INTRO
Jesus Christ spent His life doing many good things. The Holy Bible records a number of things that He did during His time on Earth: He brought hope to the poor, healed the sick, made the blind to see and freed the slaves. Certainly all these accomplishments were worthy of great praise and admiration in the eyes of the people.
But in this passage, Jesus Christ seems to be facing a task that he really does not want to do. In fact, in verse 38 He states that His soul was “exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” The Greek means to be so deeply sorrowful so as to cause one’s death. What a weight He seems to be carrying with Him!
Jesus gives us a couple of clues about what this great weight and sorrow is all about, identifying it as a “cup” in verses 39 and 42. In the first verse, He is pleading with God to let Him avoid this “cup” and in the next, He commits to taking it if that is God’s will.
What is it that Jesus is talking about in this mysterious, cryptic wording? What does He mean by a cup? What could be such a sorrowful burden so as to bring Him to death’s door? Well, to put it in the words of verse 39, He was going a little further.
RELATIONSHIP
Back in the beginning of time as we know it, God began creating the cosmos. By that, we mean all the stars and universes, all the suns, planets and moons in all the solar systems were made by God Himself. And He did all that in just six days. “I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded,” Isaiah 45:12.
Now on the sixth day, The Holy Bible says that God picked up the dust of the Earth and blew into it, and man became a living soul. Why did God do this? Why did He “make man upright” like Ecclesiates 7:29 says He did? Psalm 119:73 says, “Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.” To put it in short, GOD MADE US SO THAT HE COULD HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH US!
Not only do we see God fulfilling this relationship in the verse from Psalms, but in Genesis 2:22 we see God giving Him additional companionship, in Genesis 1:28-30 He audibly gives man instructions, and in Genesis 3:8-9, God is walking around in the garden wanting to talk to Adam and Eve! THERE IS PLENTY OF PROOF THAT GOD LOVES YOU AND WANTS TO HAVE A RELATIONSHIP AND COMPANIONSHIP WITH YOU!
REJECTION
But man slammed the door shut on loving companion when he committed sin. When Adam was in the garden, God gave him simple instructions about his eating habits. In Genesis 2:16-17 God said, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it…” But in the very next chapter, we find out that is exactly what Adam and Eve did not do. God hates sin and it causes an immediate separation from God. Isaiah 59:2 says, “your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” This includes you and me here, as well.
We are all sinners. The Bible says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” in Romans 3:23. 1 John 1:10 tells us that “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar…” Every one of us have broken God’s Commandments, and THAT MAKES US GUILTY OF JUDGMENT.
This judgment that we are guilty of brings a serious punishment. Romans 1:32 declares that “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death…” Romans 6:23 says that “The wages of sin is death…” But what kind of death are we talking about? The Bible teaches that death means separation, not extinction. So when we sin, we become separated from God. If we have only the sin nature, then we will be eternally separated from God and doomed for a place called hell. SIN DEMANDS A PUNISHMENT, AND GOD’S WRATH IS THAT PUNISHMENT.
Hell is a place that is real. Its flames are so hot and torturous, but they are not quenched. In other words, we will not be consumed—we just keep burning and burning. There is no relief. All our senses will be intact in hell: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. In hell, you will forever see the torture of darkness, hear the cries of others in turmoil, feel the unquenchable fire continue to burn your flesh, taste the bitterness of God’s unstoppable wrath and smell the flesh burnt and rotted by the sulphurous flames!
RECONCILIATION
But God provided a way to escape the judgment of sin. Remember, he created us to have fellowship and companionship with him. Even though we are His enemies in sin, He loves us. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, God immediately taught them that a sacrifice was required to make God not see their sin. In Genesis 3:21 it tells us that God made “coats of skin” for them, killing an animal. Later, God gave a temporary prescription for the disease of sin in (READ) Leviticus 4:32-35.
Hundreds of years later, God would give the promise of one to come who would be the one lamb for all men for all time. (READ Isaiah 53:3-5, 10)
Many years later, Jesus Christ was born as the Son of God, without sin, spot or blemish. He never sinnned, and He was born to save His people.
The death that He suffered on the cross was meant for us. The lashing and beating that He took unto death on the cross was not only meant for us, but it was meant to be our substitute so that we would not have to endure God’s wrath in hell when we die. (READ Hebrews 10:10-14)
In short, when Jesus was looking forward to His death on the cross, He was seeing that He would take on all our sin, once and for all. He did what no lamb could ever do for us. HE WENT A LITTLE FURTHER...
