Today is Good Friday.  It is the day commonly celebrated by Christians as the day Jesus was crucified.

I remember reading once I John 2:1,2:

My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin.  And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

Actually I was reading it in French that day, which looks like this:

Mes petits enfants, je vous écris ces choses, afin que vous ne péchiez point.  Et si quelqu’un a péché, nous avons un avocat aupréz du Père, Jésus-Christ le juste.

Il est lui-même une victime expiatoire pour nos péchés, non seulement pour les notres, mais aussi pour ceux du monde entier.

Now I knew avocat (advocate) was lawyer.  Jesus is our lawyer, representing us and pleading our case before God.  That much I understood.  But what I didn’t understand was what expiatoire meant.  So I read the same verse in English, but that didn’t help.  I didn’t know what propitiation meant either.  So I looked up expiatoire in my French-English dictionary, and it said that expiatoire meant a sacrifice or in place of.  That was interesting.  I already knew what victime was–victim.  So when it said that Jesus was a victime expiatoire, it was saying that Jesus was a sacrificial victim, a victim who died in the place of another.

And He was a victime expiatoire for nos péchés–our sins.  So He died in the place of our sins.  “And not for ours only but also for the whole world” or du monde entier–the entire world.  And yet He is our lawyer.  If life were a courtroom drama and God were the judge and we were on trial for our sins, then according to this verse Jesus, the righteous, the sinless one, died for us.  He took the death penalty for us.  And now He represents us before God.  In such a scenario only Jesus can convincingly argue for our aquittal.  If the sentence has already been served, then what need is there for any further trial?  Only Jesus’ substitutionary death (which is what propitiation means) can set us free.

So Jesus is my victime expiatoire.  He sacrificed Himself to die in my place.  Well does the Bible say (Romans 5:7,8):

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

People will die for their loved ones; they will die for comrades-in-arms; but I don’t know of anyone who will die for a sinner, a bad person.  But Jesus did.

In honor of today, I would like to share my favorite “cross” hymn.  The words were written by Isaac Watts and the music by Lowell Mason.  You can read more about these men or listen to the music at cyberhymnal.

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ, my God;
All the vain things that charm me most–
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See, from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small:
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.