The Gospel For Real Life III

The Gospel For Real Life

The Empty Cup – Chapter Five

In chapter five we learn that the cup that Jesus refers to is a reference to God's judgment. The cup is referring to the wrath of God. The wrath of God sounds harsh to us, we don't think of our sinfulness as warranting the degree of judgment inferred by that expression (49). We must realize that the wrath of God arises from His intense, hatred of all sin and is the tangible expression of His inflexible determination to punish it. God's wrath is His justice in action. Do you ever wonder why God is so angry because of our sin? The truth is our sin, regardless of how small or insignificant it may seem to us, is essentially an assault on the infinite majesty and sovereign authority of God. All sin is rebellion against God's authority, a despising of His Law, and a defiance of His commands (50). We will never see sin aright until we see it as against God.

The Cup of God refers to the wrath of God. It was the cup of wrath that we should have drunk. Jesus as our representative drank the cup of God's wrath in our place. He drained it to its dregs. He tasted the last drop. And He did it for us as our substitute (51). The largest part of His suffering was the very real forsakenness by His Father, for our sakes God turned His back on His own dearly loved Son. Jesus was made sin for us, He knew no sin. He was the sinless sin-bearer. He was officially guilty as our representative, He was personally the object of the Father's everlasting love and delight (52).

We can use the word propitiation to describe what Christ did on our behalf by drinking the cup of God's wrath. Jerry Bridges uses the word exhausted to fully explain propitiation and truly capture the essence of what Jesus did on the cross. Jesus exhausted the the wrath of God. It is not merely deflected or prevented 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. Christ exhausted the cup of God's wrath. For all who trust in Him there is nothing more in the cup. It is empty.

God the Father sent His Son on a rescue mission, Jesus came voluntarily and gladly. The glory of the cross is this, justice and mercy are reconciled; wrath and love are both given full expression – and all of this so that we might experience the unsearchable riches of Christ. What great humility and gratitude this should produce in us: humility that we were the cause of our Savior's unimaginable suffering, and gratitude that He so willingly and lovingly experienced God's wrath that we might not suffer it ourselves (56).

The Scapegoat – Chapter Six

The scapegoat is one who is made to bear the blame for actions of others or for events he did not cause (57). The greatest scapegoat of all time is Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament sacrificial system, two goats were to be sacrificed. The first was to be a sacrifice to God, this symbolized our Lord's propitiatory sacrifice on the cross for us. The role of the second was to bear the sins of the people and to take them away into the desert. The death of the first goat symbolized the means of propitiating the wrath of God through the death of an innocent victim substituted in the sinner's place. The sending away of the second goat set forth the effect of this propitiation, the complete removal of the sins from the presence of the Holy God and from his people. Since both goats represent Christ, we may say Christ became our scapegoat, bearing the guilt of our sins in His propitiatory sacrifice and by that act bearing them away from the presence of His Holy Father (58-59).

The bible uses a few illustrations of the scapegoat. Psalm 103:12 says our sins are as far as the east is from the west. This illustrates the infinite distance that our sin is removed from us because of what Christ did. Isaiah 38:17 says God put all of King Hezekiah's sin behind His back. This relays the idea that the sin is seen no more. Isaiah 43:25 says God blots out sin and remembers them no more. He gives us a clean slate, even better than a clean slate... He throws out the slate. Micah 7:19 says God will hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. This completes the idea that the sins are to be rid of and completely forgotten.

We can benefit from the work of the scapegoat when we are penitent and exercise faith. Penitence is a sincere and humble acknowledgment of one's sin. To practice faith would be to trust that our sins were transferred to Jesus. As we continually grow in our relationship with God we should be more sensitive to our sinfulness which should lead to us exercising penitence and faith. We should rest in the expiatory work of Jesus, knowing that he has removed and put away our sin.