False teachers claim that the bitter cup given to Jesus was not a cup of wrath at all. They do this because they deny the Biblical doctrine of substitutionary atonement.
Christ's prayers for deliverance, and His sure knowledge that He would not be spared that judgment, are not incompatible at all.
That is why, following Christ's example, His people pray for deliverance, for the salvation of family and friends, and for rescue from the acts of wicked men. We do this even though we know that God determines all things that come to pass.
Some of these false teachers have responded to last week's sermon. They have claimed that Jesus was not murdered, since He volunteered to die, and that Jesus, in His humanity, didn't know the Father's will regarding His crucifixion.
They deny that Jesus knew His Father's will, because they claim that would render His prayers in the garden useless and dishonest.
So their denial of God's decree and ordination of all things that come to pass, has a cascading effect of more and more blasphemies from them against our dear Savior.
The martyr Stephen put to rest the question, whether Christ's death at Calvary was a crime. He said, just before they martyred him, that as to Christ, "you have now become His betrayers and murderers!"
The Apostle Peter proclaimed at Pentecost, "Christ, being delivered up by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain."
God had ordained long beforehand that Christ would be put to death, and He used wicked men to murder Jesus, in order to save His people from their sin.
God's eternal decree was carried out by wicked men against Jesus! |
