For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. — Romans 8:10

This verse, penned by the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is for me the clear distinction between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

At the Journey Church, we prefer to refer to this Sunday as Resurrection Sunday. Easter has been co-opted by Hallmark and Brachs — Resurrection Sunday communicates the true message of Christianity.

“Good Friday” is the commemoration of the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ. It is good because through Jesus’s obedience, even to death on the cross, we find reconciliation with God. For all have sinned and the wages of that sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This Friday is an opportunity to reflect on all that it took for Jesus to reconcile us to the Father. The brutalization, rejection, hate and ultimately death of Jesus is the great exchange we can experience by grace through faith. Either we stand accountable for the imperfection of our lives, or we accept the sacrifice of the perfect one in our stead. 

Good Friday, however, is only half the story — it is incomplete without Resurrection Sunday. Paul continues in Romans 8:10 by saying that much more having been reconciled (by Jesus’s death), shall his (resurrected) life save us.

This is the Resurrection Sunday reality.

This is the greatest part of the story. Think about it: what good would it be to have been reconciled to God and yet not live forever in the experience of that reconciliation?

The death of Jesus without his resurrection — conquering of death and pathway of eternal life for us — would leave us as Paul says in another epistle, the most pitied of all people.

For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. — 1 Corinthians 15:16-22

I encourage you to pause on Friday to reflect and remember the crucifixion and death of Jesus, but don’t stop there; be sure and revel in the reality that Jesus conquered death and offers eternal life to all who believe and receive him.

More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. — Romans 8:11

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. — 1 Corinthians 15:54-57

He is risen; He is risen, indeed!

Leonard Browning is the Lead Pastor at Craig Journey Church. He can be reached at pastorlen@craigjc.org