Wow! There is so much in this second chapter that I want to discuss. Chapter 2 directly deals with Christ's submission to the Father and His 'cup'. What is it about this 'cup' that causes Christ to be brought to this moment of anguish and intensity? What is about this 'cup' from the Father that causes us to be drawn in to see His humanity?
"The cup placed in Christ's hands by the Father induced a heaviness and dread he had not previously known and His sinless humanity shrank back from the horror of that cup. In the Old Testament the term 'cup' frequently refers to God's punishment of sin."
Here Leahy begins to slowly move us into the realm of the humanity of Christ. It's at this point that I'm confronted with my own weak understanding of His humanity. I fight the fight of faith to believe that 'He is' and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him, but neglect meditating on the biblical expressions of His humanity. I admit that I don't want to see my Redeemer suffering in that moment of agony. He's begging and pleading with the Father to let that cup pass. "Is the cross the 'only' way?"
"How clearly the true humanity of Christ is seen in Gethsemane, more so than in much of our standard dogmatics! For evangelicals are so concerned to defend the deity of Christ, and rightly so, that often they hardly know how to handle his humanity!"
What should amaze us is that in all that Christ endured in Gethsemane He never once wavered in His obedience to His Father. His great desire was to please the Father by fulfilling His will. And this is where we clearly see the prayerful submission to the Father and His cup of wrath to come.
"we see him enduring our hell so that we might be set free to enter his heaven. And so at unspeakable cost he drank 'the cup' to the very last drop. Now he gives to his people the cup of salvation."
Two cups....a cup of death, for a cup of salvation. One day there will be a
'heavenly toast',
and we will raise our cup of salvation, provided by sovereign grace!
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