Good Friday: The Death of Christ

The Lord Jesus, having with a loud and triumphant voice commended His blessed soul into His heavenly Father’s hands, gave up the ghost, or as it may be literally rendered: “He dismissed or let go His spirit.” When He knew that He had fulfilled all the prophecies that related to Him and suffered enough to procure the salvation of His people, He voluntarily retired from life. No sooner was the important scene brought to a period, no sooner were the Redeemer’s eyelids closed, than universal nature seemed to sympathize with the departing Lord, and in a miraculous manner to reproach the matchless guilt and the unexampled cruelty of His murderers. The first prodigy that immediately followed on His death was the rending of the veil of the temple. The priests, or at least the major part of them, were attending divine service in the temple to offer up the evening sacrifice at the very moment when Christ expired—when the veil or magnificent curtain which separated the holy of holies from the rest of the temple was suddenly rent in two. And as this veil was composed of the richest and strongest tapestry, its rending of itself was the more miraculous and showed the immediate interposition of divine providence. The rending of the veil signified that the Jewish dispensation was now at an end, all the types belonging to it being fulfilled in Christ. It also was a presage of the approaching destruction of the Jews as a nation, and showed likewise that by the death and sacrifice of Christ a way was opened for sinners into heaven, of which the holy of holies was an emblem; and that now there was no difference between Jew and Gentile, Christ having broken down the partition wall and procured eternal life for all that trust in Him out of every nation.

Nor was the veil’s rending the only prodigy that ensued. We are told that the earth shook so violently that the very rocks rent and the graves were opened, and many of the bodies of the saints which had been dead arose, both to show that Christ by dying conquered death, and likewise as an earnest token of His own speedy resurrection. All which amazing circumstances forced the very soldiers who had so lately derided Him, and had just been His executioners, to tremble and say: “Truly this was the Son of God!”

How greatly does the contemplation of this great event call for our highest wonder, that the coequal Son of God should thus stoop to humble Himself unto death for sinners! “Lord, what is man, that Thou art mindful of Him,” or the son of man that Thou shouldest vouchsafe not only to visit him, but even to ransom his life by laying down Thine own? If anything can awaken astonishment and inflame our gratitude, it must be that mystery of love, God manifest in our nature and made Man to bleed and die for our salvation. That He should condescend to be sold for thirty shekels of silver, that is for three pounds fifteen shillings of our money; to be apprehended and condemned as a malefactor; to be crowned with piercing thorns; to be scourged at the bloody pillar; to bear His cross; to be numbered with transgressors; to be reviled by ruffian soldiers and a merciless populace; to be torn with tormenting nails and pierced with a hostile spear; and suspended on the ignominious tree between heaven and earth as unworthy of either, though He was the Maker and Preserver of both! What thought can reach, what tongue can tell, the infinite riches of His love to man, that induced Him freely to undergo all this to make him happy! Nay, He not only freely underwent it, but even longed for the time of His crucifixion to come: “I have a baptism,” says He, a baptism of suffering “to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!”

How should these considerations engage us who are His purchased flock to trust in His atonement, and to honor Him with our lips and in our lives! “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.” Keep your mind steadfastly fixed on Him who is the Messenger of the covenant of grace, and the Executor of its conditions. He did not appear in this lower world barely to reveal the gospel, for that could have been done at an easier expense than His incarnation and death. Any angel could have proclaimed it, or prophets declared the same; as indeed the prophets did, for “to Him give all the prophets witness.” But Christ came to procure forgiveness, and to suffer and obey for the salvation of the elect people of God.

Nothing but this could warrant the extreme depth of His humiliation or comport with the essential dignity of His Person, who was to sanctify His people with His own blood by the offering up of Himself once for all, and by ever living to intercede for them. Openly then profess, confess, and acknowledge Him in the face of an opposing world. Confess your guilt, as the priest under the law confessed the iniquities of Israel over the head of the scapegoat. Render to Him the thanks of your heart for His great humility, for His perfect righteousness, for His complete propitiation, for His perpetual intercession, and for the whole of His redeeming grace. Let us never forget that through the covenant mercy of God, the righteousness of Christ was admitted as our payment; that Christ’s sufferings were our ransom; and the whole of His obedience unto death is our free, full, and final discharge from punishment.

These considerations received by faith will cause us to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. They will put a new song into our mouths, even thanksgiving unto God, and make us sing: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”

Augustus Toplady (1740-1778) was a Calvinistic hymnist and poet, renowned for his “Rock of Ages.” He was converted at the age of fourteen, was ordained at twenty-four, and died at thirty-seven. His last pastorate was in London. His valuable works are collected in six volumes.

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