When I said that some people apparently don’t consider Jesus to be the sinless sacrifice that the Bible explains that he was, I was speaking specifically of their beliefs concerning alcohol.
First off, we know that Jesus drank wine. There is no indication that this wine was non-alcoholic, and in fact, this makes no sense from a scientific standpoint. The only way the drink would keep in the hot climate of the Middle-East would be if there were some sort of preservatives in it. The only preservative that could possibly have been in grape juice would have been alcohol. In fact, the technology to create non-alcoholic wine is quite recent, so they couldn’t have made non-alcoholic wine if they had wanted to.
Jesus was not stingy on the didactic nature of His ministry. (Teaching) If something was wrong, He stepped up and said so, no matter who was listening! If drinking alcohol was wrong, there is no doubt that He would have stood against it, no matter what the consequences.
Many have said that wine was the only safe beverage for them to drink then. That Jesus endured it as a necessary evil. I highly doubt this as well. Jesus counseled people that if their eye caused them to sin, they should gouge it out to avoid sin. If wine is sinful, then God does not permit it…there are no sins of convenience. Believing that Jesus endured a sin for even health reasons shows that we don’t really understand the horrific nature of sin to the Lord, and brings up a far more dangerous point.
If Jesus committed a sin in drinking wine (as well as commending others to drink it in the Lord’s Supper), then He cannot be the sinless sacrifice, and His death on the Cross was completely worthless. Christ’s life, death and resurrection is entirely dependent upon Him living the sinless life. He was to be the spotless Lamb of God. If wine is a sin, then Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross was worthless, and the Jews were right to condemn Him. God cannot sin….Jesus did not sin…I would be wary of condemning something that Jesus obviously did. His opening miracle, after all, was changing water into wine. Not only did He choose wine rather than purify whatever water might have been unclean, He made GOOD wine. The master of the house thought the Lord was mad for bringing out the good stuff when everyone was already too drunk to enjoy it.
Furthermore, the creation of wine encouraged everyone around to continue drinking wine. Those who eventually discovered Who Christ was could have remembered that miracle, and would have made the same leap of logic that I have here. Drinking win cannot be wrong, because Christ promoted it at that party by bringing more when it ran out.
If Christ had created non-alcoholic wine, what better place than a drunken party for a didactic interlude about how He would not contribute to their sin by making more wine. Rather, He would have created good, clean water, and told them, “Go and sin no more.”
Many Christians ask what drinking in a bar or otherwise does to your witness. I ask, what witness do you think you have if you do not spend time with the ungodly preaching the Word. When my buddy and I used to go have a big glass of pear cider, we’d discuss theology, and nearly every time, we’d attract the attention of those around us who wondered how a Christian could enjoy eating and drinking with friends in a sports bar. I don’t know what happened to any of those people, but they were granted light by encountering us and our discussions of the Bible over a burger and beer. The Lord has used that in the past, and He will again. I’ve found that it’s Christians who look down on other Christians in a bar…not non-Christians. Non-Christians often feel as though Christians look down on them, and in that aloof way, Christians destroy their own witness without having even stepped into a bar. However, I remind you that nothing you do can destroy the chance of salvation for another person. The work of salvation is from beginning to end the work of the Lord, and not you. The Lord is sovereign in whom He condemns and whom He has chosen for salvation, and your works or lack of works has nothing to do with that. As little tiny men, we cannot wreck the plan of God, and to think that we have that power is yet another problem in modern theology.
No, people…you cannot escape the fact that drinking alcohol is perfectly fine…within limits, of course. There are limits to everything in this life. Do not be a glutton…do not drink to drunkenness. Enjoy sex within the holy bounds of marriage, but not outside of it, etc. Nothing should take mastery over you, and that includes all manner of activites that are perfectly fine in moderation. “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” In Galatians 5, Paul opens his new section with this, and then goes on to talk about the legalism of circumcision. Legalism is the yoke of slavery, and we are not to submit to it.
Now, if a Christian doesn’t want to drink, of his own will, then I have no problem with that. If I know that a Christian doesn’t want to drink, I won’t ask him to. But he needs to know that I am free to drink, because Christ has permitted it. I will not submit to a yoke of slavery. If he comes to my house and happens to notice my beer bottle collection, he cannot condemn me because I practice the freedom of Christ. Likewise, I shall not condemn him for his lack of freedom in this area. However, I will contend earnestly for the Truth, and that is that Christ IS the sinless sacrifice, and His drinking of wine was not, therefore, a sin.
