Chapter 160—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.
Matthew 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.
241