If There Is Any Other Way

Sunday morning we celebrated Easter, so in this follow up post, I want to share something I was reminded of a few days before Easter Sunday. 

As I ponder Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, the agony He experienced, I am reminded through the study Navigating Gospel Truth (check last week’s post for more details) of His pain. Author Rebecca McLaughlin took us back to Jeremiah 25:15-29 to show us His agony wasn’t primarily the pain and shame of the cross. That was difficult enough of course! But it was the fact that He would carry the wrath of God for sin so that we don’t have to. This was the “cup” He asked the Father to take away if there was another way to fix the sin problem. And because it was a prophesy to fulfill, surely He knew it wouldn’t change.

Rebecca put it this way: Jesus, in the garden of Gethsemane, faced the prospect of drinking the cup of God’s wrath against a whole world of sin all by Himself…when we see Jesus reaching for the metaphor of the cup as He prayed to His Father, we see that it points to the righteous anger of God against our sin and to His deep love for us.

The same week I got this reminder, I also happened to listen to a podcast on Jesus’ words from the cross. It’s truly worth a listen! Check out My God, My God.

Even though Easter is officially over, its message is one we need to consider daily. Because Jesus took God’s wrath for our sin, we will not experience it ourselves. What a gift! May we never get over it.

Banner photo by Stacey Franco on Unsplash