Wine and the Christian
By Dr. Derek Carlsen
When dealing with the issue of whether it is sinful or not for Christians to drink alcohol, it is possible, for the sake of simplicity, to merely consider four issues. Much more could be said on the subject, but understanding these four simple points will go a long way in bringing clarity to this debate. The points have to do with:
- Ethics: How do we define right and wrong for all things?
- Sanctification: How do believers overcome remaining sin in their hearts?
- The Messianic Kingdom: How does God describe the Messianic Kingdom?
- The Sacraments: How are we to think about the elements Christ instituted for the Supper?
Ethics
This brief paper assumes the fact that God’s word is the ultimate standard for determining all ethical issues. Thus those who argue that Christians should refrain from alcohol consumption need to provide clear Scriptural evidence to support their argument. Scripture, however, far from condemning or forbidding the drinking of wine or alcohol, portrays it very often in a positive light. What is condemned is drunkenness, which is the abuse of wine and it is condemned along with the abuse of food: “Do not mix with winebibbers, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat; For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags” (Proverbs 23:20-21). Those who equate the drinking alcohol with the sin of drunkenness need to be consistent and also equate the eating of food with the sin of gluttony.
The major Hebrew and Greek Lexicons agree that the words used for wine in Scripture refer to alcoholic drinks. The major English Bible translations also are in agreement with this fact and this is seen by how they use the word ‘wine’ to translate these words, rather than some non-alcoholic juice.
The tendency of man is to define right and wrong (i.e., get his ethics) according to his own likes, dislikes, traditions and experiences. However, this is not how one arrives at a godly ethic, but rather leads to bondage and destruction. The only way for believers to determine their ethics is by submitting to God’s revelation, thus when Scripture places the consumption of wine clearly in righteous contexts, we cannot contradict such passages or ignore them. Below are some examples:
Melchizedek gave wine to Abraham in righteous circumstances (Gen.14:18).
The provisions for godly Nehemiah included “an abundance of all kinds of wine” (Neh.5:18).
Both wine (Ex.29:40) and strong drink (Num.28:7) were used for offerings made to God.
God’s law allowed wine and strong drink to be purchased with the Tithe and the worshippers were to drink these before the Lord (Deut.14:26).
The Psalmist attributes to God the production of wine which makes man’s heart glad (Ps.104:14-15).
Scripture illustrates the satisfaction of life by talking about eating bread and drinking wine with gladness (Eccl.9:7).
Finally, the glorious blessing of eternal redemption is likened to a free provision of wine—this is referring to the gospel and the riches we receive through it: “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price” (Isa.55:1).
Sanctification
This deals with how believers are instructed to overcome remaining sin in their hearts. Scripture doesn’t portray things as evil and imply that sanctification is obtained by staying away from evil things? Wine is no more evil than a gun. It is people who sin, not things and though they often use things when they sin, the sin still comes from their heart and not from the thing. Forbidding the drinking of wine in order to deal with the sin of alcohol abuse is no different to banning guns in order to deal with the abuse of guns.
We must be true to the Scriptures in how we counter sin and every abuse of God’s good gifts. Jesus taught that sin arises from a sinful heart, not from things outside of a person (Matt.15:17-20). Sin comes from the inside and the problem is a lack of self control. We are defiled from the inside out, not the other way around (Mk.7:15) and to suggest otherwise is to offer man an unbiblical solution to his problems, whether talking about the abuse of wine, money, sex, etc. It is vital that we don’t present a wrong definition for sin and thus mislead the struggling sinner as he seeks to gain the victory over sin. The right understanding of sin is meant to both drive the sinner to true repentance and spur him on to maturity as a believer.
Central to the Gospel message is self control—this is what Paul preached to Felix (Acts 24:25). Self control is vital to Christian maturity (1 Cor.9:25; Gal.5:22,23; Titus 1:8; 2 Pet.1:6). The answer to drunkenness, which the Scriptures strongly condemn, is not outlawing alcohol, but rather, to preach deliverance through the power of the Spirit. Sinners need to be delivered from bondage to sinful behaviour and also empowered, by the same Spirit, to walk in newness of life (Rom.6:4). One of the fundamental manifestations of being a new creation in Christ is self control. Self control is using all God’s good gifts in the way He ordained for them to be used. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever (Shorter Catechism). The right use of wine is clearly shown in Scripture to be a good gift from the Lord given to man for his enjoyment—not to be abused, but enjoyed in moderation, as all good gifts are meant to be used.
