GOOD FRIDAY

Yes, Lord Jesus, today we lie before you in the dust, smite our breast and beseech you: Have mercy upon us! Let the bitter pains for us poor sinners of your death not be in vain. Many years ago today you cried out: "I thirst;" oh, appease your thirst for our souls today and deliver them from their misery. Many years ago today, you spread your arms out on the cross; oh, enfold us today in your arms of mercy. You allowed your holy hands to be wounded, your holy feet, and your holy side; oh, hide us in your wounds and let us there find a refuge from the wrath of your Father. You shed your holy precious blood in streams; oh, sprinkle our languishing hearts with only a drop and it suffices. Hear us, hear us, oh Love who was crucified for us. Amen. Amen.

In Jesus' death, dear baptized hearers!

A day of deepest sorrow has dawned again today. The most sorrowful in the entire church year. Today we would like to summon heaven and earth and all creatures to weep and lament with us. Today we would like to ask the sun to take off its garment of light and join us in donning the gloomy garments of sorrow; today we would ask the clouds to weep with us. Today we have a mind to be frightened' at every sound of joy which would cross our lips, yes, at every thought of joy which would stir in our hearts. If during the past year we have not wept once, today we should shed bitter tears, tears of divine sorrow which works repentance, to salvation which is not to be repented of.

For what is it that has caused us to gather today in the house of the Lord? We have gathered here today in order to ascend in spirit the hill of Golgatha. And what do we see there? Between two criminals we see a man hanging on the disgraceful cross, naked. His hands and feet are pierced with nails. A crown of thorns is pressed upon his head. His whole body is torn by the scourge. Blood from a thousand wounds flows to the ground. The sun is high; it is midday; but behold! suddenly the sun loses its light and it becomes dark, jetblack night. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" cries the man of pain in the horrible darkness. No one answers him with a word of comfort but with mockery and ridicule they swarm around his cross. Finally, the Crucified cries out, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!" Thereupon he bows his head - and departs.

And who is he who after nameless pains breathes out his tormented soul? Ah, the Son of God himself, the Savior of all sinners it is who dies there.

There he hangs, the Lord of glory and Prince of our salvation, but he is dead. The holy body in which dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily is a corpse, cold and stiff. The noble head before which hell itself trembled has sunk to earth. The noble countenance which usually shone upon all the unfortunate like the morning sun has turned pale. The voice which in the past called so friendly to all the weary and heavy laden, "Come unto, and I will give you rest," has faded away. The eye which perceived so mildly and lovingly the misery of men has dimmed. The hand which was placed upon the sick and they became well, which lifted the finger and wind and waves became silent and death returned its dead, is stiffened. The faithful heart, alas, the only true heart which beat so warmly and lovingly for the misery of all sinners is still.

Alas, man's only life is dead; man's only salvation has died. And who is it who had killed him? Alas, our sins are the nails which nailed eternal Love to the cross; we ourselves are the ones who have killed our Salvation, our Life, our Blessedness.

Oh day of our greatest sins! Oh day of our grievous guilt! Oh day of misery, lamenting, weeping, and groaning!

You see, that is why the Church has sung from of old:

O darkest woe!

Ye tears forth flow!

Hath earth so sad a wonder?

God the Father's only Son

Now is buried yonder. (167,1)

But blessed are we, my dear brothers and sisters, if such meditations of the death of Jesus becomes alive in our hearts! Blessed are we, if we today do not weep and lament so much over Jesus but rather over ourselves! That is the way in which Jesus' death finally must also become a source of comfort for us, for he, our Salvation, died in order that we might receive salvation; he, our life, sunk into death in order that we might have life. Let us now ponder his death devoutly from this point of view.

The text. 1 Thessalonians 5:9,10.

Since my dear co-laborer in the work of the Lord among you intends to present today the circumstances of Christ's death on the cross, I have chosen the word of the apostle just read as the text of our present Good Friday's meditation. The apostle testifies in the words just read that God has not appointed us to wrath but to salvation, for Christ died for us in order that we may live with him. On the basis of these words let the subject of our present meditation be:

CHRIST'S DEATH OUR LIFE

namely,

I. Our Spiritual Life here in Grace, and

II. Our Eternal Life there in Glory.

I.

"Christ's death our life;" that, is to be my theme today. Say! Is there not a contradiction in this sentence? Who can receive life from the dead? Is that not a greater contradiction than that something should come out of nothing? Death is to give life; does that not mean that cold should give warmth, darkness light, emptiness fullness, weakness strength, the end of life should be the germ and beginning of life? Yes! and yet this is so. As the deadly poison becomes medicine and produces health, so we become well through Christ's wounds, so his death becomes our life. And the apostle says in our text, "Christ died for us. that, whether we wake or sleep." that is, though we may still live on earth or already slumber in the grave, "we should live together with him." Christ's death, therefore, gives us true life even here.

