It might be a day off school. It might be a day off work, depending on your job. Why? What’s the big deal with Friday? Shouldn’t we focus on Sunday? Isn’t it really just the Friday before Easter?

That’s a summary of what I used to think. Now I cringe even as I write that phrase–just the Friday before Easter. Up until recent years, I’m ashamed to say I hadn’t given very much thought to Good Friday and what it represents. Sure, I knew it was Good Friday and that Jesus was crucified on a Friday. But I failed to see the beautiful connections between the atonement significance of Friday, the resurrection events of Sunday, and everyday life. I was quick to focus on the resurrection, almost allergic to the realities of Good Friday, as if those realities were less important than what happened on Sunday.

This was due, in large part I believe, to a lack of emphasis on Good Friday in the churches I’ve been connected to. I’m not blaming those churches. It’s just simply the reality. My church experience has focused mainly on the resurrection on Easter Sunday. To be sure, the resurrection is vitally important to the Christian faith. Without the resurrection of Christ, our faith is futile, we are still in our sins, and we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Cor. 15:17-19). I’m not at all denying that. But the resurrection is only made possible by the atoning sacrifice of Christ on Good Friday. After all, you can’t be raised to life if you’re already alive. You have to experience death before you can be raised back to life. This is exactly what Good Friday urges us to pause and remember: that Christ experienced suffering and death for the sins of his people.

The audience of Peter’s first letter is identified in the first two verses, which provide the context for everything that Peter says later in the letter. He is writing to those who are elect exiles who have been scattered throughout the Roman Empire. Those who are chosen by God, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood (1 Peter 1:1-2). He is writing to the people of God, the church. Those who have repented of their sins and trusted in Christ for salvation. Those who have no righteousness of their own.

If you have repented of your sins and trusted Christ, why should you pause and reflect on the death of Christ today, rather than just looking ahead to the resurrection on Sunday?
I offer three reasons from 1 Peter 2:24.

Christ carried our sins

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.”
Not his sins. He didn’t have any sin to be atoned for. He bore our sins. The very thing that condemns us before a holy God. He carried our sins in his physical body on a horrible cross on an actual hill in the first century. It was in his death that he bore our sins and endured the punishment we deserve. He died in our place, as our substitute. He carried our sins.

Christ healed our souls.

“By his wounds we are healed.”
Ever since the sin of our first parents in the garden, humans have been stricken with a soul-damning curse. We are born in sin, unable to keep God’s law. We are sentenced to death because of our rebellion against our Creator and we are utterly helpless to change our condition. It is this very sentence that Christ took for us. When we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8). And it is by his wounds, by his death, that we are healed. The death of Christ abolished the soul-damning curse that held us captive. He healed our souls.

Christ purchased our holiness.

“that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”
We often think of the gospel as eternal life in the future. And indeed it is that! But it is not just that. It is present righteousness. It is holiness now. We see all throughout the New Testament that we have died to sin and been made alive to God (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:11), but not just for future reward. We’ve been redeemed for good works. To live righteous lives. Peter emphasizes that Christ died so that we, too, might die to sin and live to righteousness. This means we can actually be holy now. He purchased our holiness.

Taken together, these three Good Friday realities free us from guilt and propel us forward in our everyday battles.
On the days when we are struggling to be holy…
On the days when we fail…
On the days when we feel overwhelmed by our sin…
We are not defined by those failures.

Christ has carried our sins!
Christ has healed our souls!
Christ has purchased our holiness!

On this Good Friday, may we pause and consider the death of Christ as vital to our everyday holiness.

Because he died, our sins aren’t counted against us.
Because he died, our souls find rest.
Because he died, our holiness is secured.

And this translates most directly to our everyday holiness because we keep going.
But only because we’ve paused to consider his death, and we rest in his righteousness, not ours. And in pausing to consider, may we be drawn to worship and praise the God who “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14).

Not just the Friday before Easter.
The Friday that changed both our eternity and our everyday.
Good Friday, indeed!