Matthew 26:36-46

When Christ entered the garden of Gethsemane and began His last battle, He desired that Peter, James and John be with Him. The Father denied Him their comfort and presence. It was the purpose of God that He would fight this battle alone. He who knew no sin was made sin, and this was His cup. The scripture says that His sorrow commenced as He entered the gloomy garden.

From the day of His circumcision, when His blood was first shed and He became bound to obey the whole law and to suffer it’s penalty, He took upon Him the weight and burden of sin. Until He came to the garden, He tasted as it were, the first drops of that bitter cup, but now he would drain the cup to the last drop. Now alone, and with none to help, the darling of God’s bosom shall know by experience the words “Awake O sword against my Shepherd.” This was the hour of the power of darkness. He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.

No tongue of humanity can express what His holy soul endured. What a load of sin and guilt; what a weight of sin and wrath He did bear. Under the waves and billows of God’s wrath that He bore, He sweat as it were, great drops of blood. When He had drunk the cup of sorrow and anguish, having given obedience to the requirement of the law, He cried with a loud voice, “IT IS FINISHED!” and laid down His life and gave up the ghost.

He was made sin that His people might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

Sin cannot be separated from it’s penalty!

Scott Richardson