So that we may better understand the great mercy and goodness of our Saviour Christ in suffering death universally for all people, it will be necessary to descend into the bottom of our conscience and deeply consider the first and principal cause why he was compelled to do so. When our great grandfather Adam had broken God's commandment in eating the apple forbidden him in Paradise, at the proposal and suggestion of his wife, he purchased as a result, not only to himself, but also to his posterity for ever, the just wrath and indignation of God, who according to his earlier sentence pronounced at the giving of the commandment, condemned both him and all his to everlasting death, both of body and soul (Genesis 3.17). It was said to him, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. (Genesis 2.16-17). Now as the Lord had spoken, so it came to pass. Adam decided to eat, and in so doing he died the death, that is to say, he became mortal, he lost the favour of God, he was cast out of Paradise, he was no longer a citizen of heaven, but a firebrand of hell, and a bondslave to the devil.
To this our Saviour bears witness in the gospel, calling us lost sheep which have gone astray and wandered from the true shepherd of our souls (Luke 15.4-7). To this also Saint Paul bears witness, saying, Through one man's offence judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation. (Romans 5.18). So that now neither he, or any of his, had any right or interest at all in the kingdom of heaven, but were rejected and cast away, being perpetually damned to the everlasting pains of hell fire. In this very great misery and wretchedness, if humans could have recovered themselves again and obtained forgiveness at God's hands, then their case would have been a little tolerable, because they might have attempted somehow to deliver themselves from eternal death.
But there was no way left to them, they could do nothing that might pacify God's wrath, they could gain no advantage in that respect. There was not one that did good, no not one. How then could they achieve their own salvation? Should they try to pacify God's great displeasure by offering up burnt sacrifices, in the way it was ordained in the old law, by offering up the blood of oxen, the blood of calves, the blood of goats, the blood of lambs, and so forth (Hebrews 9.12-13)? These things had no force or strength to take away sins, they could not put away the anger of God, they could not cool the heat of his wrath, especially not bring humankind into favour again. They were only figures and shadows of things to come and nothing else. Read the epistle to the Hebrews, there you will find this matter discussed at length, there you will learn in the clearest words that the bloody sacrifice of the old law was imperfect, and not able to deliver humans from the state of damnation by any means (Hebrews 10.3-4, 8). If humans trusted in it, they would be trusting in a broken staff, and in the end deceive themselves. What should they then do? Should they try to serve and keep the law of God divided into two tables, and so buy themselves eternal life? Indeed, if Adam and his posterity had been able to satisfy and fulfil the law perfectly, in loving God above all things and their neighbour as themselves then they should have easily quenched the Lord's wrath and escaped the terrible sentence of eternal death pronounced against them by the mouth of Almighty God. For it is written, Do this, and you will live; that is to say, fulfil my commandments, keep yourself upright and perfect in them according to my will, then you will live, and not die. Here eternal life is promised with this condition, that they keep and observe the law (Luke 10.28). But such was the frailty of humankind after the fall, such was their weakness and stupidity, that they could not walk uprightly in God's commandments even though they might want to, but daily and hourly failed to do what they should, offending the Lord their God in many ways, to the great increase of his condemnation. So that the prophet David cries, They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, No, not one." Psalms 14:3. In this case what profit could they have by the law? None at all. For as St. James says, He who observes the whole law, and yet fails in one point, has become guilty of all (James 2.10). And in the book of Deuteronomy it is written, Cursed be anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by observing them. (Deuteronomy 27.26).
See, the law brings a curse with it, and makes us guilty, not because it is of itself worthless or unholy, (God forbid we should think so) but because the frailty of our sinful flesh is such that we can never fulfil it according to the perfection that the Lord requires. Could Adam then (do you think) hope or trust to be saved by the law? No he could not. The more he looked at the law, the more he saw his own damnation set before his eyes, as if he were looking into a clear mirror. So that now by himself he was most wretched and miserable, destitute of all hope, and never able to pacify God's great displeasure. Neither could he escape the terrible judgement of God, under which he and all his posterity had fallen, by disobeying the clear commandment of the Lord their God. But O the abundant riches of God's great mercy. O the unspeakable goodness of his heavenly wisdom (Romans 11.33). When all hope of righteousness was past on our part, when we had nothing in ourselves, by which we might quench his burning wrath, achieve the salvation of our own souls, and rise out of the miserable state in which we lay: then, even then did Christ the Son of God, by the appointment of his Father, come down from heaven, to be wounded for our sakes, to be numbered with the wicked, to be condemned to death, to take upon himself the reward of our sins, and to give his body to be broken on the cross for our offences. He (says the prophet Isaiah, meaning Christ) has borne our infirmities, and has carried our sorrows, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we were made whole (Isaiah 53.4-5). Saint Paul also says, God made him a sacrifice for our sins, who knew not sin, that we should be made the righteousness of God by him (2 Corinthians 5.21). And Saint Peter agrees, saying, Christ has once died and suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust. etc. To these might be added an infinite number of other places to the same effect: but these few will be sufficient for now.
