Christ saved us by his death to sin that began long before Good Friday.

Friday, 4/6/12

Jesus said, “It is finished.” To understand what was finished we must go back to his forty days of temptations in the desert. We must do that because as Paul told us in Romans 6:10 “His death was a death to sin.” So, his death was something that began in those forty days when he began wrestling down the seven deadly sins.

Christ’s death to sin took a real step forward at the Last Supper when he said, “This is my body which is given up for you.” (Notice that in Luke’s Greek account Jesus did not say “which will be given” but “which is given didomenon.”) We must come to see that in giving his body to the disciples he was depriving himself of that body. It was a death.   

Christ’s death to sin took a large step in the Garden of Olives when his sweat became like blood. In saying, “Not my will, but thine be done.” He was dying to himself. With that he gave up his last bit of selfish attachment to himself. The finality of that death to self-interest was dramatized on the way to Calvary when he could freely say, “Weep not for me, but for yourselves and for children.” His concern was altogether for others.

His patient acceptance of death caused the wondering centurion to say, “Truly, this man was the Son of God.”