Wearing Jesus’ Goodness:  A Good Friday Devotion for Teen Girls is from a series of Good Friday devotions and is ideally appropriate for girls ages 13-18.  There are other Good Friday devos for ages 4-8 and 9-12 and for moms, all to prepare our hearts for Good Friday, and, ultimately, Resurrection Sunday.  Please feel free to share!  Download the printable version here.  Please note that the information on the printable version is from my old website name.  When printing to share, please change!

Wearing Jesus’ Goodness:  A Good Friday Devotion for Teen Girls

Imagine you’re invited to a fancy winter ball with your friends.  Everyone must wear their very best.  You go to the department store with your mom to try on dresses, but none are quite right.

Then you see it: a pristine, white dress with sparkling shoes on the mannequin.  “It’s gorgeous!” you sigh, admiring it in the dressing room mirror.  It fits you perfectly, as if its made just for you.  “It’s definitely my very best,” you think as you pay the cashier and leave with your new dress.

Now it’s time to imagine something different.

It’s Good Friday, the day Christians remember Jesus’ suffering and death.  Imagine Jesus being beaten, punched, and whipped by soldiers.  Picture him as they make fun of him and spit in his bloody face.

Jesus’ hands and feet are nailed to a dirty, wooden cross.  He hangs painfully on that cross for hours.  Then he dies alone there.   This isn’t imaginary.  It’s a true story.  Jesus experienced the pain and death of a criminal 2,000 years ago.

And Good Friday is an extremely sad day for those who love Jesus.

It’s sad because Jesus–from birth until his last breath–was no criminal.  In fact, he was completely sinless.  He never disrespected his mother, gossiped, used foul language, compromised his integrity or purity, thought wrongly of others, nothing.  He also truly loved and served others.  Yet, in spite of this, people treated him like a wretched, sinful man.

It’s also sad because WE deserved death, but he got it.  It was our sin, our bad thoughts, actions, words, and desires that really nailed Jesus to the cross.

You may be thinking…

We all sin, right?  Nobody’s perfect.  I’m a pretty good person!  Why would Jesus have to die for my little sins?

So let’s imagine again that it’s the night of the winter ball.  You’re shining like a star in your new dress.  Your mom drops you off, but as you step out of the car, you stop.  There’s fresh snow on the ground. It’s so white and clean and perfect.

You look down at your dress and frown.  “Wow,” you think.  “I thought my dress was so pristine, but next to this pure, white snow, my dress doesn’t look so white anymore. It actually looks kind of…yellowish.”

See, most people go through life thinking, “I’m pretty good”.

They think that’s enough for God, that it will get them into heaven.  It won’t.

God (the one who created you, me, the stars, snowflakes, butterflies, DNA) is holy.  That word means “set apart”.  God is so supremely good in every single way when we’re not.  His holiness is like the new fallen snow…so good and pure that anyone who tries to measure their goodness next to it falls very, very short.  Our dresses look white until we hold ourselves up to God’s purity.  Then we see reality.

God MUST be set apart from us because his goodness and our sin simply cannot be together. It would compromise his goodness.

Now, the Bible says that the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

So if we sin, even a tiny bit, the payment is simple: death.  Death here and eternal death in hell.  That’s our “wage”, our payment.  But God’s desire is that “none should perish” (2 Peter 3:9).  What’s to be done?  He can’t compromise his goodness BUT, at the same time, he loves us and doesn’t want us to die!

Here’s the amazing answer.

God knew we would try to wear our “whitest dress” for him.  He knew we’d try to wear a whiter dress than others and hope he’d compare.  But there’s no money, right words, or good deeds that can pay the debt we owe.  When God sees us, he sees our sin.

So God solved the problem we couldn’t solve ourselves.  He sent his son Jesus to live a perfect life, side-by-side with people, in order to pay the debt and forgive us.  Only someone who was without sin could do this.  Even Jesus final words, “It is finished”, in New Testament times, was a phrase used when a debt was considered “paid in full”.

But Jesus is so powerful that he came back to life and he’s alive today!  Your our debts are “paid in full…IF we repent of (turn from) our sin and put our trust in Christ.  When we do, God doesn’t see the “yellowish” dress of sin anymore.

Now, when we arrive at the ball, God sees the purity of Jesus.  It’s as if we’ve been given a brand new, truly white dress that makes our former dress look like rags.  We still sin, but now God sees Jesus’ righteousness as our shining, new gown. (Isaiah 1:18)

And its because of Good Friday that you can wear Jesus’ goodness!

As you live in the righteousness of Christ, you’ll experience a freedom you’ve never known.   You’ll be challenged, but not defeated, experience hardship, but never alone.  You’ll feel convicted, but never condemned.  You’ll experience a joy beyond understanding, growing into the woman God created you to be.

And when you enter eternity, you’ll be welcome, wearing Jesus’ goodness, not your own.

Amazing right?  Don’t just keep this to yourself.  Share it with someone!  And the next time you see a beautiful dress at the store, remember:  because of Good Friday, you now wear Jesus’ goodness.  And that’s infinitely more beautiful.

“ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  2 Corinthians 5:21

Prayer:  God, Thank you for Good Friday. Your death has allowed me to wear Jesus  righteousness as my own.  I don’t deserve it, but you love me and made a way to be with you forever and ever.  Help me embrace Jesus’ goodness instead of striving to be good on my own.  Thank you for forgiving my sin.  Amen.