The Many Cups of Sorrow He Drained to the Dregs in Working Out My Salvation

What trouble our Lord Jesus went through for the sake of our souls.

• We are told that shortly after washing the disciples' feet, 
• He "was troubled in spirit, and said, One of you shall betray Me.”

The whole length and breadth and depth of our Master's troubles during His earthly ministry are far beyond the conception of most people. 

• His death and suffering on the cross were only the heading up and completion of His sorrows. 
• But all throughout His life--partly from the general unbelief of the Jews--
• partly from the special hatred of the Pharisees and Sadducees--
• partly from the weakness and infirmity of His few followers--
• He must have been in a peculiar degree "a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." (Isa. 53:3.)

But the trouble before us was a singular and exceptional one. 

• It was the bitter sorrow of seeing a chosen Apostle deliberately becoming an apostate, a backslider, and an ungrateful traitor. 
• That it was a foreseen sorrow from the beginning we need not doubt; but sorrow is not less acute because long foreseen. 
• That it was a peculiarly cutting sorrow is very evident. 

Nothing is found so hard for flesh and blood to bear as ingratitude. 

• Even a poet of our own has said that it is "sharper than a serpent's tooth to have a thankless child." 
• Absalom's rebellion seems to have been David's heaviest trouble, 
• and Judas Iscariot's treachery seems to have been one of the heaviest trials of the Son of David. 
• When He saw it drawing near He was "troubled in spirit.”

Passages like these should make me see the amazing love of Christ to sinners. 

• How many cups of sorrow He drained to the dregs in working out my salvation, beside the mighty cup of bearing my sins. 
• They show me how little reason I have for complaining when friends fail me, and men disappoint me. 

If I share my Master's lot I have no cause to be surprised. 

• Above all, they show me the perfect suitableness of Christ to be my Savior. 
• He can sympathize with me. 
• He has suffered Himself, and can feel for me and any who are ill-used and forsaken.

Adapted Excerpt From

The Gospel of John

J. C. Ryle