Understanding the Cup of Wrath and Christ’s New Covenant

If your kitchen is anything like mine, you have way too many cups. Whether you drink coffee or tea, no one can drink out of more than one cup at a time, so I wonder over our perceived need to own so many cups that we could drink out of a different one every day for … well, you get the picture. It’s excess and we know it. Again, the reality is that we can only drink from one at a time.

Before Jesus came, only one cup would suffice.

Moving from our cup-heavy kitchens to the spiritual realm, a cup is used to represent the consequences of our sinful state. It was made clear through the prophets that wrath would come on all who rejected God. Jeremiah gave a visual picture of the nations drinking the cup of God’s wrath.

This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand and make all the nations to whom I am sending you drink from it. They will drink, stagger, and go out of their minds because of the sword I am sending among them.” So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink from it. (Jeremiah 25:15-17 CSB)

Not only would pagan nations drink from this cup, but unfaithful Israel as well.

Wake yourself, wake yourself up! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk the cup of his fury from the Lord’s hand; you who have drunk the goblet to the dregs—the cup that causes people to stagger. There is no one to guide her among all the children she has raised; there is no one to take hold of her hand among all the offspring she has brought up. These two things have happened to you: devastation and destruction, famine and sword. (Isaiah 57:17-19)

Even with the Law, God’s people failed to remain loyal to the God of the Universe. They gave themselves to idols and followed the ways of the nations around them. The cup of wrath was the inevitable choice for people enslaved to sin.

By drinking the cup of wrath, Christ made a way for a new choice of cups.

As the righteous Lamb of God, Jesus came to this earth not only to live in perfect accordance with the Law of God but to die. He would drink from the cup of wrath on our behalf. He told the Jews his purpose.

“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:38-40)

When his disciples asked him for places of authority in the new Kingdom, Jesus warned them that the bringing in of that Kingdom would be at a cost. They didn’t see it then, but he did.

Jesus answered, “You don’t know what you’re asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?”

“We are able,” they said to him.

He told them, “You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right and left is not mine to give; instead, it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” (Matthew 20:22-23)

Jesus knew that the persecution his disciples would face would only come after he faced the ultimate cost—death on the cross. It was a bitter cup for him to drink, because it was the death we deserved.

As he neared the day of his crucifixion, the weight of the price he was paying on our behalf became almost unbearable. As he trembled in the garden before the harsh hand of the Father, he asked if there was any other way.

Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. He said to them, “I am deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.” Going a little farther, he fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:37-39)

Because Jesus would perfectly fulfill the will of the Father, he would drink that cup of wrath and face the excruciating death of crucifixion. The innocent Son of Man, the perfect Lamb of God, willingly paid the price for our sake.

Jesus now offers us a new cup from which to drink.

When we accept the sacrificial offering of Christ on our behalf and entrust our lives to him, he offers us the only cup we need in our collection—the cup of the New Covenant.

He told the Jews about it long before his crucifixion, but they did not understand.

So Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the manna your ancestors ate—and they died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.” (John 6:53-58)

Then on the night of his final Passover celebration with his disciples, he reiterated it again, now holding a literal cup in his hand.

As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take and eat it; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and said, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:26-28)

Paul would recognize the significance of that moment and understand the meaning of the covenant of which Jesus spoke.

In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:25-26)

Instead of the cup of wrath, Christ offers all who believe a new cup from which to drink. We drink to remember not only that he has paid the price for our sins, removing the penalty of God’s wrath, but also to acknowledge that we now live under a new covenant with God. It was foretold by Jeremiah and Ezekiel as the covenant that would be written on the hearts of men, opening the way for them to know God in a new and intimate way. With the forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus Christ, man is made right with God.

Because he drank the cup of wrath on our behalf, Jesus Christ has earned his right to be the mediator between God and man of this new covenant.

Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.  (Hebrews 9:15)

As we put our faith in Christ and drink the cup of the new covenant, instead of wrath, we receive the promise of eternal life, inheriting the undeserved blessings of life forever with God. How has this happened? Because he took our place and redeemed us from sin. As you take up the cup of the new covenant, be mindful of the price paid that we might freely drink of its blessings.

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Grace and Peace

If you missed the last Wednesday Wisdom, click HERE, or check out these other posts about our great redeemer: No, I’m the Worst, Learning from the Past: Thirty-Five, A Glimpse of His Wrath, Gems from Genesis: Chapter 8, Learning from the Past: Thirty-Eight, Learning from the Past: Fifteen, and We Remember Jesus.