Greetings,
Another Portion of The Now Covenant:
The elements of the New Covenant communion table are revealed in verses 19 and 20 of Luke chapter 22. He told them to do this in remembrance of Him. It was not the cup of verse 17 that he told them to drink. It was the cup of verse 20. The cup of verse 17 was the cup of Redemption that Jesus drank for all men when He shed His blood. The fourth cup of verse 19, was the cup of Praise. It represents the life of the Spirit! It is the cup of Resurrection. It is not the death of Jesus Christ that guarantees our resurrection. It is the resurrection of Christ that guarantees our resurrection! It is the partaking of life that guarantees the fullness of life! The death of Jesus gave all men the right to drink of the cup of resurrection through faith in Him. When we receive the life of the Holy Spirit, we are guaranteed the full resurrection! It is the cup that Jesus drinks new with us in the kingdom of His Father. It is not a cup to be drunk in heaven. The fourth cup was the cup of Praise, a cup to be drunk upon the earth. It is the testimony of His resurrection life that guarantees the fullness of the resurrection to come. It guarantees the resurrection of heaven, because the members of the living body of Christ are drinking the cup of the resurrection of heaven on the earth.
Luke 22:17-20 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”
The cup of Christ’s blood for the New Covenant believer is not the third cup. It is the fourth cup! By drinking of the cup of Praise (Resurrection) with God by His Spirit, we proclaim that Jesus Christ has drunk the third cup of Redemption for all of mankind! The communion table of the New Covenant is not set with the third cup of Redemption. It is set with the cup of Praise. When we drink of His resurrection life together as living members of the body of Christ, we truly experience the communion table of the New Covenant. We do this in remembrance of Him! Communion is not coming together to drink the third cup of the Passover again. It is coming to drink the cup that followed the supper. It is not the shadow cup of Praise, but the real cup of Praise! We are called to receive one another as living members of the body of Christ and then drink the cup of His resurrection life together as the body of Christ!
I want to propose that the ‘breaking of bread’ of the early church was not meant to be a ritual of bread and wine. It was meant to be the daily celebration of the gathering together of the body of Christ. It can include the elements of food, but in its greater reality it reveals the food of the body of Christ and the life of His resurrection Spirit. It is a celebration of human brethren living together according to the Spirit of Christ. It is void of judgments according to the flesh. It is a testimony of a love for God as their Father and a love for one another as members of God’s city, His community of sons and daughters in His kingdom.
2 Corinthians 5:14-21 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
There is one body and one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4:4). True ‘communion’ is ‘an intimate relationship with God through His Holy Spirit, with deep understanding.’ It is also ‘an intimate relationship with one another with deep understanding.’ How is this possible? Jesus is the Living Bread that makes us all ‘living bread’ (Jn. 6:33). He came as a fulfillment of all that was revealed as a shadow in the Old Testament. The Passover meal, with the bread and wine, was a symbol of the true Bread of Christ and the Life of His Spirit. Jesus fulfilled the ‘word picture’ on the very night He was betrayed. He took the bread and blessed it. The bread that he took was a ‘word picture’ of the true Bread that He was. He was about to be broken for the sins of the old Adam, that all might enter into a Living Last Adam. He was opening the door for all to become a part of the body of Christ. That true bread is His body TODAY! He broke the bread so it could be shared. He was broken, as the law had been broken, so that all who had broken the law could be made one in Him as the living body of Christ. His broken body is united as we share Christ in one another. We must eat of His flesh, and to eat His flesh is to judge no one according to the flesh (2 Cor. 5:16-17). We must recognize that we are members of the body of Christ. We must also recognize that others are members to be received as contributing elements of the life of Christ together. A proper examination is to recognize that Christ lives in each of us (2 Cor. 13:5).
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
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