The Cup Our Savior Is Yet To Drink
March 21, 1999 / No. 2933
In the last two weeks we have looked into the cups of our Savior. He spoke of three cups that were His.
The first cup, we noticed, was the cup that He drank and left nothing behind, even a cup that He smashed to pieces so that it could not be filled again. That was the cup that He embraced in the Garden of Gethsemane (John 18:11), “the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” We saw that it was the cup of the just and undiluted, the holy, wrath of God against the sins of all those who had been given to Him by His Father’s election. That cup He drank. And He has replaced it with a cup of blessing for us.
The second cup was a cup that Jesus refused to drink. We saw last time that this was the cup of drugged wine given as a narcotic to one who was about to be crucified to stupefy and to make manageable the pain as the nails were driven into the flesh. This cup Jesus would not drink. He would not alleviate any of His own suffering. This was not due, we saw, to any stoicism. It was not due to any desire of Christ simply to suffer. But this was due to His willingness, His perfect willingness, to absorb all the fountains of divine fury brought against Him. Willingly, fully, and knowingly Jesus endured all the suffering that was necessary to obtain our eternal salvation.
Today we want to look into a third cup of which Jesus spoke – a cup that He is yet to drink, a cup that He looks forward to drinking with us in glory.
There is a cup that Jesus anticipates with joy that He will drink with us soon in the kingdom of His Father. He spoke of it in Matthew 26:29. “But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
What is this cup? This cup represents the glorious enjoyment of the salvation of the church which is perfected in the final kingdom of God in the new heaven and the new earth, when time shall be no more, in the final Paradise described in Revelation 21 and 22. It is the complete enjoyment of the salvation which Jesus Himself would purchase.
Jesus spoke those words in Matthew 26:29 at a solemn moment. Jesus was alone with the twelve in the upper room in Jerusalem on the very eve of His death. He had just eaten the Passover feast with His disciples. It was the last Supper, the eating of the lamb and the unleavened bread, the Supper which pointed to Him as the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.
Now in its place Jesus institutes the Supper of Remembrance or, what we call, the Lord’s Supper, or Holy Communion. We read in Luke 22:20, “Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” “After the same manner also he took the cup,” we read in I Corinthians 11:25, “when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood.” Jesus, then, held a cup in His hands at the moment of the Lord’s Supper, filled with the fruit of the vine. That was symbolic of His blood which He would shed for the remission of our sins. He gives this cup to us and says, “You must drink it, for it represents and seals to your heart all that the shedding of my blood shall accomplish for you. Drink this cup.” And the Lord drank with them. Then He said, “But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until the day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” That is, “Disciples, the cup of the Supper that I am now calling you to observe continually, and which represents to you all that I have done to purchase your salvation upon the cross, you must continue to drink it.” I Corinthians 11:26, “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.”
But, says the Lord, I will not drink it with you again until I drink it new with you in the kingdom.” That is, this supper and this cup looks forward to something which goes beyond even what you have right now. It points to a greater and a perfected redemption. This cup celebrates the accomplishment of full redemption and looks forward in faith to the final day which I shall have gathered all my church to myself in glory. Then there will be a cup, a cup of fulfillment. And I will drink it then with you.
Our Lord is very emphatic. He says, “No more will I in any wise drink of this fruit of the vine until the day I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” He is asserting what He will not do. “No more will I in any wise drink of this cup until that day.”
“I am about,” He says, “to give My life in the death of the cross. There I will be abandoned of God in your place. I will descend into the abyss of suffering for sin.” And following that, we know, would come the resurrection and ascension of our Lord into glory when He would be seated at His Father’s right hand. The Lord says, “I will not again drink of this cup, representing the accomplishment of your salvation, I will no longer do that with you on this earth. I leave you. I leave this cup behind, representing to you all that I have done and all that I came for to do. But I will not drink it with you until the day I drink it new with you in the kingdom of My Father.”
The Lord is saying, “My absence, then, from this cup of feasting will be for a specific period. I look forward to the event when I will drink it new with you. I will abstain from drinking this cup with you up to the point of My Father’s kingdom, up to the point of the consummation of all the purposes of God as those purposes are brought to their completion in the final kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth, the great feast of Christ and His church. When that final perfection will have come, the kingdom of My Father in all of its glory and beauty in the new heavens and in the new earth, then I will drink that cup with you new.”
When that time takes place of which we read in I Corinthians 15:24 and 28, “when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father … that God may be all in all” – “at that blessed moment I shall drink a cup with you which will represent the perfection, the completion of all the saving purposes of the eternal God. I will drink it new with you in the kingdom of My Father.”
That will be the completed cup, the perfected cup.
“In My Father’s kingdom,” says Jesus, “there is going to be a cup for Me. And I will share it with you.” In that cup is all the glory of eternal life and salvation. Then the words of Matthew 8:11 shall be fulfilled: “Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.” They shall sit down, they shall recline, they shall enter the vast and everlasting banquet hall. Or, in the words of Revelation 19:9, “And he said unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Then Christ, with us, shall drink the cup of blissful, eternal, perfect salvation.
What is so precious is that our Lord says that this is absolutely certain. It will happen. “Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more the fruit of the vine until the day I drink it new with you in the kingdom of God.” “Verily,” says the Lord. That was the Lord’s way of introducing words which He wanted to underline in our hearts, words that we must hold on to by faith and never allow to lapse from our memory. The Lord is saying, “It is certain. You may count on this. I will drink the cup of perfect glory with you, with all those for whom I died. There is coming a day when they shall be gathered with Me, for I die not in vain. And gathered with Me in My Father’s house, they shall rejoice in the cup of perfect and full salvation.”