Now then (as it was said at the beginning) let us ponder and weigh the cause of his death, that by doing so we may be more moved to glorify him in our whole life. Which, if you have understood briefly in one word, was nothing other on our part than the transgression and sin of humankind. When the angel came to warn Joseph that he should not be afraid to take Mary as his wife, did he not say the child's name should be called Jesus, because he would save his people from their sins? When John the Baptist preached Christ, and pointed him out to the people, did he not plainly say to them, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1.29)? When the woman of Canaan asked Christ to help her daughter who was possessed with a demon, did he not openly confess that he was sent to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel by giving his life for their sins (Matthew 15.22, 24)? It was sin then, you man or woman, - your sin- that caused Christ the only Son of God to be crucified in the flesh, and to suffer the most vile and slanderous death of the cross. If you had kept yourself upright, if you had observed the commandments, if you had not presumed to transgress the will of God in your first father Adam: then Christ, being in the form of God, would not have needed not to take upon himself the shape of a servant (Romans 5.19).
Being immortal in heaven, he did not need to become mortal on earth; being the true bread of the soul, he did not need to hunger; being the healthful water of life he did not need to thirst; being life itself, he did not need to have suffered death. But to these and many other such extremities he was driven by your sin, which was so multiplied and great, that God could only be pleased in him and no other. Can you think of this O sinner, and not tremble within yourself? Can you hear it quietly without remorse of conscience, and sorrow of heart? Did Christ suffer his passion for you, and will you show no compassion towards him? While Christ was still hanging on the cross and yielding up his spirit the Scripture testifies that the veil of the Temple tore in two and the earth quaked, the stones split asunder, the graves opened, and the dead bodies rose (Matthew 27.51-52).
And will our hearts not be moved to remember how severely and cruelly he was handled by the leaders of his nation for our sins? Shall we show ourselves to be more hard hearted than stones, to have less compassion than dead bodies? Call to mind, O sinful creature, and set before your eyes Christ crucified. Do you think you see his body stretched out upon the cross, his head crowned with sharp thorns, and his hands and his feet pierced with nails, his heart opened with a long spear, his flesh cut and torn with whips, his brows sweating water and blood. Do you think you hear him now crying in an intolerable agony to his Father and saying, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Could you behold this woeful sight, or hear this mournful voice, without tears, considering that he suffered all this, not for any desert of his own, but only for the seriousness of your sins? O that humankind should put the everlasting Son of God to such pains. O that we should be the occasion of his death and the only cause of his condemnation. May we not justly cry, cursed be the time that we ever sinned? O my brothers and sisters let this image of Christ crucified be always printed in our hearts, let it stir us up to the hatred of sin, and provoke our minds to the earnest love of Almighty God. For why? Is not sin, don't you think, a terrible thing in his sight, seeing that for the transgressing of God's command in eating of one apple, he condemned all the world to perpetual death, and would not be pacified, except with the blood of his own Son? True, yes most true, is that saying of David: You, O Lord, hate all those who commit sin, neither shall the wicked and evil person dwell with you (Psalm 5.4). By the mouth of his holy prophet Isaiah, he cried out strongly against sinners, and says: Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, And sin as if with a cart rope. (Isaiah 5:18).
Did he not give a clear indication how greatly he hated and detested sin when he drowned all the world except for eight persons (Genesis 7.23), when he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone (Genesis 19.24), when in the space of three days he killed with disease seventy thousand for David's offence (2 Sam. 24.15), when he drowned Pharaoh and all his host in the Red Sea (Exodus 14.28), when he turned Nebuchadnezzar the king into the form of a brute beast, crawling on all fours (Daniel 4.33), when he allowed Achitophel and Judas to hang themselves because of remorse for sin which was so terrible in their eyes (2 Sam. 17.23, Acts 1.18)? A thousand such examples are to be found in Scripture if a person wanted to seek them out.