When God created man, man was immortal not only physically but the true life, a spiritual, divine, heavenly life was also in him. God himself. dwelt in man, enlivened, enlightened, and ruled him and sanctified all his thoughts, desires, words, and deeds. But man was not to remain in this blessed state unless he had first stood a test. God, therefore, led him to a tree and said, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Gen 2:17. And what did man do? He did not stand the test, he sinned, he ate of the forbidden tree,

and ala3, thus he lost the true life; God forsook the dedicated temple of his heart; then death entered into his body and all his members, yes, even into his heart and into the depths of his soul; separated from God, lacking his grace, without his light, without his power, without his life, he fell into spiritual, physical, and eternal death and with him the entire human race, also we!

How were we to be helped? We ourselves could not do it. We could not undo the fall into sin upon which death had been staked; and alas, mankind by nature did not even once know that it lay in death. By nature men are spiritually dead, and they think they are alive; by nature they all lie under God's wrath, and they dream of God's grace and love; they stand at the edge of eternal death, and they are of good courage as though there were no danger. Mankind, therefore, could not once ask God for deliverance from their death, to say nothing of tearing the bonds of death themselves and opening their prison of death.

Yet God is a God who does not want the sinner's death, who as our text says, "hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation." He, therefore, decreed to deliver us from death. However, since God is also a righteous God who must punish sin, and since he is a truthful God who must let his threat: "Ye shall die," be fulfilled, how could and should mankind be saved?

This could take place only if one died for all, if a holy person died for the sinner, the innocent for the guilty, and if such a person willingly took death upon himself for them, if his death would be a. sacrifice fully valid for the reconciliation of all. There was no such person among all finite and created beings in heaven arid on earth, who not only wanted to but also could do this. God himself was the only one who could; and lo, he not only could but as the evidence of his boundless love for sinners he also, wanted to do it. From eternity itself God the Father decreed that his Son should be given into death for us, and the eternal Son said he was ready to suffer death for us. Therefore, the moment man had fallen into sin and death, God appeared and gave him the promise, "The seed of the woman shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." And for 4,000 years this was the chief message of all of God's messengers to mankind: God did not want the death of the sinner but that he should live; he, therefore, appointed a day on which by one offering, which God himself would bring, the entire world dead in sin was to be reconciled with him and be redeemed. Abel's sacrifice which at God's command he brought from the best of his flock was to make him think of this day. The sacrifice, which Abraham at God's command was ready to bring when he offered his only beloved son Isaac, was to make him think of this day. The killing of the passover lamb with whose blood Israel painted on the lintels and door posts of their doors so that the destroying angel of death would pass by was to make them think of this day. All the bloody sacrifices of atonement which according to the Law the priests and Levites were to bring daily was to make them think of this day. Particularly the yearly appearance of the high priest on the great Day of Atonement with the sacrificial blood in. the Holy of Holies was to make them think of this day. Isaiah, therefore, says of the coming Redeemer and Reconciler, "When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall, see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper his hand." Is 53:10b. Moreover, Daniel writes, "Seventy weeks are determined to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness. . .And Messiah shall be cut off. . .and the sacrifice shall cease." Dan 9:24,26,27. Finally, Zechariah writes, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day." Zech 3:,9b. "As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water." ' Zech 9:11.

All this was fulfilled today upon Golgatha by Jesus' death. He there said beforehand, when the disciples became sad at the announcement of his death, "It is good for you that I go away," and in another place, "I lay down my life for the sheep." Jn 10:15. "The Son of man came to give his life for a ransom for many." Mt 20:28. "This is my body which is given for you. This is the blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins."

Therefore, the apostles speak of Christ's death in the very same way. Paul writes, "Christ was delivered for our offences." Rom 4:25. "Christ has loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor." Eph 5:2. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." 2 Cor 5:19. Finally, we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." Heb 9:28. "By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." Heb 9:12.

There you see, my friends, the proof of the fact that Christ's death is our life. From eternity God had seen us men lie in the depths of our sins as exposed, rejected children; but when Christ had willingly died for us on the cross, he cried to us all, You shall live! Though the guilt of our sins which we have incurred with God is infinitely great, through Christ's death they are fully and abundantly paid. Though the handwriting of the Law, which testified before God against all men and accused them, was not erasible, through Christ's death it is erased; Christ took them and nailed them to the cross. Though the wall of separation which our sins had erected between us and God was high through Christ's death it is torn down and the fence was broken; by his disgraceful crucifixion heaven and earth are reunited. No matter how terrible the curse was which God laid upon the entire world after it fell from him, through Christ's death on the accursed tree our curse is taken away and turned into salvation and eternal blessing. No matter how great the wrath was to which we had aroused the holy God by our sins, through Christ's death God is now completely reconciled; Christ's reconciling blood crying for us for mercy has extinguished' the fire of divine anger and turned it into a bright, glowing, never-dying fire of divine fatherly love. In the earthly paradise we ate death from the forbidden fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; but on the tree of the cross hangs God's very own Son as a fruit from the heavenly paradise which had not been forbidden us, for which every person reaches with the hand of his faith, which he enjoys and from which he should eat life, the true life which is forgiveness of sins, God's grace and righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Oh, blessed are all who in faith become immersed in Christ's death! They awaken from their spiritual death and can then say with Paul, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Gal 2: 20.

