Inspiring Good Friday Quotes to Reflect On

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."

- Bible

"No matter what the storm clouds bring, you can face your pain with courage and hope. For two thousand years ago-six hours, one Friday-Christ firmly planted in bedrock three solid anchor points that we can all cling to. For the heart scarred with futility, that Friday holds purpose. For the life blackened with failure, that Friday holds forgiveness. And for the soul looking into the tunnel of death, that Friday holds deliverance."

- Max Lucado

"God proved His love on the cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, 'I love you.'"

- Billy Graham

"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life."

- Bible

"The marvel of heaven and earth, of time and eternity, is the atoning death of Jesus Christ. This is the mystery that brings more glory to God than all creation."

- Charles Spurgeon

"Unless there is a Good Friday in your life, there can be no Easter Sunday."

- Fulton J. Sheen

"But thank God the crucifixion was not the last act in that great and powerful drama. There is another act. And it is something that we sing out and cry and ring out today. Thank God a day came when Good Friday had to pass."

- The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

"The thief understood that the Kingdom of Jesus of Nazareth, despised and given over to a shameful death, was not of this world. And it was precisely this Kingdom that the thief now sought: the gates of earthly life were closing after him; opening before him was eternity. He had settled his accounts with life on earth, and now he thought of life eternal. And here, at the threshold of eternity, he began to understand the vanity of earthly glory and earthly kingdoms. He recognized that greatness consists in righteousness, and in the righteous, blamelessly tortured Jesus he saw the King of Righteousness. The thief did not ask Him for glory in an earthly kingdom but for the salvation of his soul."

- St. John Maximovitch of Shanghai and San Francisco

"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed."

- Bible

"Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all."

- Bible

"What is good about Good Friday? Why isn't it called Bad Friday? Because out of the appallingly bad came what was inexpressibly good. And the good trumps the bad, because though the bad was temporary, the good is eternal."

- Randy Alcorn

"Good Friday: day of the cross, day of suffering, day of hope, day of abandonment, day of victory, day of mourning, day of joy, day of endings, day of beginnings. . . . I closed my eyes and could see his sacred body. . . . I saw the immense suffering of humanity during the centuries: people killing each other; people dying from starvation and epidemics; people driven from their homes; people sleeping on the streets of large cities; people clinging to each other in desperation; people flagellated, tortured, burned and mutilated; people alone in locked flats, in prison dungeons, in labor camps; people craving a gentle word, a friendly letter, a consoling embrace, people . . . all crying out with an anguished voice, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken us?’. . . with my minds’ eye I saw large crowds of isolate, agonizing individuals walking away from the cross together, bound by the love they had seen with their own eyes and touched with their own lips. The cross of horror became the cross of hope, the tortured body became the body that gives new life; the gaping wound became the source of forgiveness, healing and reconciliation."

- Henri Nouwen

"We may say that on the first Good Friday afternoon was completed that great act by which light conquered darkness and goodness conquered sin. That is the wonder of our Saviour's crucifixion."

- Phillips Brooks

"The highest act of love is the giving of the best gift, and, if necessary, at the greatest cost, to the least deserving. That's what God did. At the loss of His Son's life to the totally undeserving, God gave the best gift - the display of the glory of Christ who is the image of God."

- John Piper

"Our lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone but in every leaf of springtime."

- Martin Luther

"It was not nails that held Jesus to that wretched cross; it was his unqualified resolution, out of love for his Father, to do his Father’s will—and it was his love for sinners like me."

- D.A. Carson

"Jesus’ death on the cross was a fully human and yet fully divine sacrifice that effectively paid the price for humankind’s sin."

- Edward P. Meadors

"The way of the cross is the way of suffering. Christians are called to die, not kill, in order to show the world how they are loved by Christ."

- John Piper

"I believe in Christ, like I believe in the sun — not because I can see it, but by it I can see everything else."

- C.S. Lewis

"Christ takes a worm and transforms it into an angel."

- Charles Spurgeon

"Christ has not only spoken to us by his life but has also spoken for us by his death."

- Soren Kierkegaard

"The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise godfearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"It is by Christ that we have redemption, or the actual deliverance from misery, and the bestowment of all happiness and glory."

- Jonathan Edwards

"But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."

- Bible

"The second-born person still sins, but is no longer a slave to sin. The Holy Spirit, in intimate, indwelling communion, liberates. The person is made alive to the things of God."

- R.C. Sproul

"Why did Jesus have to die in order to forgive us? There was a debt to be paid—God himself paid it. There was a penalty to be born—God himself bore it. Forgiveness is always a form of costly suffering."

