Good Friday began with an early morning trial of Jesus Christ at the palace of the Roman governor in Jerusalem. You can read the account of John, a disciple of Jesus, in John 18:28–19:16.
The judge at the trial, Pontus Pilate, was not known as a righteous man. He was a Gentile, appointed by Rome to be the governor of Judea, to rule over the Jews in their homeland. Pilate answered to power, and not to righteousness or truth. The Jews understood this when they forced Pilate’s hand in making him give the order for Jesus to be crucified.
Pilate was an unwilling participant in the trial of Jesus. He interviewed Jesus, and found no reason to hand him the death sentence. But the Jewish leaders who handed Jesus over to Pilate wanted Jesus crucified. They played on Pilate’s insecurities, that he would be regarded as disloyal to the Roman emperor if he did not give in to their demands. Pilate eventually capitulated, and signed the death warrant of Jesus whilst washing his hands of any guilt associated with it.
These events happened two millennia ago. They changed the course of world history. One might wonder how the world would be if they did not take place. If Jesus had not been crucified but instead lived to a ripe old age, would he have the following he has today? I think things would have turned out very differently, and Jesus might then be regarded as a wise man or a prophet whose teachings about God were worthy of being learned.
Going by what we may understand from the Bible, there was not a chance that that could have happened. The Bible is accessible for free online on the internet today in multiple languages that it has been translated to. The Bible is a collection of writings over a long span of time (1300 years at least), by many different human authors who recorded history, wisdom and prophecy for posterity (that is, for us). They spoke about God, and for God. The Bible assumes the existence of God from the beginning (the first book, Genesis, starts with, “In the beginning, God…”) and reveals a ‘redemptive history’, that is, a history in which God is active in redeeming humankind.
Very early on in the book of Genesis, we see that Adam and Eve, the first humans, though created perfect and good, disobeyed their Creator and sinned after being tempted by a serpent in the garden of Eden. The serpent introduces us to the reality and presence of spiritual beings in our physical world — the serpent was a fallen angel, Satan, who was created perfect but rebelled against God in the mystery of sin. Our original parents (and us) were to have lived forever, but sin introduced death. The serpent challenged their belief in the word of God that they would die if they touched the tree in the middle of the garden — they then ate from that tree, and brought on mortality.
Despite the severity and necessity of the judgment on their sin, God showed himself merciful and kind. Right after Adam and Eve became mortal, God promised a Saviour. This was the first prophecy for the redemption of the world — an offspring of the woman would rise up to crush the serpent’s head, but not before the serpent wounds him. The development of human history thereafter would lead to the fulfilment of this promise.
In fulfilment of this prophecy and those that would follow in the biblical authors’ writings, Jesus was born. His was no ordinary birth. Jesus was born of a virgin, conceived of the Holy Spirit. He would grow up in a Jewish household, obedient to his parents, and gain extraordinary insight on the law of God and his mission therein through understanding the extant biblical writings (the Old Testament) and revelation from God his Father.
Jesus was despised by the Jewish political and religious establishment of his day because he upset the apple cart. They had developed an elaborate system of religious life which was oppressive on the people, and which was contrary to the scriptures. Jesus taught the people about the kingdom of God, and also demonstrated the power of God thru supernatural healings of people with diseases and physical infirmities (including the blind, deaf, mute and lame) and deliverance of people possessed by demons. All these caught the ire of the Jewish leaders, whose authority was challenged by the proclamation of Jesus about the kingdom of God.
The Jewish leaders worked hard to trap Jesus and to turn the people against him, accusing him of not obeying scripture and of performing his supernatural acts thru the power of the devil. They eventually conspired to accuse him before Pilate, that he was proclaiming himself a king over the people and was thus an enemy of Caesar. Although Pilate knew the truth (that this was not true), he gave in to the demands of the Jewish leaders to find Jesus guilty of a capital offence, in order to preserve his own interests.
The death of Jesus on the cross happened as prophesied in the Bible. All that the human actors (along with the spiritual actors unseen to the human eye) did were foreknown by God, and they served the end game of God whether they knew it or not. The end game of God was, and is, a benign one: To redeem the world from the sin and death introduced thru the disobedience of our first parents. As it has been the plan of God and the promise of God since humankind’s beginning, it was inevitable that Jesus would die as he did.
Jesus died on the cross as a substitute for us, that is, in our place, to save us from the judgment of God. The Bible says that it is appointed for man to die once and then to face judgment (Hebrews 9:27), and that there is a second death in a lake of fire and brimstone (Revelation 21:8) which is the judgment for sin. The death of Jesus on the cross saves us from this second death. It gives us the ability to overcome death, to remove the sting of death, to live forever. This is the core promise of the gospel for our salvation: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
The promise of eternal life is ‘up for grabs’, and is available to all who would take hold of it. If you are reading this article and are convinced that the kingdom of God is the place you want to be in, the good news is that the kingdom of God is open for you to join. “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). This means you acknowledge your need for a Saviour, and receive Jesus Christ as that and as Lord of your life. How do you do that? “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
It will not be by the power of persuasive words that you believe — you will believe if God himself gives you that faith, so that your faith is a gift from God.