Yes, here on this lonely mount called Calvary, God the Father has dipped His brush into the blood of His own Son.  With tender touches of mercy and blazing strokes of judgment, He painted His love on the canvas of His own Son’s flesh.   He raised Him up on the easel of the Cross. Displayed Him in the gallery of Golgotha.  Pulled back the veil and thundered through Heaven and Earth “Behold the Lamb!  He is forever the Masterpiece of God!”

This Cup?  What is this mysterious Cup? thought John.  Scriptures rolled through his mind: “In the hand of the Lord is A CUP filled with foaming wine” (Ps. 75:8).  “This CUP is filled with the wine of GOD’S WRATH,” and all who drink it “will stagger and go mad” (Jer. 25:15).  “THE CUP from the Lord’s hand is coming around to you and disgrace will cover your glory” (Hab. 2:16).  “See I have taken from your hand THE CUP that made you stagger. . .the goblet of MY WRATH” (Is. 51:22).

It was the most extravagant expression of God’s love ever seen in Heaven or Earth.  Every stroke of the Father’s brush had been dipped in divine mercy, stained with His tears, and glazed with His love.    There in a little studio on a hill, God had painted His classic work of art.  He primed it with a Roman scourge.  Etched it with iron spikes.  The pallet knife was a soldier’s spear, and the paint was the blood of His own Son’s veins.