Countdown to Resurection Day #16

"And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, 'My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.'"
Matthew 26:39

This is what bearing our sin means to Him - utter distress of souls as he confronts total abandonment and absolute wrath from His Father on the cross, a distress and an abandonment and a rejection we cannot begin to grasp.

In this, our Savior's darkest hour...do you recognize his love for you?

Listen again to the precious and powerful words we hear him repeat to His Father:
"Yet not what I will, but what You will."

Jesus is saying, "Father, I willingly drink this cup by your command - I'll drink it all."

And He will. He'll drink all of it, leaving not a drop.

Not only will he leave nothing in that cup of wrath for us to drink...but today you and I find ourselves with another cup in our hands. It's the cup of salvation. From this precious new cup we find ourselves drinking and drinking - drinking consistently, drinking endlessly, drinking eternally...for the cup of salvation is always full and overflowing.

We can drink from this cup only because Jesus spoke those words about the other cup:
"Yet not what I will, but what you will." I will drink it all.

As we watch Jesus pray in agony in Gethsemane, he has every right to turn his tearful eyes toward you and me and shout,

"This is your cup! You're responsible for this. It's your sin! You drink it." This cup should rightfully be thrust into my hand and yours.

Instead, Jesus freely takes it himself...and so that from the cross he can look down at you and me and whisper our names and say,

"I drain this cup for you - for you who have lived in defiance of me, who have hated me, who have opposed me. I drink it all...for you."

Excerpted from Christ Our Mediator by C.J. Mahaney. 2004 Sovereign Grace Ministries.
(From the book Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Edited by Nancy Guthrie)