. The Cup of Wrath, Andrew Bonar,
The Cup of Wrath. In the hand of the Lord is a
cup full of red wine mixed with spices. He pours it out, and
all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs. Psalm
75, 8. There has been only one who has
ever drunk this cup down to its very dregs. Cain has been drinking
it for five thousand years, and finds that his punishment greater
than he can bear, but has not come to the dregs. Judas has
been drinking it for some two thousand years, often crying
out with a groan that shakes hell, O that I had never been
born! O that I had never seen or heard
of the Lord Jesus Christ! but he has not reached the dregs. The fallen angels have not come
near the dregs, for they have not arrived at the judgment of
the great day. The only one who has taken, tasted,
drunk, and wrung out the bitterest of the bitter dregs has been
the judge himself, the Lord Jesus. You know how often, when on earth
he spoke of it, Are you able to drink the cup that I shall
drink of? Matthew 20, 22. The cup which
my Father has given me, shall I not drink it? John 18, 11. The universe saw Him with it
at His lips. It was our cup of trembling,
the cup in which the wrath due to His people was mixed. What
wrath! what woe! a few drops made him
cry. Now is my soul deeply troubled. In the garden, the sight of it
wrung out the strange, mysterious words, My soul is exceedingly
sorrowful, even unto death. Though God-man, he staggered
at what he saw, and went on trembling. The next day, on Calvary, he
drank it all. I suppose the three hours of
darkness may have been the time when he was drinking it, down
to the very dregs, for then arose from his broken heart the wail,
which so appealed to the heart of the father, My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me? As he drank the last drop, and
cried out, It is finished! We may believe that the angels
felt an inconceivable relief, and even the Father himself. So tremendous was the wrath and
curse, the wrath and curse, due to our sin. Jesus drank that
cup as the substitute for His innumerable people, given Him
by the Father, and thereby freed them from ever tasting even one
drop of that fierce wrath, that cup of red wine mixed with spices,
with its dregs, its unknown terrors. Death and the curse were in our
cup, O Christ was full for Thee, But Thou hast drained the last
dark drop, Tis empty now for me. Once it was mine, that cup
of wrath, And Jesus drank it dry.