Not About a Bunny: Explaining Easter to Your KidsSample

What’s So Good About Good Friday?

Thorns, crosses, beatings—those things don’t sound so good, do they? So why do we call it Good Friday when the events that occurred are so horrendous?

What the soldiers did to Jesus wasn’t good, but the results are very good! Romans 5:8 (NIV) says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Jesus’ death on the cross provides salvation for sinners and enables us to spend eternity in heaven with God. Because of sin, everyone deserves death and eternal separation from God, but Jesus’ deathsaves us.

God promised he would send a Savior. The first time we see this promise is in Genesis. Until that Savior came, people would sacrifice lambs to show their repentance from sin. Hundreds of years later, at the perfect time, God provided the perfect lamb as our substitute for sin.

Why didn’t God find another way to save us? It is important to remember that God’s ways are always best. Deuteronomy 32:4 (NIV) reminds us that God is “the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just.” He’s“a faithful God who does no wrong.”

God is the perfect judge, and hecan’t let sin go unpunished. We can be thankful that God’s perfect way has provided us with salvation. Jesus had to die because he was a sinless sacrifice. He later rose from death in power! That’s why Good Friday is SO good!

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 3:18