Good Friday is the day Jesus hung on a cross, nails piercing his flesh, each torment and indignity a testament to a divine love that refused to turn away. Good Friday is when God saw us in all our wretchedness and chose the cross anyway. It’s the day that God decided to pay the debt for our sins.

These Bible verses weave Old Testament prophecy (from Isaiah and Psalms) with their New Testament fulfillment. They speak to anyone who’s ever felt too far gone, too fractured to be whole again.

1.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. — John 3:16

2.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. — Romans 5:8

3.

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. — Isaiah 53:4-6

4.

Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment. — Psalm 22:16-18

5.

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. — Hebrews 9:27-28

6.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. — 1 Peter 2:24

7.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. — Galatians 2:20

8.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross. — Philippians 2:8

9.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. — 1 Corinthians 1:18

10.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. — Romans 3:23-25

11.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace. — Ephesians 1:7

12.

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. — Colossians 1:13-14

13.

He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. — Hebrews 9:12

14.

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. — 1 Peter 1:18-19

15.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’ — Galatians 3:13

16.

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. — Galatians 6:14

17.

And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.’ — Revelation 5:9