The very worst thing that could happen was at the very same time the very best thing that could happen, and only God is able to do such a thing. The same God who planned that the worst thing would be the best thing is your Father. He rules over every moment in your life, and in powerful grace, he is able to do for you just what he did in redemptive history.

At the center of a biblical worldview is this radical recognition: the most horrible thing that ever happened was the most wonderful thing that ever happened.

As we reflect on Good Friday, we turn our somber attention to the bloody cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Could it be possible for something to happen that was more terrible than this? Could any injustice be greater? Could any loss be more painful? Could any suffering be worse?

The only man who ever lived a life that was perfect in every way possible, who gave his life for the sacrifice of many, and who willingly suffered from birth to death in loyalty to his calling was cruelly and publicly murdered in the most vicious of ways. How could it happen that the Son of Man could die? How could it be that men could capture and torture the Messiah? Was this not the end of everything good, true, and beautiful? If this could happen, is there any hope for the world?

Well, we know the end of the story, and the answer is yes – there is hope! Good Friday was not the end, and Easter Sunday would come. In God’s righteous and wise plan, this dark and disastrous moment was ordained to be the moment that would fix all the dark and disastrous things that sin had done to the world.

This moment of death was at the same time a moment of life.

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