On this day of great reflection, in reverence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (the Anointed One), who willingly suffered crucifixion on the cross of Calvary as the only acceptable and once-and-for-all sacrifice for the sins of the world — including yours and mine, many have wondered or perhaps not even contemplated, why is the day of Christ’s crucifixion called ‘good’? Good Friday is understood by Christians to mean ‘Holy Friday’.
According to BBC History Magazine, although it might seem incongruous to refer to the day of Christ’s crucifixion as ‘good’, the meaning of the name Good Friday can be understood as historically meaning ‘holy’. The earliest-known use of “goude friday” comes from c1300, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Good Friday is not a day of celebration, like Easter Sunday, but a solemn time of reflection. In Germany, the day is known as Karfreitag (Sorrowful Friday).
According to Got Questions, what the Jewish authorities and Romans did to Jesus was definitely not good—it was evil (see Matthew, Chapters 26 and 27). In Middle English, the adjective gọ̄d held the sense of being “holy” or “sacred.” Before standardized spelling, the word also appeared as gode, goed, gude, goid, and good (Middle English Dictionary, Regents of the University of Michigan, 2025). The connotation of being holy is carried through in modern observances of Good Friday.
Beyond etymology, Good Friday can be called ‘good’ because of the results of Christ’s death on the cross. Jesus’ sacrifice was a demonstration of God’s love for us:
Romans 5:8 (NKJV)
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Through Jesus’ death, we can have peace with God:
Romans 5:10 (NKJV)
“For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
And, according to Apostle Peter:
1 Peter 3:18 (NKJV)
Christ’s Suffering and Ours
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit…”.
My brothers and sisters, if there is one thing I’ve noticed missing from many Sunday morning sermons nowadays, it is direct and hard-hitting preaching on Christ and Him crucified, dying in obedience to the Father’s will and plan for the salvation of mankind as the only acceptable sacrifice (propitiation) for our sin, and how Jesus’ sacrifice provides every single person born on earth the means and opportunity, through faith in Christ Jesus, to be forgiven, set free and saved unto eternity!
1 John 4:9-10 (NKJV)
“In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins [emphasis mine].”
Jesus’ sacrifice provides every single person born on earth the means and opportunity, through faith in Christ Jesus, to be forgiven, set free and saved unto eternity!
The glorious resurrection of our Lord (which we celebrate in a couple days on Easter morning) and the right to become children of God (not solely being made in the image of God) begins at the cross – at which the Lord establishes a ‘better’ covenant in which God the Holy Spirit lives within us and our sin, past, present and future, is washed away by the blood of the Lamb!
Hebrews 8:6-7 (NKJV)
A Better Covenant
“But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.”
Hebrews 10:10-12 (NLT)
“For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time. Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. But our High Priest offered [H]imself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then [H]e sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.”
When I contemplate the love necessary for the one and only Person in the entire universe (its Creator, nonetheless) who didn’t deserve death because of sin to became sin, so that we would be assured of eternal life in heaven as the children of God, I’m at a loss for words, which only tears can sufficiently express…
2 Corinthians 5:20-21 (NKJV)
“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us [emphasis mine], that we might become the righteousness of God in Him [Christ].”
