The cup of wrath!

(Andrew Bonar, "The Cup of Wrath!")

"In the hand of the LORD is a cup full of red wine mixed with spices! He pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs!" Psalm 75:8

There has been only One who has ever drunk this cup down to its very dregs!

Cain has been drinking it for 5,000 years and finds that his punishment greater than he can bear - but has not come to the dregs.

Judas had been drinking it for some 2000 years, often crying out with a groan that shakes Hell, "Oh that I had never been born! Oh that I had never seen or heard of the Lord Jesus Christ!" But he has not reached the dregs.

The fallen angels have not come near the dregs!

The only One who has taken, tasted, drunk, and wrung out the bitterest of the bitter dregs - has been the Judge Himself, the Lord Jesus!

You know how often, when on earth, He spoke of it. "Are you able to drink the cup that I shall drink of?" (Matthew 20:22). "The cup which My Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?" (John 18:11).

The universe saw Him with it at His lips. It was our cup of trembling - the cup in which the wrath due to His people was mixed. What wrath, what woe! A few drops made Him cry, "Now is my soul deeply troubled!" In the garden, the sight of it wrung out the strange, mysterious words, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death!" Though God-man, He staggered at what He saw, and went on trembling.

The next day, on Calvary, He drank it all! I suppose the three hours of darkness may have been the time when He was drinking it down the very dregs; for then arose from His broken heart, the wail which so appealed to the heart of the Father, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me!" As He drank the last drop, and cried out, "It is finished!" we may believe that the holy angels felt an inconceivable relief - and even the Father Himself! So tremendous was the wrath and curse! - the wrath and curse due to our sin!

Jesus drank that cup as the substitute for His innumerable people, who were given to Him by the Father; and thereby freed them from ever tasting even one drop of that fierce wrath, that "cup of red wine, mixed with spices," with its dregs - its unknown terrors!

"Death and the curse were in our cup,
 O Christ, 'twas full for Thee!
 But Thou hast drained the last dark drop,
 'Tis empty now for me!"

"Once it was mine, that cup of wrath,
 And Jesus drank it dry!"