As we meditate this Good Friday on the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus, our minds are indelibly marked with two realities in the battle against evil.

The first is the forgiveness of sins made possible only by the shedding of Christ’s blood: “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). And the second is the whole pattern of life to which we are called as disciples: “Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21).

The Gospel offers a “double grace,” as Calvin put it, and we see both in Christ’s suffering for us: freedom from the guilt of sin, and freedom from the power of sin. Meditating on the cross we see this two-fold defeat of sin in our salvation. We know that we are forgiven because Christ has born our sins in his body on the cross. And we know the life to which we are called, freed from the power of sin: a life of taking up the cross, of self-denial and love for others empowered by the Spirit.

One of Kierkegaard’s prayers captures well how these two aspects of the Gospel cling to one another, and it is a prayer that should be our own this Good Friday:

“Oh Lord Jesus Christ, it was not to plague us but to save us that Thou didst say, “No man can serve two masters” – oh, that we might be willing to accept it, by doing it, that is, by following Thee! Help us all and everyone, Thou who art both willing and able to help, Thou who art both the Pattern and the Redeemer, and again both the Redeemer and the Pattern, so that when the striver sinks under the Pattern, then the Redeemer raises him up again, but at the same instant Thou art the Pattern, to keep him continually striving. Thou, our Redeemer, by Thy blessed suffering and death, has made satisfaction for all and everything; no eternal blessedness can be or shall be earned by desert – it has been deserved. Yet Thou didst leave behind Thee the trace of Thy footsteps, Thou the holy pattern of the human race and of each individual in it, so that, saved by Thy redemption, they might every instant have confidence and boldness to strive to follow Thee.”

Amen.