Practically everything is abused in this fallen world: cars, guns, sex, food, money, you name it. There is no denying that alcohol abuse has horrendous consequences, but what needs to be guarded against is offering an unbiblical solution to this abuse. It is wrong to imply that God’s answer to alcohol abuse is to say that alcohol is the cause of the problem. Alcohol is abused because of man’s sinful heart—this good gift form God (alcohol) is abused but that doesn’t make it abusive anymore than cars or guns are abusive or make people sin. Likewise we don’t say that money is abusive or that we should abstain from using it even though Scripture warns that the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Tim.6:10). All abuse is to be dealt with by becoming self controlled, through the working of the Holy Spirit, in our use of all of God’s good gifts.
Messianic Kingdom
Those who outlaw drinking alcohol cannot ignore the fact that God pointed to wine to describe His Messianic Kingdom and they will have to explain why He used inappropriate images to portray things like the joy of this Kingdom?
It is significant that Christ’s first miracle was to make an abundance of good wine (John 2). Why did Jesus choose this as His first miracle and why was John anxious to tell us that this was Christ’s first miracle? The reason was because this miracle was very significant in connecting Jesus to the prophecies about the Kingdom of Heaven or the Messianic Kingdom. Jesus made a lot of very good wine in this miracle and this was a sign that led His disciples to believe in Him (John 2:11). Christ’s actions were clearly connected to the prophetic utterances about His Kingdom. For example, Isaiah said, referring to the coming Messianic age, “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isa.55:1). A godly picture of the gospel, according to God, is free and abundant wine with a call for all to come and drink.
Isaiah, again talking about the Messianic Kingdom said, “And in this mountain The Lord of hosts will make for all people A feast of choice pieces, A feast of wines on the lees, Of fat things full of marrow, Of well-refined wines on the lees” (Isa.25:6). From everlasting, the love of God has rested upon us and this rich, full bodied love is pictured by wine. Not just any wine but a wine that only time can produce—wine on the lees, which is rich in aroma and flavour. Such wine is made by careful and precise actions and God’s love for us entails careful and precise actions on His part. This love is mature and very valuable (as is good mature wine) and is the source of real joy—the rich joy of God’s grace. Scripture says our communion with Christ is properly described by comparing it to drinking good, mature wine—wine on the lees. This is a wine that by standing long on the lees, has drawn out all the virtue and flavour and has no impediments in it, that is, all the coarse sediments have been removed. Wine on the lees is well matured and refined and God, in His sovereign wisdom, says this kind of wine best describes the richness of our communion with Him. When Jesus made excellent wine at the marriage feast it was to connect His ministry with the Messianic Kingdom—a Kingdom the prophets likened to excellent wine. We are to renew our minds on such issues, not the text of Scripture!
The OT, without shame, pictured the coming Kingdom as a sumptuous banquet where there was a great abundance of wine. “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, And all the hills shall flow with it” (Amos 9:13). Sweet wine and new wine were alcoholic as Acts 2:13 clearly proves (full of new wine) as does Matt.9:17 (putting new wine into old wine skins).
We see in God’s wisdom that our communion with Christ is best described as drinking good wine. It is not best described by any other analogy. For example, it is not best described as a roller-coaster rush; or sunset fishing on a still lake; or the excitement of a chariot race; or the exhilaration of a parachute jump. Rather, good wine on the lees, God says, is the way we are to understand our communion with Him.
Sacraments
When dealing with God’s institution of the sacraments, we have to ask if there is any connection between the message God communicates in the Lord’s Supper and the elements that He ordained to be used?
In Matt.26:29 when Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper, He used the term “fruit of the vine” to describe the cup. There are no reputable commentators who seriously argue against the fact that the Jewish term “fruit of the vine” had only one meaning in such a context. Even commentators who oppose the modern use of wine agree with this fact. “Fruit of the vine” was the term the Jews used to refer to wine that was part of their sacred ceremonies, especially the Passover. The drinking of wine at the Passover was to commemorate what God had done for Israel in bringing them out of Egypt (a picture of deliverance from the bondage of sin). In drinking the wine they were reminded of God’s bounty and goodness toward them and of their intimate and joyous relationship with Him. In drinking the wine they were celebrating the real joy of being in communion with God. Historically then, we see that this term had a specific meaning in the religious life of the Jewish nation, and the context in which Christ used it, was the Passover.
