Nailed to the Cross
Good Friday Homily
Nailed to the Cross
April 18, 2025
Prayer of Praise
Our Father in Heaven, on this Good Friday we hallow Your name. Our Lord Jesus was delivered up according to Your definite plan and foreknowledge and was crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. You raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it. Today, we remember the need for His death, which is our sin. We glorify You for the wisdom and grace of the cross and we look forward to celebrating His glorious Resurrection by the power of Your Holy Spirit, who raised Him from the dead. All glory be to You Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Colossians 2:11–15 11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: 12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
This is a dense passage of Scripture set in the context of Colossians, which teaches a young church about the essential things and warns them not to get distracted or derailed. In the course of this discussion, he teaches us about the glory of the cross.
Good Friday can be a confusing day on the church calendar. The ancient world was brutally violent and as we recount what occurred to Jesus, it is difficult to see the good amidst the glaring evil. We declare it good but we spend a lot of time thinking about and talking about the horrors of the unjust and brutal execution of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In this attempt to see the good, we do well to remember the basic teaching of Scripture, “What man means for evil, God means for good.” The same action can have two entirely different purposes. The Religious and Political Jewish leaders and the Roman powers conspired against Jesus with evil intent. But at the same time, God was conspiring against them to exalt His Son and save the world.
In saving the world, He saves His people. In saving His people, He saves each one. This means that every one of you who look to Christ in faith have been saved by the glory and goodness of the cross.
He has included you in His death, thus paying the penalty for you. Any known debt for sin that you owed has been canceled. He has blotted out all writing and accusations and even outstanding convictions that would require your death.
Matthew Henry talks about this blotting out. He says, “The expressions are in allusion to the ancient methods of cancelling a bond (or a debt), either by crossing the writing or striking it through with a nail.[1]
If anyone says that you owe the penalty for your sin, they have no evidence to prove it. The evidence has not been crossed out or struck through but has been blotted out and made unreadable with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. There is no remaining evidence of debt, nothing on which to convict you of sin and condemn you to death. Jesus triumphed over your accusers on the cross and they have no remaining power over you.
In Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian begins His journey to the Celestial City with good intentions but is making slow and painful progress because of a burden he is carrying on his back. It weighs him down and impedes his progress and might even be his complete failure and death. But something glorious happens to Christian and Bunyan describes it beautifully.
From Pilgrim’s Progress
Now I saw in my dream, that the highway up which Christian was to go, was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation (Isaiah 26:1). Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back. He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.
Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said with a merry heart, “He hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death.” Then he stood still a while, to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked, therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks (Zech. 12:10). Now as he stood looking and weeping, behold, three Shining Ones came to him, and saluted him with, “Peace be to thee.” So the first said to him, “Thy sins be forgiven thee” (Mark 2:5); the second stripped him of his rags, and clothed him with change of raiment (Zech. 3:4); the third also set a mark on his forehead (Eph. 1:13), and gave him a roll with a seal upon it, which he bid him look on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the celestial gate: so they went their way. Then Christian gave three leaps for joy, and went on singing,
“Thus far did I come laden with my sin,
Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in,
Till I came hither. What a place is this!
Must here be the beginning of my bliss?
Must here the burden fall from off my back?
Must here the strings that bound it to me crack?
Blest cross! blest sepulchre! blest rather be
The Man that there was put to shame for me!”
Amen and amen.
Let us pray. O Lord our God, we thank You that You grant us Your favor in the blessed cross, whereupon Your own beloved Son died to free us from our sins. Like Christian, we feel the burden of our woes disappear in the perfect sacrifice of the obedience of Jesus. Let us leap for joy and declare this Friday good because our Lord who died on the cross is good and that His death is an eternal good for us who are forever set free from accusations and guilt. We also rejoice that the death of the cross is not without the life of the Resurrection, to which we look on Easter Sunday. Thank You that we are hid with Christ in death and raised, exalted and seated with Christ in life. Amen.
[1] Henry, Matthew. 1994. Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume. Peabody: Hendrickson.