A Theology of Wine

The Bible says two things at once concerning wine:

“Do not be enslaved."
“Do not despise God’s gifts.”

It is possible to despise drunkenness and simultaneously recognize wine as a gift of God. In fact, you can’t have a thoroughly biblical theology of wine unless you hold both.

Wine is not merely a social choice; it is a theological one.

That sounds strange to many ears. Often American Christians treat drinking as a matter of taste, upbringing, culture, preference, or personal liberty. All of those factors may be in play. But Scripture asks deeper questions: What does wine mean? Why does God speak about it the way he does? And why does the Bible attach wine to joy, covenant blessing, messianic hope, and the coming kingdom?

Wine has a theology in the Bible.

Wine as Covenant Blessing

Consider first how Scripture portrays wine in the categories of covenant blessing. Psalm 104 praises God for his providential goodness, including the gift of wine that gladdens human hearts (Psalm 104:14–15). Wine is placed in the same realm as bread and oil—ordinary gifts from the Creator who loves to fill the world with goodness.

The wisdom literature speaks in similar terms. Proverbs ties material abundance to the Lord’s fatherly favor: when God blesses, barns are filled and vats overflow (Proverbs 3:9–10). We need to be careful here. Not every full barn is a sign of personal righteousness, and not every empty pantry is a sign of divine displeasure. Still, the point stands: Scripture can speak of wine as one of God’s good gifts to his people.

This theme runs through the covenant promises made to Israel. In Deuteronomy, wine appears repeatedly in the language of blessing (see Deuteronomy 7; 11; 33). When God describes what it looks like for him to smile upon his covenant people in the land, he includes abundant grain, oil, and wine.

And then Scripture gives the flip side: the absence of wine can appear among covenant curses. Deuteronomy 28 is explicit: if Israel persists in disobedience, the blessings of the land are withdrawn, and one of the images is labor without enjoyment—vines planted, but no wine tasted (Deuteronomy 28:39). The prophets pick up this covenantal imagery again and again. When the people of God harden themselves, God dries up the joy of the vineyard (see Hosea 9; Joel 1; Amos 5; Micah 6; Zephaniah 1; Haggai 1). Even the judgments against surrounding nations sometimes employ the same picture (Isaiah 16; Jeremiah 48).

Now, we should say plainly what this does not mean. It does not mean that a Christian who abstains from wine is under God’s curse. We must avoid wooden applications. Many Old Testament covenant signs do not map one-to-one into the new covenant in the same way.

But we should also be honest: the Bible’s own vocabulary attaches wine to blessing and its loss to judgment. We do not help anyone by pretending Scripture speaks differently than it does. The question is: why does the Bible speak covenantally concerning the abundance of wine?

Wine and Joy in the Heart

Scripture also speaks of wine as cheer, as gladness, as joy. Judges 9 contains that striking phrase about wine that “cheers God and men” (Judges 9:13). Psalm 104 says wine gladdens the heart (Psalm 104:15). These texts do not celebrating drunkenness; they are speaking of wine as a gift that can legitimately accompany human rejoicing.

At this point, some immediately rush to measurement questions: How many glasses? Where is the line? What is “too much”? Those questions matter, and wisdom is required. But the Bible does not give you a universal rubric for these wisdom questions. It gives you a moral boundary (do not be drunk; do not be mastered) and then calls you to apply wisdom, love, and self-control in your particular setting.

What we must not do is erase the Bible’s positive testimony because we fear abuse. Scripture does not solve the problem of sin by denying the goodness of creation. It solves sin with Christ, with holiness, with Spirit-driven self-control and with gratitude that receives God’s gifts without worshiping them.

That leads directly to the spiritual diagnosis the Bible repeatedly offers: false asceticism. There is a kind of religiosity that assumes the heart of holiness is simply “denying this, denying that.” Scripture rejects that approach. It is possible to refuse God’s gifts and call it piety. But when piety becomes suspicion toward God’s goodness, it has drifted from biblical spirituality.

Wine, then, becomes a test case. Not because everyone must drink, but because every Christian must answer the question: do I believe God’s created gifts can be received with thanksgiving and enjoyed to his glory? Or do I secretly think holiness is mainly the suppression of delight?

Wine and Christ’s Love

In the Song of Solomon, love is repeatedly compared to wine. That book is often mishandled, either reduced to a merely human romance, or treated so allegorically that it becomes detached from life. The historic Reformed approach has recognized the Song as a richly poetic celebration of covenant love that ultimately points beyond itself: the love of Christ for his church.