- Timothy Keller

"Good Friday and Easter free us to think about other things far beyond our own personal fate, about the ultimate meaning of all life, suffering, and events; and we lay hold of a great hope."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"

- 2 Corinthians 5:17

"The hope is simply that, by identifying ourselves with the Incarnate God, by absorbing ourselves in His teaching, by living out the drama of his life with Him including especially the Passion, that powerhouse of love and creativity, by living with and in Him we are suddenly caught up in the glory of God’s love flooding the universe."

- Malcolm Muggeridge

"On the eve of the cross, Jesus made his decision. He would rather go to hell for you than go to heaven without you."

- Max Lucado

"This new covenant work of Christ removes idols, users in the Holy Spirit, transforms the inner being, and writes the law of God upon the heart (Heb. 8:7-12), so the death destined sinner becomes a new creation with a new destiny."

- Edward P. Meadors

"Christ died He left a will in which He gave His soul to His Father, His body to Joseph of Arimathea, His clothes to the soldiers and His mother to John. But to His disciples, who had left all to follow Him, He left not silver or gold, but something far better – His PEACE!"

- Matthew Henry

"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."

- Colossians 1:19-20

"Easter is a time when God turned the inevitability of death into the invincibility of life."

- Craig D. Lounsbrough

"God loves each of us as if there were only one of us."

- Saint Augustine

"To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps."

- 1 Peter 2:21

"On the Great and Holy Friday we commemorate the holy, saving and awesome sufferings of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ: the spitting, the striking, the scourging, the cursing, the mockery; the crown of thorns, the purple cloak, the rod, the sponge, the vinegar and gall, the nails, the spear; and above all the cross and the death, which He voluntarily endured for us. Also we commemorate the saving confession of the grateful thief who was crucified with Him."

- Rev. Alkiviadis Calivas

"Good Friday, the day when Christians remember the crucifixion of Jesus. The crucifixion and resurrection are the central events in the Christian faith. That is why Good Friday and Easter Sunday are such important days in the Christian year. The cross is the central theme of worship."

- Gordon Geddes

"When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit."

- Bible

"It costs God nothing, so far as we know, to create nice things; but to convert rebellious wills cost Him crucifixion."

- C. S. Lewis

"Because He lives, I can face tomorrow – Because He lives, all fear is gone – because I know He holds the future – And life is worth the living – Just because He lives."

- Bill Gaither

"When I survey the wondrous CrossOn which the Prince of Glory diedMy richest gain, I count but lossAnd pour contempt on all my pride See from His head, His hands, His feetSorrow and love flow mingled downDid ever such love and sorrow meet?Or thorns compose, so rich a crown Oh the wonderful Cross, oh the wonderful CrossBids me come and die and find that I may truly liveOh the wonderful Cross, oh the wonderful Cross"

- Isaac Watts/Chris Tomlin

"When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’"

- Bible

"Let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth."

- 1 John 3:18

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us."

- Romans 8:18

"When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they divided up his clothes by casting lots."

- Luke 23:33-34

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

- Romans 3:23

"The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him."

- Colossians 1:15-16

"The Begotten One is not a creature created for a unique task, but is very God of Very God, the second person of the Trinity."

- R.C. Sproul

"If we want to know what God is like, let us look at Calvary."

- Robert E. Coleman

"As Man alone, Jesus could not have saved us; as God alone, He would not; Incarnate, He could and did."

- Malcolm Muggeridge

"The atonement of Christ is capable of removing from men, all sorts, sizes, and dyes of iniquity."

- Charles Spurgeon

"As Priest, Jesus represents the people before God. Not only does he offer the supreme sacrifice, but he is the supreme sacrifice."

- R.C. Sproul

"If I wanted others to think highly of me, I would conceal the fact that the shameful slaughter of the perfect Son of God was required that I might be saved. But when I stand at the foot of the Cross and am seen by others under the light of that Cross, I am left uncomfortably exposed before their eyes. Indeed, the most humiliating gossip that could ever be whispered about me is blared from Golgotha’s hill, and my self-righteous reputation is left in ruins in the wake of its revelations. With the worst facts about me thus exposed to the view of others, I find myself feeling that I truly have nothing left to hide."

- Milton Vincent

"There is no other way to life and to true inward peace than the way of the holy cross and daily mortification."

- Thomas a' Kempis

"The most obscene symbol in human history is the Cross; yet in its ugliness it remains the most eloquent testimony to human dignity."

- R. C. Sproul

"Apparently, Satan did not know that by sacrificing Jesus he would pull the one pin that would crumble his entire kingdom, fall into the very scheme God the Father had carefully, ever so carefully arranged for the undoing of evil: “We speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”"

- John Eldredge

"… but you see, even the devil’s purposes are ultimately turned into God’s purposes. It was the devil’s purpose that our Lord should be crucified, but in His crucifixion lay everything that’s wonderful in a civilization that you and I belong to."

