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Ms. Prata is back in our blog, and her teaching is no more auspicious than it has been. She represents herself as a Bible teacher, but somehow does not manage to quote a single Scripture. Thus what she writes is simply undocumented opinion.
Today she tackles the cup metaphorical cup from which Jesus drank. She writes,
...He drank the waters of God's wrath on the cross, absorbing God's fury fully...
Ms. Prata probably derives her belief based on this unquoted Scripture:
Mt. 26:39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Let's be direct. Jesus did not drink God's wrath, because the Father did not punish Him. The Bible simply does not tell us what Ms. Prata thinks it does. Check it yourself, dear reader.
We discuss this false idea that the Father poured out His wrath on Jesus here.
It is only because of the belief that the Father punished Jesus for our sin that this verse is interpreted to mean that this was the cup of the Father's wrath. But there are several problems with the assertion:
- As mentioned, The Father did not punish Jesus. We discuss this in detail here.
- The verse does not mention wrath, so it is assumed. In fact, there is no verse in the Bible that indicates that the cup Jesus drank from was God's wrath or that He experienced the Father's wrath.
- The testimony of another Scripture about drinking from the cup. Previously in Matthew we read this:
Mt. 20:21-23 “What is it you want?” he asked. She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.” 22 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” “We can,” they answered. 23 Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.”
If the cup Jesus drank from was God's wrath then these two disciples (James and John) also drank from it. This of course is false.
The cup from which Jesus drank was the destiny set before Him, a way of pain, persecution, torture, and death, but ultimately resulting in glory. This destiny was indeed shared by James and John, as well as the other apostles and early believers.
- The cup of God's wrath was always symbolically drank by God's enemies in judgment against them. For example:
Je. 25:15 This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. 16 When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them.”
Is. 51:17 Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger.
If we adopt a simpler and dare we say more biblical approach a lot of complicated explanations are no longer needed. The Father did not punish Jesus for our sin. He did not need to punish Him because the blood is sufficient to forgave our sin/ The blood was all that was needed.
If we truly believe the blood was enough we do not need to add to it the punishment of Jesus or the Father's wrath being poured out on Jesus. Neither of these needed or biblical.
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God rebuked sinful man. His anger was higher than the mountains, deeper than the lowest valley. He covered the planet with His wrath, in the flood.
The waters were high, deep, angry, and overspread all that existed. All. All that water was God's wrath for sin. He enshrounded the earth with judgment, covering it with water as a garment. (Psalm 104:6). His water was the judgment robe that spread over the earth as a mantle.
And it was all that amount of wrath that Jesus took on the cross. All that, and more. The flood judgment was against those living on the earth then, but Jesus took the wrath of the living then plus the wrath of all believers to come, all who would believe. He did it as fully God but also as fully human. He drank the waters of God's wrath on the cross, absorbing God's fury fully, and He did it perfectly.
God rebuked sinful man. His anger was higher than the mountains, deeper than the lowest valley. He covered the planet with His wrath, in the flood.
The waters were high, deep, angry, and overspread all that existed. All. All that water was God's wrath for sin. He enshrounded the earth with judgment, covering it with water as a garment. (Psalm 104:6). His water was the judgment robe that spread over the earth as a mantle.
And it was all that amount of wrath that Jesus took on the cross. All that, and more. The flood judgment was against those living on the earth then, but Jesus took the wrath of the living then plus the wrath of all believers to come, all who would believe. He did it as fully God but also as fully human. He drank the waters of God's wrath on the cross, absorbing God's fury fully, and He did it perfectly.
The theological term for Jesus' act of drinking the cup is propitiation. A modern dictionary will say that to propitiate means "to appease" or "to placate." I find these definitions unsatisfactory when applied to Christ because they suggest a soothing or softening the wrath of an offended deity. Jesus did not soothe the wrath of God — He endured it. He did not suppress or extinguish it as we would extinguish a fire; rather, He absorbed in His own soul the full, unmitigated fury of God’s wrath against sin. To continue with the metaphor, He drank the cup of God’s wrath to its last bitter drop. So for us who believe, the cup of God’s wrath is empty. ~Jerry Bridges, The Agonizing Prayer, at Ligonier
What a God we serve! Exalt Jesus in your thoughts today, raise Him as your Ebenezer, a banner to wave and proclaim His righteous deeds. Thank Him.
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