Jesus drank the waters of fury

By Elizabeth Prata

God rebuked sinful man. His anger was higher than the mountains, deeper than the lowest valley. He covered the planet with His wrath, in the flood.

The waters were high, deep, angry, and overspread all that existed. All. All that water was God's wrath for sin. He enshrounded the earth with judgment, covering it with water as a garment. (Psalm 104:6). His water was the judgment robe that spread over the earth as a mantle.

And it was all that amount of wrath that Jesus took on the cross. All that, and more. The flood judgment was against those living on the earth then, but Jesus took the wrath of the living then plus the wrath of all believers to come, all who would believe. He did it as fully God but also as fully human. He drank the waters of God's wrath on the cross, absorbing God's fury fully, and He did it perfectly.
The theological term for Jesus' act of drinking the cup is propitiation. A modern dictionary will say that to propitiate means "to appease" or "to placate." I find these definitions unsatisfactory when applied to Christ because they suggest a soothing or softening the wrath of an offended deity. Jesus did not soothe the wrath of God — He endured it. He did not suppress or extinguish it as we would extinguish a fire; rather, He absorbed in His own soul the full, unmitigated fury of God’s wrath against sin. To continue with the metaphor, He drank the cup of God’s wrath to its last bitter drop. So for us who believe, the cup of God’s wrath is empty. ~Jerry Bridges, The Agonizing Prayer, at Ligonier
What a God we serve! Exalt Jesus in your thoughts today, raise Him as your Ebenezer, a banner to wave and proclaim His righteous deeds. Thank Him.



Source passage for this thought was Psalm 104

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