But God has washed me clean in the precious death of His Son, who was "made a curse for us". The us is His people, those whom He loved before the foundation of the world. Those He has come to seek and save. Those whom Christ was made sin for (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Here are some more words from Martin Luther to consider: "You see then with what an apostolic spirit Paul handles this argument of the blessing and the curse. He not only makes Christ subject to the curse, but also says that He is made a curse. So in 2 Corinthians 5 he calls Him sin when he says: "He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." And although these verses may be well expounded after this manner: Christ is made a curse, that is to say, a sacrifice for the curse; and sin, that is, a sacrifice for sin; yet, in my judgment, it is better to keep the proper meaning of the words, because there is a greater force and vehemence in them. ....He took upon Him and bore all our evils, which should have oppressed us and tormented us forever; ...
By this means we are delivered from these everlasting terrors and anguish through Christ, and so enjoy everlasting and inestimable peace through believing in Him."
"Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" Rom. 5:1
"You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind rests, because he trusts in You." Isaiah 26:3
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you". John 14:27
1 comment:
There have been many books written and sermons preached on just what the cup Jesus was praying so fervently about. In my opinion, anything other than the wrath of God would be incorrect and possibly even blasphemous. Do we really think that the Captain of our salvation, God in the flesh, was sweating drops of blood and crying out to the Father for deliverance from a cup that was the physical torment of the cross? How many thousands before and after Christ, including many of the disciples were crucified? Tradition has it that Peter was crucified upside down because he would dare not be crucified in the manner of his Lord.
You see, what Christ knew He would soon experience cannot be explained with human words. Christ prayed three times to the Father asking “if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.” (Matt. 26:42b) No song, no book, no sermon could possibly describe the grief that Christ experienced looking to the cross where the sins of all who have and will believe in Him will be imputed to Him, where the wrath of God will be placed on Christ for every thought, word and deed of sin of the elect. This is exactly what Christ was dreading. The cup that Christ asked to be removed was none other than the wrath of God. Many times in the Old Testament the cup described God’s wrath and here this cup was the wrath of the Almighty that was laid upon the sinless Lamb of God. Jesus took on the wrath for our sins and became our substitute. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
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