- Malcolm Muggeridge

"Behold the man upon a cross,My sin upon His shoulders;Ashamed, I hear my mocking voiceCall out among the scoffers.It was my sin that held Him thereUntil it was accomplished;His dying breath has brought me life –I know that it is finished."

- Stuart Townend

"When Christ calls a man, he bids him to come and die."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Most Christians are being crucified on a cross between two thieves: Yesterday's regret and tomorrow's worries."

- Warren W. Wiersbe

"Martyrdom always remains the supreme enacting and perfection of Christianity. This great action has been initiated for us, done on our behalf, exemplified for our imitation, and inconceivably communicated to all believers, by Christ on Calvary."

- C.S. Lewis

"The pain was absolutely unbearable. In fact, it was literally beyond words to describe, they had to invent a new word: excruciating. Literally, excruciating means 'out of the cross.' Think of that: they needed to create a new word, because there was nothing in the language that could describe the anguish caused during the crucifixion."

- Dr. Alexander Metherell

"His executioners made vulgar jokes about Him, called Him filthy names, taunted Him, smacked Him in the face, flogged Him with the cat, and hanged Him on the common gibbet—a bloody, dusty, sweaty, and sordid business."

- Dorothy L. Sayers

"The violence Jesus endured is seldom represented in a fashion that does justice to his suffering. He was taken into custody, stripped, and whipped by Roman guards. Men who strip another man do so not merely to harm but even more so to humiliate. Jesus’ naked body received not only the whip but the words of degradation. This was not merely a beating; it was sexual assault. God’s Son was subjected to the shame of abuse. He was the ultimate illegal alien, stranger, and refugee—the despised of the earth."

- Dan B. Allender

"On the cross, Jesus was cursed. He represented the covenant-breakers who were exposed to the curse and took the full measure of the curse upon himself. As the Lamb of God, the sin-bearer, he was cut off from the presence of God. On the cross, Jesus experienced forsakenness on our behalf."

- R.C. Sproul

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."

- Anne Bradstreet

"The cross is the victory, the resurrection is the triumph…The resurrection is the public display of the victory, the triumph of the crucified one."

- Leon Morris

"In His humanness, God became weak—Jesus as a baby in a manger; Jesus rejected; Jesus weeping; Jesus beaten; Jesus silent before His accusers; Jesus suffering on a Cross. Weakness (or surrender) is where God’s power is most visible."

- Mary Tutterow

"There would be absolutely no benefit to us if Jesus lived and died merely as a private person. His work brings us benefit only because He lived and died as our representative."

- Jerry Bridges

"But where the heart is strong and the blood is pure, life is full of health and overflowing with joy. This is what Christ wants to impart to every person."

- Robert E. Coleman

"No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown."

- William Penn

"We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won’t need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don’t fire cannons to call attention to their shining — they just shine."

- Dwight L. Moody

"With humility, Christ faced down humanity’s worst to give us God’s best."

- Judith Couchman

"A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"Sin is, by nature, anti-life because it relationally severs us from the source of life itself—God."

- Matt Bohlman

"The Bible doesn’t accept excuses for sin. Sinful human beings have no more place in the purity of heaven and the perfect holiness of God than do spiders on the rug of a five-star hotel."

- R.C. Sproul

"If God is really God in the full biblical sense, he cannot have pure relationship with people whose sins still fester. For God’s love is holy love. Sin is perverted. God’s love is just and righteous. Sin is unjust and unrighteous… God desires that his people be one with him. And that is impossible as long as sin remains in the picture."

- Edward P. Meadors

"No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow."

- Proverb

"Few ever think about the dreadful implications of being under the wrath of God. And none of us even begins to realize how truly sinful we are."

- Jerry Bridges

"For nothing good have I whereby Thy grace to claim – I’ll wash my garments white in the blood of Calvary’s Lamb. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain – He washed is white as snow."

- Elvina Hall

"Can any man here estimate the number of his own sins from the first transgression of his childhood until grey old age, or the present period of his life?"

- Charles Spurgeon

"From the earliest ages of Christianity, Good Friday has always been observed as a solemn fast, and been marked with that special respect which its sanctity demands. In ancient days it was called Long Friday, from the length of the religious services; and by our forefathers it was termed Holy Friday."

- W. Stevens

"What wondrous love is this, that caused the Lord of Life to lay aside his crown?"

"The comeback is always stronger than the setback."

- Unknown