Those words also represent to us the absolute certainty of our salvation. Remember when Jesus spoke them. He spoke them before the hour of the cross. The Lord, even as He stands before the cross, has absolute certainty that the cross will be triumphant, that that cross will earn glory for all those given to Him of His Father. As He speaks, His mind is resolutely upon the cross. “I will not drink anymore with you until the day that it is fulfilled in My Father’s kingdom. I am going to shed My blood for you upon Calvary’s cross. I am going to lay down My life in your place.” There is a resolute, an unmovable commitment of the Savior to perform the work of salvation. “I am going to the cross. I will not stay back. I will not continue with you anymore in this way.”
But the Lord is also unshakably confident of the triumph of the cross, and that by that cross He will earn everlasting life and eternal glory. “I will not only pour out My blood, I will not only take the place of My people upon that accursed tree, but I will so endure that suffering and wrath of God as to earn, absolutely, salvation for My own.” His words speak not only the absolute certainty of His suffering and death, but the absolute certainty that by that suffering and death He would earn, for all those given to Him of His Father, eternal glory. “I will drink it with you in My Father’s kingdom,” He says.
He speaks of those of whom He must say a few moments later, “all ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.” He speaks of one who will deny Him: as the Savior said, “before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice.” He knew them. He knew them as foolish, unworthy, and proud sinners. “Yet,” says the Savior, “you are the ones who shall drink with Me in My Father’s kingdom. And you shall drink with Me in My Father’s kingdom because the blessed certainty is the love of God. And the blessed certainty of that love of God is that by its power I shall go to the cross. And through that cross I shall purchase the salvation of unworthy sinners given to Me of the Father. I will not only pardon their sins, but I shall earn for them a salvation in which they shall live forever with God.”
There is not a smidgen of doubt here. Jesus did not go to the cross hoping, wishing, wondering, and saying, “Oh, if only something will come out of this.” No, He did not go to the cross that way. He goes to the cross in absolute certainty that by His death He would bring the unworthy ones to eternal glory! That is certain. Isaiah 53:11, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” He shall see the fruit of the travail of His soul. Every one in whose room and place He poured out His blood will be called by His Spirit, justified and sanctified by grace, made a new creature, preserved in faith, and brought at last to glory. He said in John 6, “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all he which hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”
I will drink this cup with you new in My Father’s kingdom. No ifs, no buts, and no ands.
Triumphant Jesus. Triumphant salvation.
The reason that you personally have been brought to faith and repentance is because of the commitment of the Almighty God to save you and to bring you to glory by Jesus Christ. All those for whom Jesus gave His life shall be in His presence in exceeding joy because He died, and rose, that we might live forever. That salvation cannot be defeated. “I will drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”
What a wonderful assurance that our salvation was obtained by the cross.
Here is assurance. Assurance is not found in yourself. Nor is assurance of eternal glory found in your works. Not even in those good works of faith and repentance and obedience that the Holy Spirit inspires. But assurance is this: Jesus, our Lord, obtained a full salvation which has taken us out of the kingdom of darkness and brings us to sit at the table of the Lord in His kingdom. He died to purchase our faith. That faith He works in us by His Word and Holy Spirit. He causes you, by faith, to commit everything to Him, to rest only upon Him. And to His children, given to Him of the Father and brought in repentance and sorrow over sin, He has promised that all His perfect work shall be theirs and they shall sit with Him in glory.
Open your Bible and try to find one text, one verse, that says that your doing and your actions add to His work. Oh, yes, you must obey and you must walk in the ways of God. But that is done out of thankfulness for the salvation which is founded upon Jesus only. Repentance begins with this truth ringing in your heart: “Nothing in my hands I bring; only to the cross I cling.” You say that that is a dangerous doctrine? That is the gospel. Only one work earns salvation – the cross. Only one reason for doing a good work, only one – thankfulness to God for a salvation complete in Jesus Christ. Look upon your sins, then. Those sins are odious and they are vile. There is nothing that can remove them, nothing. Not your works. Nothing but His blood. His blood cleanses us from all our sins.
Hear the words of the Savior: “I will drink this cup new with you in My Father’s kingdom. I will bring you to Myself. I will never break My oath that I have made to you. I will bring you out of the bondage of your sin. My death shall avail for a covering for your sin. It shall avail for much more. It shall bring you to glory. It shall set you free from the dominion of sin.” Hear His words: “I will drink it with you in My Father’s kingdom.”
Jesus says there that He cannot conceive of drinking that cup as the conquerer without those that He has purchased with His blood. He says, “I cannot conceive of the celebration and the glory without you. You for whom I gave Myself? You shall be there. I will drink it with you most assuredly.” Jesus says, “I am confident that I shall be glorified in the way of My death and resurrection.” John 17, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Thou Me with the glory I had with Thee before the world began.” “I am very sure of My personal glory. I am also very sure,” says the Savior, “that you shall be with Me. Then, in the cool of the day, by the river of life which flows by the throne of God, you shall drink a cup with Me. I am sure that I will present you to God as a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. But you shall be holy and without blemish before God in love (Eph. 5:27).”
There is coming a day, a day in which Jesus Christ shall stand amid all of His elect from every nation, tribe, and tongue under heaven. They will have been raised in glorious bodies and clothed in white linen of His own righteousness. Then, in a place which is too beautiful for human eyes to see or minds to imagine, the Father will give to His Son a cup, a cup of joy and glory, a cup of eternal salvation, a cup which shall vanquish all our tears and all our sighs and shall fill our hearts with resounding glory and praise. That cup He will share with us. We will drink with Him. And we shall praise the Father with Him. And we shall say, as we drink of the cup, “To Him who loved us be honor and glory, dominion and power, forever and ever.”
Believest thou this? Everyone who has this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank Thee for Thy holy Word. Write it upon our hearts. Amen.