Why Do We Call It "Good Friday"?

This powerful Good Friday sermon from Refuge Church explores the profound paradox of why the crucifixion of Jesus—history's most horrific event—is called 'Good Friday.' The preacher dismantles three common but flawed interpretations: that the cross was God's desperate fix after a failed creation, that it was a legal necessity to satisfy divine justice, and that Christ suffered to empathize with humanity. Each, while containing elements of truth, ultimately reduces God to a reactive or limited being. Instead, the sermon argues that the cross was not a reaction but a sovereign, intentional act of divine love. The speaker emphasizes the depth of Christ's suffering—physical, emotional, and spiritual—culminating in His cry of abandonment, where He bore the full wrath of God for human sin. Yet, the ultimate purpose of the cross is not just atonement, but the perfect revelation of God's very nature: love. Drawing from John 3:16 and 1 John 4:8, the sermon asserts that God is love in essence, and the cross is the ultimate expression of that love—sacrificial, self-giving, and gratuitous. The sermon concludes with a call to imitate this 'cruciform love' in daily life, not out of duty alone, but out of joy as children imitating their Father. The cross is good not because it was easy, but because it reveals the infinite depth of God’s love.