The Agony Before the Atonement
The words of Mark 14:33-36 provide a glimpse of how difficult our redemption was to accomplish. The passage reveals a struggle which is incomprehensible, and which underscores the fact that in atoning for our sins, Jesus Christ bore for us the very wrath and punishment from God which we deserved to have fall on us.
Heretical attempts to redefine Christ's death on the cross as merely a "moral example" ring hollow when confronted with the intensity of the Lord's battle in the Garden of Gethsemane. The struggle depicted in the parallel passages of Mark 14:33-36, Matthew 26:37-39, and Luke 22:42-44 indicate a challenge of such magnitude as can only be explained by the fact that full payment for the sins of believers was made by Jesus at the cross. He did not simply present an example of justice; He absolutely satisfied justice for us. He did not just provide an example of suffering; He suffered in our place the very judgement that we deserved.
Mark 14:33 says that in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus "began to be sore amazed and very heavy;" (the NKJV renders it "...troubled and deeply distressed."). In Mark 14:34, Jesus describes His state as "exceedingly sorrowful unto death: ...". What is it, one must ask, that could grieve the Son of God to the point of death? What could so agonize Him that His anguish would produce blood in His sweat (Luke 22:44)? It was not the physical pain and torture He would endure, as excruciating as that was. It was not the scorn of those who put Him to death, or of those who mocked Him while He suffered. Nor was it the sorrow of loved ones who would see Him die.
Nothing less than the prospect of the Father's holy wrath, which Jesus would vicariously and voluntarily suffer in full measure for elect sinners, could elicit the level of profound bereavement He experienced in the Garden. Only the anticipation of enduring the wrath of God the Father, as Jesus did on our behalf, could bring such distress to God the Son in the Garden. Those who attempt to promote any myth that the atonement was something other than Christ suffering the punishment due believers for our sins are at a loss to explain what else could so distress the Son of Man that He would pray, "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee, take away this cup from Me; nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou wilt." (Mark 14:36).
If one's sensibilities are offended that our sins could only be forgiven by being fully paid for by our innocent Substitute, then one doesn't comprehend the gravity of sin or the magnitude of our forgiveness from God, Who is holy and absolutely just.
The agony of Gethsemane forecasts the depths of the atonement at Calvary. And it puctuates in advance Peter's assertion in Acts 4:12, after Christ's death and resurrection, that "...there is none other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."
Heretical attempts to redefine Christ's death on the cross as merely a "moral example" ring hollow when confronted with the intensity of the Lord's battle in the Garden of Gethsemane. The struggle depicted in the parallel passages of Mark 14:33-36, Matthew 26:37-39, and Luke 22:42-44 indicate a challenge of such magnitude as can only be explained by the fact that full payment for the sins of believers was made by Jesus at the cross. He did not simply present an example of justice; He absolutely satisfied justice for us. He did not just provide an example of suffering; He suffered in our place the very judgement that we deserved.
Mark 14:33 says that in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus "began to be sore amazed and very heavy;" (the NKJV renders it "...troubled and deeply distressed."). In Mark 14:34, Jesus describes His state as "exceedingly sorrowful unto death: ...". What is it, one must ask, that could grieve the Son of God to the point of death? What could so agonize Him that His anguish would produce blood in His sweat (Luke 22:44)? It was not the physical pain and torture He would endure, as excruciating as that was. It was not the scorn of those who put Him to death, or of those who mocked Him while He suffered. Nor was it the sorrow of loved ones who would see Him die.
Nothing less than the prospect of the Father's holy wrath, which Jesus would vicariously and voluntarily suffer in full measure for elect sinners, could elicit the level of profound bereavement He experienced in the Garden. Only the anticipation of enduring the wrath of God the Father, as Jesus did on our behalf, could bring such distress to God the Son in the Garden. Those who attempt to promote any myth that the atonement was something other than Christ suffering the punishment due believers for our sins are at a loss to explain what else could so distress the Son of Man that He would pray, "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee, take away this cup from Me; nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou wilt." (Mark 14:36).
If one's sensibilities are offended that our sins could only be forgiven by being fully paid for by our innocent Substitute, then one doesn't comprehend the gravity of sin or the magnitude of our forgiveness from God, Who is holy and absolutely just.
The agony of Gethsemane forecasts the depths of the atonement at Calvary. And it puctuates in advance Peter's assertion in Acts 4:12, after Christ's death and resurrection, that "...there is none other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."
posted by herewegoagain at 7:38 PM
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