Am I a Soldier of the Cross

"Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb? And shall I fear to own His cause, or blush to speak His name?" Isaac Watts posed these questions to believers almost 350 years ago. The same questions must be asked today. We are in a war. God has called us to fight for the hearts and souls of men. I pray that what is said here will prove to be an encouragement and a challenge to every believer who visits this site. Let our cry be the last verse of the old song. "Sure I must fight if I would reign- increase my courage Lord! I'll bear the toil, endure the pain, supported by Thy Word!"


Monday, April 15, 2013

The Cup


     Ever wondered what was in the cup? We hear about it, we read about it, and we study the context, but have you ever thought about what was inside of it? Just hours before His death, we see Jesus in a way that the gospels rarely portray Him. Matthew says that Christ “began to be sorrowful and very [distressed].” Luke 22:44 has Him sweating “as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground.” In the Garden of Gethsemane, we see Jesus suffering in a way He did not even as Pilate proclaimed His death sentence. The reason for His suffering? A cup. Just a cup. Christ engages in three rounds of intense prayer in the garden, and all three times He begs of the Father, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me…” What was in the cup?
Talk to some theologians and skim the religion section in the library, and you’ll here mostly about the nails, the soldiers, and crown of thorns. Go to an Easter service in an average church and you’ll get the parting of Christ’s raiment, the spear in His side, and the beating He received. You’ll hear that Christ could see the physical suffering coming, and it caused Him this great agony. This was what the cup held.
Honestly, it sounds pretty good, but there’s a hitch. Thousands of believers suffered in horrible ways for their faith. Most of them exhibited a\n unbelievable amount of peace in their deaths. Some forgave their oppressors, others died singing hymns. And you think that the same future had the Commander of the Heavenly Hosts cowering in a garden?? No, the cup was a far greater penalty.
     Turn to Isaiah 51:17. “Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.” Revelation 14:10: “The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.” Speaking of an apostate city known as Babylon in the end times, Revelation 18:5-6: “For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.” I know this is a lot of hard, symbolic language, but look for the common denominator in reference to the cup. Let me give you one last verse, Revelation 16:19. “And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.”
     What was in the cup? All throughout Scripture, this symbolic cup is filled to the brim with God’s wrath against sin. Every sinful motive, thought, word, and deed are stored up carefully, waiting to be revealed against unrighteous men who commit them (Romans 1:19). We wonder why wickedness seems to take the upper hand. On the basis of Scripture, I can tell you with full assurance that any victory or prosperity gained by unrighteous individuals and entities is a façade, and one day, the veil will be lifted. God, from His throne will bring forth the cup of His wrath against their sin, and they will be forced to drink the consequences.
In the cup was the wrath of God against sin. That’s what Christ suffered. In comparison, the nails were trivial. The crown? Secondary. The thorns? Peripheral. Even the cross itself? Nothing compared to the perfect Son of God drinking down the wrath of God in our place. His response in the garden to the mere thought of the wrath we had stored up is a testimony to what He endured. Christ, on the cross, drank down every drop of the wrath we deserve. The wrath of God is not simply appeased for a time or held back by Christ’s sacrifice. For you who have put your faith in Jesus, there is no more wrath stored up against you. Christ took the cup from the hand of the Father, and when it fell to the ground, not even a drop was left to ever be brought against you.

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