For the second time this year, there was a Friday the 13th. This is a day considered by many to be an unlucky day, and fear of this day is so widespread that psychologists have given it a name made up of 23 letters. Some historians have claimed it was the day when Eve bit into the apple from the Tree of Knowledge. Others think that the 13th disciple to sit down at the table at the Last Supper was Judas, who betrayed his master, Jesus.
But there is a Friday mentioned in the Bible called Good Friday, the day when Jesus was crucified on the Cross. This may seem to have been a bad day for Jesus, but actually it was a very good day for everyone, including Jesus. It was good for Jesus because He was following God’s plan to provide salvation from sin for the human race. Also, according to the Book of Philippians, as a result of what Jesus did, God “highly exalted Him, and gave Him a name greater than any other name, so great that one day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Good Friday is definitely a good day for the human race, because on this day Jesus paid the penalty for our sins. Because Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, sin infected the entire human race. In the Old Testament days, God required an animal sacrifice to be made to gain forgiveness of sins.  When Jesus died on the Cross, He became the perfect sacrifice, once and for all, eliminating the need for us to pay a penalty for our sins, or sacrificing animals over and over again. 
According to the Book of Romans, the penalty for sin is called a wage, and that wage is death, a spiritual death. God had warned Adam and Eve that if they ate of the forbidden fruit they would die. 
But when they took a bite, they kept on living and breathing just like before. However, something inside of them died, and that something was their soul. When God created Adam, the Book of Genesis says that He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul.”  
What God really breathed into Adam was the Holy Spirit, and this is what gave life to Adam’s soul. So when he and Eve sinned, their soul began to die.
But when Jesus died on the Cross, He defeated the power of sin and death, and this made it possible for mankind to be re-created in the image and likeness of God. We can now have new life in our soul by putting our faith in what Jesus did on the Cross, and we can do it on Friday the 13th, or any other day, without any fear that we will die in our sins.

Larry R. Steffee is pastor of the Center Hill Brethren In Christ Church on Miller Road in Smithville.  Everyone is welcome to attend.  For information, you may email lrsteffeetn@yahoo.com.