Walther on Good Friday

On Golgotha, we see sin in the greatest magnitude and with the most horrifying result.  For what Christ suffered here, He did not suffer for the sake of His own sin.  Instead, He suffered voluntarily for the sake of our sin.  'Surely,' says the prophet Isaiah, 'He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows...He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities' (54:4-5).  What Christ suffered is what we should have eternally suffered for our sins.  He endured the punishment, showing us that our sins merit eternal torment.  He hung naked, disgraced, ridiculed, and shamed- the same condition our sins should have earned us.  He thirsted and was not refreshed, demonstrating that our sins should have brought us eternal thirst and languishing.  His cross was placed between the crosses of robbers and murderers, showing us that our sins should have excluded us from the communion of all holy creatures and consigned us instead to the company of the children of wickedness and condmnation.  Christ was forsaken by God, underscoring the fact that our sins merit eternal rejection by God.  He hung there in awful darkness, telling us that our sins should have earned us no light of grace.  Christ, the Life, died, and this is a stark reminder to us that our sins merit eternal death and damnation.

-- CFW Walther (from God Grant It, pgs. 339-340)