Today, Good Friday, is the day that we call “good” not because what Jesus suffered was good, but what God did for us through Him was “good.” From the trials and torture to the cross itself Jesus bore man’s sin and God the Father, in His holy and just fury vented His wrath upon his own Son. John Stott comments; “It is those who cannot come to terms with any concept of the wrath of God who repudiate any concept of propitiation… It is God himself who in holy wrath needs to be propitiated, God himself who in holy love undertook to do the propitiating and God himself who in the person of his Son died for the propitiation of our sins. Thus God took his own loving initiative to appease his own righteous anger by bearing it his own self in his own Son when he took our place and died for us.”[1]
2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) 21 For our sake he made him be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Isaiah 53:5-6 (ESV) 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:10 (ESV) 10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Galatians 3:13 (ESV) 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”
1 John 4:10 (ESV) 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
So Jesus became a “curse for us” (Galatians 3:13), took our place and paid a debt we had no ability to pay. He “propitiated,” bore the wrath of God for our sin. And unlike the thousands of sacrifices that went before that never paid the price (Hebrews 10:11), Jesus was able to do “once for all” (Romans 6:10; Hebrews 7:27; 9:12, 26; 10:1,10).
But of course, His sacrificial death paid in full the debt we owed, due to sin (Romans 3:23), but it was in His resurrection three days later where God accepted in full the payment of sin as He overcame death and thereby overcame the penalty of sin for us (1 Corinthians 15:2-23).
1 Corinthians 15:14-22 (ESV) 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
-Michael Holtzinger
Some resources:
The Cross of Christ, By John Stott
Six Hour One Friday, By Max Lucado
The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross, By Arthur W. Pink and John MacArthur
[1] John Stott, The Cross of Christ, InterVarsity Press, 2006, pg. 167, 172