04/03/2026
Good Friday Devotional — “Great Things He Has Done”
F***y Crosby’s hymn stops me in my tracks every time I hear it. “To God be the glory, great things He hath done…”
Today, of all days, I remember that the greatest thing God ever did was not a moment of power, but a moment of surrender. He loved this broken world so deeply that He gave His Son to open the way home for every one of us.
John writes it plainly: “For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son…” (John 3:16, NLT). Good Friday reminds me that love is not an idea or a feeling. Love steps forward. Love carries the cross. Love yields His life “an atonement for sin,” just as Crosby wrote, so that the “life‑gate” stands open for all who will walk through.
When I look at the cross, I see the weight of my sin, but I also see the depth of His mercy. Paul says, “But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8, NLT). He didn’t wait for me to get it right. He didn’t wait for the world to clean itself up. He came while we were still lost, still wandering, still unable to save ourselves.
Good Friday is heavy, but it is not hopeless. Jesus’ final words echo through the centuries: “It is finished!” (John 19:30, NLT). Not “I am finished,” but it—the barrier, the debt, the distance between God and us. Finished. Paid. Removed.
And when I think about the events of that day, the hymn grows even deeper in meaning. Before dawn, Jesus stands before leaders who condemn Him. By morning, He faces Pilate, who finds no fault in Him yet hands Him over to satisfy the crowd. Soldiers beat Him, mock Him, and press a crown of thorns into His brow. He carries His cross through the streets until His strength fails, and they compel Simon of Cyrene to carry it behind Him.
At Golgotha, they nail His hands and feet to the cross. The sign above Him reads, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Darkness falls at noon. The weight of the world’s sin presses upon Him. Yet even then, He prays, “Father, forgive them.” One criminal mocks Him, but the other turns in faith, and Jesus answers with mercy: “Today you will be with Me in paradise.”
When He cries out, “It is finished,” the earth shakes, the temple curtain tears from top to bottom, and even a Roman centurion whispers what the world still needs to hear: “Surely this man was the Son of God.”
So today, I stand quietly at the foot of the cross. I let the truth settle into my heart: He yielded His life so I could live. He opened the gate so I could enter. He bore the darkness so I could walk in the light.
And with F***y Crosby, I whisper the only response that makes sense on a day like this:
To God be the glory. Great things He has done.