Christ clearly instituted the use of wine when He instituted the Lord’s Supper, which forces us to ask whether in doing this He used an inappropriate element. Was it an inappropriate comparison for Him to liken communion with Him, to drinking wine? This is what God is saying to us in the Supper. Just as the marriage relationship is meant to be an image of Christ and His bride (Eph.5:32), so too in the Song of Solomon we see that wine is used to depict the intimate richness of oneness and sexual union in the marriage relationship (Song 1:2; 4:10; 7:9; 8:2). Wine pictures the joyful communion of the marriage relationship as well as our communion with the Bridegroom at the Lord’s Table. The discussion about using wine in the Supper is not a small issue. It is not like debating about how many hymns to sing in a worship service. There are only two sacraments given to us and the details of these sacraments are not arbitrary.
Communion is not just a matter of putting some kind of solid and liquid in our mouth. The Lord says our faith is not irrational and thus in our communing with Him through the Supper, He is communicating to our minds and hearts a particular message, which we are to feast upon by faith. We are to feast upon the message communicated through the Supper in the same way that we are built up by feasting upon the preached word and the words we read in Scripture. It is by His message, communicated in the way He deems best, that our holy faith is built up and we are strengthened. And He said it is wine that is best able to portray and communicate to us the reality of our communion with Him.
Thus, the elements Christ chose to use in the Lord’s Supper have significance: bread and wine. Bread nourishes. The Church of Rome likes to use the wafer, which is little more than air and thus becomes, ultimately, a magical symbol since it is not communicating what the Lord intended to communicate by bread. There is no nourishment in the wafer. Whereas, God’s message, by instituting bread, was to proclaim that just as our bodies are nourished by healthy bread, so too our souls are nourished when we feast upon Christ by faith in our hearts. The bread we use must be real bread, because the Lord says we need this connection in order to strengthen our faith and thus our relationship with Him. When we are hungry, the only way to satisfy that hunger is to eat, and bread was the staple food in Israel and is still significant in this way in our day. The use of bread in communion communicates the fact that our spiritual hunger can only be satisfied by feasting upon Christ’s flesh. We don’t only need good physical food, but also good spiritual food which is received through faith and just as near and real as the communion elements are to our senses (touch, sight and taste), Christ’s spiritual nourishment and joy are as near and accessible to us through faith.
The wine in the Supper communicates a message of God’s rich, long abiding love for us. From everlasting, the love of God has rested upon us. This rich, full bodied love is pictured by wine, a wine that only time can produce—wine on the lees (Isa.25:6).
We are not to cringe or apologise because the Lord says wine portrays the best picture of our communion with Him. We are to receive it with thanksgiving and feast upon the reality that it is communicating to us. It communicates the fullness and richness of the Lord’s love for us and it speaks of the joy and peace that fills our hearts due to being in relationship with Him. As we smell the aroma of the wine, as we savour its deep flavour and sense the warmth of the alcohol, the Lord is touching our senses with truth that He has explained in His word—truth about our communion with Him and about His Messianic Kingdom. He is not polluting us, He is strengthening us in accordance with His wisdom and His definition of reality. Now we might not like God’s definition of reality, but then it is the nature of sin to find fault with how God has ordained things to be.
It was because of these above truths that when Paul encountered drunkenness in Corinth which was directly tied to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor.11:21), we see that he did not correct this abuse by condemning their use of wine nor by advocating that they use something else instead of wine. Rather, he called for the proper use of the Lord’s Supper along with self-control.
Conclusion
The question remains as to whether we will bow our hearts to the Lord’s wisdom or make our own wisdom supreme? The wine issue is ultimately testing our generation’s answer to this question about whose authority is absolute and whose ethics will triumph? When we uphold God’s revelation with respect to the godly use of wine we are exalting the fact that we are accountable to derive our ethics from His word alone. It becomes a tool to instruct our children and explain how we know what is right and wrong in any area of life; we show them and others that it is to the law and to the testimony that we must go to evaluate all actions and ideas (Isa.8:20). The wine issue also shows what we believe about the way of sanctification and it also reveals our understanding of the Messianic Kingdom and God’s message to us in the Lord’s Supper.