But why do we need to? This one example which we have now in hand is of more force, and ought to move us more, than all the rest. Christ being the Son of God, and perfect God himself, who never committed sin, was compelled to come down from heaven, to give his body to be bruised and broken on the cross for our sins. Was not this a clear indication of God's great wrath and displeasure towards sin, that he could be pacified by no other means, but only by the sweat and precious blood of his dear Son? O sin, sin, that ever you should drive Christ to such extremity! Cursed be the time that you ever came into the world. But what good is it now to be sorry? Sin has come, and come in such a way that it cannot be avoided. There is no one living, not even the most righteous person on earth, who does not fall seven times a day, as Solomon says (Proverbs 24.16). And our Saviour Christ, although he has delivered us from sin, has not delivered us from committing sin, but so that it will not be imputed to our condemnation. He has taken upon himself the just reward of sin, which was death, and by death has overthrown death, that we believing in him might live for ever and not die (Romans 6.9, 23). Ought not this to engender extreme hatred of sin in us when we consider that it violently, as it were, plucked God out of heaven, to make him feel the horrors and pains of death? O that we would sometimes consider this in the midst of our pompous displays and pleasures. It would bridle the offensiveness of the flesh, it would diminish and appease our sinful desires, it would restrain our fleshly appetites, so that we should not run at random as we commonly do. To commit sin wilfully and desperately without fear of God, is nothing else but to crucify Christ anew, as we are expressly taught in the epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 6.6). If this was deeply printed in everyone's hearts, sin would not reign every where so much as it does, to the great grief and torment of Christ now sitting in heaven.
Let us therefore remember and always bear in mind Christ crucified, that by doing so we may be inwardly moved both to hate sin thoroughly, and also with an earnest and zealous heart to love God. For this is another fruit which the memory of Christ's death ought to produce in us, an earnest and genuine love towards God. God so loved the world (says Saint John) that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him, should not perish, but have life everlasting (John 3.16). If God declared such great love towards us his blind creatures, how can we rightly not love him in return? Was not this a sure pledge of his love, to give us his own Son from heaven? He might have given us an angel if he wanted to, or some other creature, and even then his love would have been far above our deserts. Now he gave us not an angel, but his Son. And what Son? His only Son, his natural Son, his well beloved Son, even that Son whom he had made Lord and ruler of all things. Was not this a singular token of great love? But to whom did he give him? He gave him to the whole world, that is to say, to Adam, and all that should come after him. O Lord, what had Adam or any other person deserved at God's hands, that he should give us his own Son? We are all miserable persons, sinful persons, damnable persons, justly driven out of paradise, justly excluded from heaven, justly condemned to hell fire.
And yet (look at this wonderful sign of God's love) he gave us his only begotten Son, us I say, who were his utter and mortal enemies, that we by virtue of his blood shed upon the cross, might be purged clean from our sins, and made righteous again in his sight. Who can choose but marvel, to hear that God should show such unspeakable love towards us, that were his deadly enemies? Indeed, O mortal, you ought rightly to marvel at it, and to acknowledge in it God's great goodness and mercy towards humankind, which is so wonderful, that no human, however worldly wise, may even conceive it, or express it. For as Saint Paul testifies, God greatly commends and sets out his love towards us, in that he sent his Son Christ to die for us, when we were yet sinners, and open enemies of his name (Romans 5.8). If we had in any way deserved it at his hands then it would have been no marvel at all, but there was no desert on our part why he should do it. Therefore you sinful creature, when you hear that God gave his Son to die for the sins of the world, don't think that he did it for any desert or goodness that was in you, for you were then the slave of the devil. But fall down on your knees, and cry with the prophet David, O Lord, what is man, that you are so mindful of him? or the son of man, that you so regard him (Psalms 8.4)? And seeing he has so greatly loved you, endeavour yourself to love him in return, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, that by doing so you may appear not to be unworthy of his love. I appeal to your own conscience, whether you would not think your love was given in vain to a person who could not find it in their heart to love you in return? If this is true, (as it is most true) then think what a great obligation is on you to love God, who has so greatly loved you that he has not spared his own only Son from so cruel and shameful a death for your sake.
So far concerning the cause of Christ's death and passion, which on our part was horrible and flagrant sin, so on the other side it was the free gift of God, proceeding merely from his tender love towards humankind, without any merit or desert on our part. The Lord for his mercies sake grant that we never forget this great benefit of our salvation in Christ Jesus, but that we always show ourselves thankful for it, hating all kind of wickedness and sin, and applying our minds wholly to the service of God, and the diligent keeping of his commandments.
Now it remains that I show you how to apply Christ's death and passion to our comfort, as a medicine to our wounds, so that it may work the same effect in us for which it was given, namely, the health and salvation of our souls. For as it profits a person nothing to have ointment, unless it is well applied to the part infected, so the death of Christ is of no help to us unless we apply it to ourselves in such a way as God has appointed. Almighty God commonly works by means, and in this thing he has also ordained a certain means, by which we may benefit and profit to our soul's health.
