substitutionary sacrifice of Christ by crucifixion, for all the sin of all time for all those who will trust in Him and believe and receive eternal life in Him. We hear this substitutionary intent in Jesus' words in Mark 10:45: "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." Did you catch that term, "ransom"? Christ's life given as the ransom payment, the redemption price that was due to buy His people out of death and slavery to sin, and into freedom from sin and condemnation. And not as a means to appease God's wrath for sin, but rather as the just payment for that sin, so that God could remain both just and also be the Justifier of those who believe.

So do you see today as "Good", in this ultimate sense? Do you have the perspective that sees this pivotal event in history, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, as the ultimate act of Good of all time? And have you partaken of that Goodness, the ransom paid for your life?