II.

My friends, Christ's death is our life not only insofar as the spiritual life in grace has been regained through it, but secondly, insofar as the eternal life in glory has been reopened.

That mankind has fallen in spiritual death through sin only a few perceive only those who let is be revealed to them through the Holy Spirit, that by nature they are without light, without power, and without grace, hopeless, helpless, and lost. But that we have fallen into physical death through sin every-

one must perceive who will open his eyes. You must die! This we ministers need not preach at all, this hopeless, frightful word all nature which dies every year, every funeral procession, every casket, every grave, and particularly every sickness and each gray hair cries aloud to all men. Alas, though the form of physical death stands so somberly before everyone, there is yet another; death which follows upon temporal death, which is even more frightful; that is the other, or eternal death, that is, eternal separation from God, eternal rejection from his gracious countenance, eternal exclusion from all joy, from all light, from all peace, from all blessedness, in eternal misery, torment, and pain. This death has also come as the result of sin.

Oh, how wretched we would be if there were no deliverance from temporal nor even from eternal death! Then we would have to,wish that we were never created, and curse the hour of our birth as the beginning of eternal misery.

But praised and blessed be the holy and gracious, the righteous add merciful God! Christ's death is our life! and through Christ's death we are delivered not only from spiritual but also from temporal and eternal death; he is the source of also our eternal life in glory. For we read in our text, "God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him." The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews has expressed it thus, "Through death Christ destroyed him that had the power of death." Heb 2:14.

Of course, it seems as though even after Christ's death, that death still has. the very same power. For does not his insatiable maw still swallow thousands every day? Does not this king of terrors still rule over the whole world with and iron scepter and; irresistible power? Are not they who comfort themselves in Christ's death just as well the booty of death as those,who reject Christ's death?

It surely seems so. But it only seems so. The sting of temporal death is sin, for death is the wages of sin; because of sin man lost the immortality with which he was created, so that he must now return to the ground from which he was taken; because of sin temporal, death leads man before God's judgment and thus becomes the gate of eternal death. Through Christ's death, however, sin has been expiated and erased, for through death Christ has paid the wages of sin for all sinners to the very last penny. Therefore, our death is also conquered by. Christ's death. As a bee loses its sting if it jabs vehemently against a rock and kills itself, so also death lost its sting when it stung Christ,the Rock of our salvation, in the heel, yes, the moment it stung, Christ crushed its head. As a poison does not lose its power when it is swallowed but kills the one who swallowed it, so also Christ did not lose his power by being swallowed by death but he swallowed death, killed death. Already through the prophet Hosea Christ, therefore, says, "I will ransom them from the power, of the grave, I will redeem them from death; O death, I will be thy plagues, 0 grave, I will be thy destruction." Hos 13:14. Looking back at the Crucified, St. Paul also rejoices,"Death is swallowed up in victory. 0 death, where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But, thanks be to God,. which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.". 1 Cor'15:54-47.

Oh, who can put into words the riches of the sweet fruits which Christ's death has brought? Paul indicates them in the few words, "If one died for all, then were all dead." 2. Cor 5:14. And in the Epistle to the Hebrews we read, "Christ by the grace of God should taste death for every man." Heb 2:9. After Christ's death mankind is looked upon as though we already were dead; therefore,

we do not have to pay the debt of our sins with death. We do not have to taste the bitterness of sin, for Christ has drained the bitter cup of death for us, refilled it with his grace, and thus with his grace turned it into a sweet cup of life.

Therefore though he who believes in the power of Christ's death seems to die, he in truth does not die. For believers, death is no longer a poison which destroys his body but a medicine which glorifies his body and turns it into a garment of immortality. For believers, death is no more a messenger who leads him to God's stern judgment but an angel of peace who leads him to the throne of grace and seeing God face to face. For believers, death is no more the shipwreck of all their joys but the key which unlocks the prison of this wicked world and sets them free. For believers, death is no more going into eternal death, to hell and damnation, but a door to eternal life, to heaven and salvation.

Oh blessed day when Jesus died for us! A day of salvation, of blessing and life! His shroud places on us the festive garments of eternal life. For today we not only sing:

O sorrow dread!

God's Son is dead!

but we must also add:

But by His expiation

Of our guilt upon the cross

Gained for us salvation. (167,2)

Oh my dear hearers, let us then completely forsake the world and sin; for in these things is only death, spiritual, temporal, and eternal death. Let us in faith immerse ourselves in Christ's death; for in these things is life, life here in grace and life there in glory.

How much would many a rich person give if he could purchase his freedom from death! Oh, let us then go to Golgatha, for there we find deliverance from death free of charge.

Especially in the hour of our death let us in faith remember Christ's death, then we will never taste death. For as Moses lifted up a serpent in the wilderness, so also must the Son of man be lifted up to that all who believe in him should not perish but have eternal life. Amen.