THE Gethsemane experience of our adorable Lord, incomprehensible as it is to our finite minds, emphasizes, as perhaps nothing else could, the reality of His humanity and His utter abhorrence of sin. Although He had become incarnate for the very purpose of becoming the propitiation for our sins, yet as the solemn hour drew nigh when the weight of a world’s iniquity must be heaped upon Him, His holy soul shrank from the fearful ordeal. Hence the impassioned prayer, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.” But His human will was absolutely subordinated to the divine will, as evidenced by the further words, “If this cup may not pass... except I drink it, Thy will be done.”
In that garden was settled forever the question as to whether there was any other possible way of salvation for lost men, except through the pouring out of His soul unto death and the draining of the bitter cup of divine wrath against sin.
The hour and the cup are synonymous. That hour had been before Him ever since He came into the world. It was the hour when He should give Himself a ransom for many. We need to realize that it was not easy for the humanity of Jesus to make this supreme sacrifice. It involved circumstances and conditions that the Holy One could only contemplate with horror. Let us learn from His agony in the garden something at least of what it will mean for impenitent sinners to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:3131It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:31)).
“Death and the curse were in that cup,
O Christ. ‘twas full for Thee,
But Thou hast drained the last dark drop,
Left hut the love for me.
That bitter cup, love drank it up,
Now blessing’s draught for me.”
―Mrs. Cousins.