The Blood of Christ (7)—New Covenant Grace - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2024

In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."
1 Corinthians 11:25

The Blood of Christ (7)—New Covenant Grace
On the same night in which our Lord was betrayed, near the end of the Passover supper, He took bread and wine and instituted the Lord's Supper as a feast of memorial to Himself. This memorial feast was to be carried on "until He comes." As we remember our Lord Jesus, we look back to His sufferings, we look up to see Him now at the right hand of God, and we look ahead not only to His coming for us (the Rapture) but to His return to set up His kingdom in this world. What a wonderful range of thoughts should fill our hearts and minds as we remember Him!

The bread, of course, once it is broken, reminds us of His holy body given for us. The cup reminds us of His precious blood. Why did the Lord say the new covenant in my blood? The new covenant is introduced in Jeremiah 31. The old covenant, made with Israel at Mt. Sinai, was a covenant of conditional blessing depending on man's faithfulness. The new covenant is a covenant of grace where all depends upon God. Notice Jehovah's "I will" statements in Jeremiah. But how could God bring in a new covenant for a people who had so failed under the old? Through the blood of Christ! He has answered for all the sins of those who have believed on Him, and this allows God to begin again with His earthly people. While the new covenant will be formally made with Israel in a coming day, the grace and the spiritual blessings of the new covenant already belong to the Church today. We read, "their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more" (; Heb. 8:12). In Hebrews 10 we find this is true already for us today. This, and every other blessing, is established for His people through His own blood that was shed. What a Savior!

Kevin Quartell