Joel From the Old Testament is Drawn on in this Judgment Passage. Part 2
“So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and loaded the grapes into the great winepress of God’s wrath. The grapes were trampled in the winepress outside the city…” – Revelation 14:19,20.
Unfortunately, fear is not always a good motivator for change. Until smoking became socially unacceptable the scary pictures and stats had minimal long term results. The same goes for the Medieval tactic around the invented doctrine of an eternally burning hell with all its graphic descriptions.
The image of the winepress in this text is truly horrific. John seems determined to scare anyone sitting on the fence of indecision into radical obedience to Christ. The lines are clearly drawn, the wicked will be destroyed, and those who are wise will choose Christ NOW and reordered their lives NOW. The most quoted verse in the Bible says it clearly; “For God so loved the world that He gave is only Son so that whosoever believes in Him should not PERISH but have eternal life.” (John 3:16). There is the contrast; Eternal life or perish – there is no eternal life for the unsaved in some other place of torment. Fear as a motivator is powerful, but it doesn’t last. If reading Revelation has motivated you to a changed life, don’t hesitate or make a half-hearted decision.
You need to go all out while the motivation lasts.
If you commit fully to Christ and re-orient your life, there is a chance that new habits will form, and you can break through the wall of weakness when the fear wears off. “Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” (Hebrews 4:13) When we celebrate communion with the unleavened symbols of bread and wine we are reminded of these two images. They are unleavened because in the Bible leaven (fermentation) is a symbol of sin and our Lord was “without sin” (2 Cor5:21). Not only do the symbols remind us of Him who was “holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners…” (Heb 7:26) but they also remind us that He has experienced “the wine press of the wrath of God.” for us! For me
The communion service is based on the Passover which contained both these symbols of unleavened wine and bread. Next time you celebrate communion reflect on the sinless sacrifice of substitutionary suffering that our Lord engaged in on your behalf and also reflect on the wine which symbolises Jesus taking the wrath of God on your behalf.
“But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God’s Book of the Law.” So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”
This way of faith is very different from the way of law, which says, “It is through obeying the law that a person has life.” But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Gal 3:10-13.