Gethsemane's Anguish

[Daily Devotional]

Gethsemane's Anguish 

O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not
as I will, but as thou will. Matt. 26: 39. 

In the Garden of Gethsemane Christ suffered in man's stead, and the human
nature of the Son of God staggered under the terrible horror of the guilt of
sin, until from His pale and quivering lips was forced the agonizing cry, "O
my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." . . . Human nature
would then and there have died under the horror of the sense of sin, had not
an angel from heaven strengthened Him to bear the agony. . . . Christ was
suffering the death that was pronounced upon the transgressors of God's law.


It is a fearful thing for the unrepenting sinner to fall into the hands of
the living God. This is proved by the history of the destruction of the old
world by a flood, by the record of the fire which fell from heaven and
destroyed the inhabitants of Sodom. But never was this proved to so great an
extent as in the agony of Christ, the Son of the infinite God, when he bore
the wrath of God for a sinful world. It was in consequence of sin, the
transgression of God's law, that the Garden of Gethsemane has become pre-
eminently the place of suffering to a sinful world. No sorrow, no agony, can
measure with that which was endured by the Son of God. 

Man has not been made a sin- bearer, and he will never know the horror of
the curse of sin which the Saviour bore. No sorrow can bear any comparison
with the sorrow of Him upon whom the wrath of God fell with overwhelming
force. Human nature can endure but a limited amount of test and trial. The
finite can only endure the finite measure, and human nature succumbs; but
the nature of Christ had a greater capacity for suffering. . . . The agony
which Christ endured, broadens, deepens, and gives a more extended
conception of the character of sin, and the character of the retribution
which God will bring upon those who continue in sin. The wages of sin is
death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ to the
repenting, believing sinner. 

The sword of justice was unsheathed, and the wrath of God against iniquity
rested upon man's substitute, Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father.

>From God's Amazing Grace, p. 167