I drank from a number of different cups today. The various cups from which I imbibed contained, in order: coffee, orange juice, more coffee, ice water, Mountain Dew, milk, and more ice water. None of the cups I held in my hand contained wrath. Good thing for me.

Jerry Bridges begins this chapter by taking us to the Garden of Gethsemane for Jesus’ famous prayer:

My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.

He explains the significance:

So we see that the cup is a metaphorical expression referring to the judgment of God as expressed in the pouring out of His wrath on sinful nations and people.

THE WRATH OF GOD

God’s wrath arises from His intense, settled hatred of all sin and is the tangible expression of His inflexible determination to punish it. We might say God’s wrath is His justice in action, rendering to everyone his just due, which, becuase of our sin, is always judgment.

It is the necessary response of God to uphold His moral authority in His universe. And though God’s wrath does not contain the sinful emotions associated with human wrath, it does contain a fierce intensity arising from His settled opposition to sin and His determination to punish it to the utmost.

THE CUP OF WRATH

What was in the cup? It was the wrath of God. It was the cup of wrath that we should have drunk.

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

PROPITIATION? WHAT’S THAT?

The Bible uses a strange word to describe what Christ did for us when He drank the cup of God’s wrath in our place: propitiation.

Propitiation is a good word and one that all sincere believers should understand and contemplate with wonder and amazzement when it is used to describe the work of Christ for us.

I believe a word that forcefully captures the essence of Jesus’ work of propitiation is the word exhausted. Jesus exhausted the wrath of God. It was not merely deflected and precented from reaching us; it was exhausted. Jesus bore the full, unmitigated brunt of it. God’s wrath against sin was unleashed in all its fury on His beloved Son. He held nothing back.

All who trust in Jesus need never fear the possibility of experiencing the wrath of God. It was exhausted on His Son as He stood in our place, bearing the guilt of our sin. That is what propitiation means.

THE LOVE OF GOD

“This is how god showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice [a propitiation] for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10)

Herein lies the glory of the cross. Justice and mercy are reconciled; wrath and love are both given full expression—and all of this so that we might expreince the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Some questions for discussion with your parents:

• What pictures or feelings come to mind when you think of “God’s wrath”?
• Jesus exhausted God’s wrath. The cup of wrath is empty. What does this mean for us?
• Why is it important for your daily life to know that God has no more wrath when He looks at you?

Categories: Summer Reading '07, five15 blog