The Westminster Assembly’s Annotations describe the Song as a divine parable where natural things signify supernatural realities. Solomon and his love serving as a shadow of the true Prince of Peace and his affection for his people. That perspective helps you read the repeated wine language with spiritual eyes: “your love is better than wine” (Song 1:2); “how much better is your love than wine” (Song 4:10); “your mouth is like the best wine” (Song 7:9). The book even speaks of being “drunk with love” (Song 5:1). This is all language not of intoxication with alcohol but overwhelmed delight in Christ-centered affection.

In other words, wine imagery is used to teach you something about Christ’s love.

Wine's sweetness.
Wine's gladness.
Wine's drawing power.
Wine's use in celebration.

Christ's sweetness.
Gladness in Christ.
Christ's drawing power.
Celebrating Christ's love.

One Puritan famously said that "not everyone enters into the mysteries of the Song; it is for those who have near communion with Christ." That is exactly the point. The Song insists that holy love, covenant love, and Christ’s love is not sterile. It is not cold. It is not merely contractual. It is deep, joyful, affectionate, even intimate in its spiritual reality.

Wine, in Scripture, can function as a signpost toward that love.

Wine and Eschatological Hope

The Bible also ties wine to eschatology—to the coming kingdom, the Messiah’s reign, the fullness of redemption.

Begin in Genesis 49. Jacob blesses Judah with language that is unmistakably messianic: the scepter will not depart, the ruler will come, and the peoples will obey. This is the seedbed of “lion of the tribe of Judah” theology (Genesis 49:8–12). But notice something else: the prophecy is drenched in vineyard imagery. Judah is connected to the choicest vine, garments washed in wine; in the “blood of grapes.” In the earliest biblical promises, wine is already linked to the coming King.

The prophets continue this imagery. They preach to a discouraged, sinful, battered covenant community, and what do they hold out as a picture of restored blessing?

Abundant wine.

Amos foresees days when the mountains drip sweet wine and the people plant vineyards and drink (Amos 9:13–15). Joel speaks of God’s pity for his people and promises grain, wine, and oil and he also speaks of the Spirit poured out (Joel 2). Zechariah pictures peace and fruitfulness in vine and field (Zechariah 8:12). Micah envisions security so deep that every man sits under his vine and fig tree with none to make him afraid (Micah 4:3–4; Zechariah 3:10). Jeremiah and Hosea connect renewed covenant love with the land’s answer of grain, wine, and oil (Jeremiah 31; Hosea 2:18–23).

In sermon after sermon, oracle after oracle, wine becomes a symbol of redemption’s fullness.

God restoring.
God forgiving.
God dwelling with his people.
God giving joy without fear.

So when you turn to the New Testament and see Jesus’s first sign in John 2, it is not a random parlor trick. The scene is a wedding at Cana; the wine runs out; Jesus turns water into abundant wine, and not mediocre wine, but “good wine.” John calls it a sign by which Jesus “manifested his glory” and his disciples believed.

Why wine?

Because Jesus is not merely solving a social embarrassment. He is declaring that the messianic age has arrived. The promised abundance has come.

Spurgeon said, "Moses began with water turned into blood; Christ began with water turned into wine, judgment versus gospel generosity." . That is the theological point. Jesus is Lord of creation. Jesus is the fulfiller of prophecy. Jesus is the Bridegroom who brings the joy the prophets promised.

And now wine is set before the church not merely as a drink, but as a theological truth. It points to the love of Christ, the joy of redemption, the coming feast of the kingdom. Isaiah saw that feast long before Cana: on the mountain of the Lord, a banquet of rich food and well-aged wine (Isaiah 25:6). That is not a call to drunkenness. It is a picture of the final joy of God with his redeemed people.

Receiving the Sign

So what should we say as Christians? We must say what Scripture says: drunkenness is sin and those who practice it show themselves outside the kingdom. We must also say what Scripture says: wine, in its proper place, is to be received as blessing, as joy, as an image of redemption’s fullness.

That is why wine is theological. Not because every Christian must drink, but because every Christian must learn to think biblically about creation, gratitude, joy, and the kingdom. Wine preaches, if we have ears to hear: Christ loves his bride. Christ brings the kingdom. Christ fills empty jars. Christ gives joy that does not shame.

And that is why there is joy in wine, not merely because of what it does to the body, but because of who it points to for the soul. Wine speaks of him.