What means is that? Truly it is faith. Not an unsteady or wavering faith, but a sure, steadfast, grounded, and sincere faith. God sent his son into the world (says Saint John) to what end? That whoever believes in him should not perish, but have life everlasting. Mark these words: that whoever believes in him (John 3.16). Here is the means by which we must apply the fruits of Christ's death to our deadly wound. Here is the means by which we must obtain eternal life, namely faith. For (as Saint Paul teaches in his epistle to the Romans) with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10.10). When Paul was asked by the keeper of the prison what he should do to be saved he made this answer, Believe in the Lord Jesus, so shall you and your house both be saved (Acts 16.30-31). After the Evangelist had described and set forth to us in general the life and the death of the Lord Jesus, in the end he concludes with these words: These things are written, that we may believe Jesus Christ to be the son of God, and through faith obtain eternal life (John 20.31). To conclude with the words of Saint Paul: Christ is the end of the law unto salvation, for every one who believes (Romans 10.4).
By this then, you may well see, that the only means and instrument of salvation required on our part is faith, that is to say, a sure trust and confidence in the mercies of God, whereby we persuade ourselves that God both has and will forgive our sins, that he has accepted us again into his favour, that he has released us from the bonds of damnation, and received us again into the number of his elect people, not for our merits or deserts, but only and solely for the merits of Christ's death and passion, who became man for our sakes, and humbled himself to bear the reproach of the cross, that by it we might be saved, and made inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. This faith is required at our hands. And if we keep this steadfastly in our hearts there is no doubt that we shall obtain salvation at God's hands as did Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of whom the Scripture says, that they believed, and it was reckoned to them as righteousness (Genesis 15.6, Romans 4.3). Was it reckoned to them only? And shall it not be reckoned to us also? Yes, if we have the same faith as they had, it shall be as truly reckoned to us for righteousness, as it was to them. For it is one faith that must save both us and them, even a sure and steadfast faith in Christ Jesus, who as you have heard came into the world for this end, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have life everlasting (John 3.15).
But here we must take heed that we do not limp with God through an unsteady and wavering faith, but that it be strong and steadfast to our life's end. He who wavers (says Saint James) is like a wave of the sea, let not that man think that he shall obtain any thing at God's hands (James 1.6-7). Peter coming to Christ upon the water, because his faith gave way, was in danger of drowning. So we, if we begin to waver or doubt, might sink as Peter did (Matthew 14.29-30), not into the water, but into the bottomless pit of hell fire. Therefore I say to you that we must lay hold of the merits of Christ's death and passion by faith, and that with a strong and steadfast faith, not doubting, but believing that Christ by his own sacrifice and offering of himself once upon the cross has taken away our sins, and has restored us again into God's favour so fully and perfectly, that no other sacrifice for sin shall ever again be required or needed in all the world.
Thus you have heard in a few words the means by which we must apply the fruits and merits of Christ's death to ourselves, so that it may result in the salvation of our souls, namely a sure, steadfast, perfect, and grounded faith. For as all those who looked steadfastly at the brazen serpent were healed and delivered at the very sight of it from their bodily diseases and stings (Numbers 21.9), so all those who look at Christ crucified with a true and lively faith (John 3.14-15), shall undoubtedly be delivered from the painful wounds of the soul, no matter how deadly or many in number.
Therefore (dear friends) if we happen at any time through frailty of the flesh to fall into sin (since it can't be avoided, but we must of necessity fall often) and if we feel the heavy burden of it oppress our souls, tormenting us with the fear of death, hell, and damnation, let us then use that means which God has appointed in his word, namely, the means of faith, which is the only instrument of salvation now left to us. Let us steadfastly look at Christ crucified with the eyes of our heart. Let us trust to be saved only by his death and passion, and to have our sins washed clean away through his most precious blood, that at the end of the world, when he comes again to judge both the living and the dead, he may receive us into his heavenly kingdom, and place us in the number of his elect and chosen people, there to share that immortal and everlasting life, which he has purchased for us by virtue of his bloody wounds. To him therefore, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory, world without end, Amen.
Back to the First Homily for Good Friday
These homilies are number 13 in the Second Book of Homilies first published in 1563. They are commended in Article 35 of the 39 Articles of Religion of the Church of England as containing a godly and wholesome doctrine. In this version the spelling has been modernised. The language and expression has been partly modernised.
The original homilies can be found at