The Process of the Cup

2/20/1993

What He was asking was, “Since you can do anything, Father, You can accomplish this in some other way. It wasn’t that He was wanting to avoid it to the extent that the redemptive process wouldn’t take place. That the atonement, the fulfillment that He would take all of mankind’s past, present and future sins…It wasn’t that He was unwilling to proceed as the Father wanted Him to. It was just, “Father, because You are capable of all things, You could probably find a way to do this that doesn’t involve this kind of rejection.” I think that the Father was very sympathetic at that moment. He wasn’t looking at His Son as being an excuse maker, or trying to weasel out of it. He was looking at His Son and saying, “You think I want this, Son? You think I want to watch you be spit at and be discouraged, and people scratch Your eyes out and curse You. Do You think I want that for You?” I think the Father could identify with what His Son was saying at that moment in time. He probably did consider other possibilities. There’s no doubt what you’re saying is that cup that Peter or John or James and John, were to drink. And that baptism, and the walking as Jesus walked. There’s no question that all of that’s related, as you see that in 1 John 1 and 2.

The process is that to share in His fellowship involves a walking in the light and involves confessing our sins, it involves obeying Him when the truth is not in us, and we’re a liar. All of that stuff is right in there in the context of anyone that claims to be in Him, must walk as He walked. And, certainly, you can make a case for the fact that Peter wasn’t perfect. Paul rebuked him publicly, spoken in Galatians 2. So, Peter didn’t walk as Jesus walked, so he must not be in it. That really wasn’t what he was talking about. Again, in that same 2 or 3 paragraph section in 1 John. It says, “Anyone who claims to be without sin is a liar and the truth is not in them”. That’s just a few sentences before he said, “Anyone that claims to be in Him must walk as He walked”. So it’s not saying that that means a person must be without sin, as Jesus was without sin. It’s that a man must approach the Father with reference and submission, and he must confess his sins, that he must obey. “I write these things so you will not sin. But if you sin, you have an advocate…” That’s a couple of sentences before that, too. You have to go to the advocate. You can’t stop. You need to confess your sin. And if you sin, you have to go to Jesus about it. You have to work it out with Him, and let Him plead your case before the Father.

So it’s not the process of everyone must be perfect, or they are a liar. In fact, he clears that up a few sentences earlier, by saying you are a liar if you claim you are. But it’s the process—it’s the cup and the baptism, it’s the learning, the groaning, and the humbling. It’s the coal of fire to the lips—it’s that process of the cup and the baptism, and the willingness to obey and to confess our sins. Then go to the Advocate—go to Jesus when we have failed and make things right, and to walk in fellowship with one another. That’s the process that we must walk in, as Jesus walked, in order to be brought into His image and His likeness. Obedience to the Father.