He Slapped It Down on the Table

“‘Behold, the days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband,’ declares the LORD. ‘But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the LORD: ‘I will put My law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest,’ declares the LORD. ‘For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more’” (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

“And He took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.’ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood’” (Luke 22:19,20).

“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, ‘This is My body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way also He took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).

The night that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, He slapped the new covenant promise down on the Table and said, “it belongs here.” What Christ has joined together don’t separate for the sake of anything in your eschatology, ecclesiology, or sacramentology...or anything else.

We observe the ordinance every week in our fellowship (it proclaims the Lord’s death...how can we do that too much?). The promise of the new covenant in the cup still astounds, humbles, moves, and delights my soul every time. It tells us who we are, who God is to us, who is truly a member of the covenant, and of the gracious forgiveness that is found in the covenant...all sealed by the blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the lone Mediator of this covenant in which we rejoice at the Table (Hebrews 9:15; 12:24).

Oh, receive by faith the grace of the Gospel of the new covenant in Jesus Christ proclaimed by the Church at the Lord’s Supper Table!