A neighboring town experienced some historic flooding severalweeks ago. Having grown up in Houston, I’m acquainted with the devastating power of floodwaters. The weight of the water can crush everything in its path. I don’t think I’m alone in this, but sometimes I feel like the terror of God’s judgment stands over me and threatens to sweep over and crush me underneath its weight, just like a flood. In those moments the guilt of my sin weighs heavy on me, and I battlethe fear thatGod is going to wipe me out because of it.
Have you ever felt that way—like God’s judgment was threatening to crash over you? It’s a paralyzing experience. This isn’t constant for me, but there are timesI shudder at the thought of God’s judgment. And I think many Christians have this experience.
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Thankfully, the gospel speaks to this deep-seated fear of judgment—but it does so in a surprising way.The gospel’s answer to our fear of judgment comesthrougha reluctant Messiah.
Reluctant Messiah
Many words could describe the Messiah: suffering, conquering, obedient, loving. How many of us, though, would add“reluctant”? Yet that’s the picture of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane in Matthew 26:36–39. Matthew saysJesus was “sorrowful and deeply distressed” (v. 37). And nothing makes Jesus’s deep emotional anguish more apparent than the facthe was sweating drops of blood (Luke 22:44). As he told his disciples, “My soul is swallowed up in sorrow—to the point of death” (v. 38).
What was the cause of Jesus’s distress? The next verse gives the answer.“If it is possible, let this cup pass from me,” Jesus prayed to the Father.“Yet not as I will, but as you will” (v. 39). The Gethsemane picture is one of an obedient, but reluctant, Messiah.The cup caused Jesus to cower. Why? What about it was so repulsivethat he asked to avoid it?
The Old Testament provides insight into why our Lord dreaded the cup. Both Isaiah and Jeremiah describe it as the cup of God’s wrath (Isa.51:17,Jer.25:15). Anotherpoignant passage is Psalm 75. The psalm speaks about the wicked who “raise the horn” in rebellion to God. “Raising the horn” could be a reference to the powerful thrust of an ox’s horn, lifting its power against the Lord. More likely, though, it describes the ram’s horn that would be lifted in battle. Another psalmtells us “the kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers conspire together against the LORDand his Anointed One” (Ps.2:2). The picture is clear: the wicked use their strength to rebel against their Maker.
What shall be done, then,to the wicked—to us—for our rebellion? According to the psalmist,a cup awaits:
For there is a cup in the LORD’shand, full of wine blended with spices, and he pours from it. All the wicked of the earth will drink, draining it to the dregs.(Ps. 75:8).
Sinful humans deserve to drainthe cup of God’s judgment, all the way to the bottom. Hewill one day pour out wrath on the wicked. On us. This is justice.
But there is mercy.
Cup-Drinking Messiah
Why did Jesus shrink back in Gethsemane? It wasn’t becuase hefeared what man would do to him. Itwasn’tthe nails or thewood. He created all of it. What made Jesus shrink back was the cup that awaited him, for he knew he’d be absorbing the fury of God—which was rightfully ours—in our place. Ultimately, the Jews didn’t put Jesus on the cross. Nor did the Romans. Nor did you and me. As the prophet Isaiah tells us, “It pleased the LORDto crushhim” (Isa.53:10). God put his ownSon on the cross.
Ifyou are united toChrist by faith, God has no wrath left for you. AsPaul declares, “There is now no condemnationfor those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom.8:1). Jesus drained the cup of condemnation for us.
Psalm 75 concludes,“I will cut off all the horns of the wicked, but the horns of the righteous will be lifted up” (v. 10). In light of this, we seethe scandal of the cross.Jesus gets my sin; I get his righteousness. The one who deserved to be lifted up was cut off so that those who deserved to be cut off could be lifted up. God treated Jesus, the innocent, as guiltyso that he could treat us, the guilty, as innocent.
Four Implications
Here are a fourimplications of this beautiful truth:
1. We have hope because of the empty cup.
The empty cup is our hope. We havelife because Jesus drank death. Because he received the wrathof God’s justice, we can receive the wealth of God’s grace. Whenever you feel abandoned by God, therefore, you can know it’s just a feeling. Your Savior was abandoned on the cross so that you would never have to be.
2. We have rest because of the empty cup.
This good newsmeans we can truly rest. Your acceptance beforeGod isn’t basedon your performance but on Christ’s. If you feel guilty because youhaven’t “done enough for God,” Christ has cometoliftthat burden. The gospel isn’t about how much you do for God but abouthow much God has done for you.
3. We should be grateful for the empty cup.
This should elicit deep thankfulness for and joy inwhat God has accomplishedfor us. What is worshipif not grateful awe for whatGod has done? We love himand express that love through gratitude and worship,because he first loved us. And the proof of God’s love is theempty cup.
4. We should proclaim the good news of the empty cup.
The empty cup should cause us to speak. We engage those captivatedby the beauty of lesser things and proclaim, in every sphere of life, the wonderful works of the Lord. We herald theone who exhausted eternal justice so that rebels to God can become friends of God.
In his classic hymn “It Is Well with My Soul,”Philip Bliss capturedthe sense of relief the empty cup offers:
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole;
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
If youarein Christ, the weight of God’s judgment is no longeryoursto bear. The cup is empty. When you fearjudgment is about to overtakeyou, then, the gospelassures youthat’sjust a feeling.
