What did Jesus mean when He said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood"?

"After the same manner, also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood." In these words the Lord brings before us the important truth that He offered Himself, and by His blood made an atonement for our sins. Moreover, the cup is the new covenant in His blood. A "cup" is a frequent scriptural figure, the cup referring to what is in the cup. "This cup," that is, the wine, "is the new covenant in My blood." The Lord specially refers to the new covenant, promised of old through Jeremiah, which God will make with His repentant earthly people, when their sins will be done away, and Jehovah will write His laws in their hearts (Jer. 31:31-34). The foundation blessings of that future covenant with Israel are ours now through the blood of Christ.

"This cup is the new covenant in My blood." From these words we learn that the blood of Christ is the only ground upon which we can be at the Lord's table at all. The Lord in the midst is in such words speaking to us, and we enjoy the communion of His presence. He is telling us secret things about Himself and His sufferings, which are hidden from the world. Why is it that we can be in such sacred nearness without fear and dread? Why is it we are not ashamed of ourselves, and our eyes filled with tears because of our sins? The answer lies in the words, "This cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the remission of your sins, that you might be with Me at My table, a blood-washed company, a part of that great ransomed throng that will remember My death and sound My praise through all eternity." Thus the deepest realities lying beneath the foundation of our spiritual lives are brought before us in this wonderful Supper.

The new covenant is founded on the blood here drunk in figure. The old was done away. Blood was required to establish the new. At the same time the covenant itself was not established; but everything was done on God's part. The blood was not shed to give force to a covenant of judgment like the first; it was shed for those who received Jesus, while waiting for the time when the covenant itself should be established with Israel in grace.

(Vv. 24, 25). No mystery surrounds this feast such as men delight to import into it. All is simplicity. It is the simple, but touching, memorial of the death of Christ. The bread speaks of His body — Himself. The cup speaks of His blood — His work. The symbols of the body and the blood are separate, speaking of a dead Christ. Both the bread and the cup were to be taken, said the Lord, “in remembrance of Me”. This gives the Supper its distinctive character; it is a Supper of remembrance, not a celebration of something existing at the moment, but a remembrance of something in the past. One has said, “The Lord's Supper is to remind us of Christ, of His death; not of our sins, but of our sins remitted and ourselves loved”. The cup is the new covenant in Christ's blood; not the old covenant sealed with the blood of bulls and goats, but the new covenant with all its blessings secured by the blood of Christ, a covenant that makes God known in grace, and in which sins are remembered no more.

He then points out that it is a Saviour slain who is to be remembered. It is no longer a question of the living Messiah: all that was over. It was no longer the remembrance of Israel's deliverance from the slavery of Egypt. Christ, and Christ slain, began an entirely new order of things. Of Him they were now to think — of Him slain on earth. He then draws their attention to the blood of the new covenant, adding that which extends it to others besides the Jews, without naming them — "It is shed for many." Moreover, this blood is not, as at Sinai, only to confirm the covenant, for fidelity to which they were responsible; it was shed for the remission of sins. So that the Lord's supper presents the remembrance of Jesus slain, who, by dying, has broken with the past; has laid the foundation of the new covenant; obtained the remission of sins; and opened the door to the Gentiles. It is only in His death that the supper presents Him to us. His blood is apart from His body: He is dead. It is neither Christ living on the earth, nor Christ glorified in heaven. He is separate from His people, as to their joys on earth; but they are to expect Him as the companion of the happiness He has secured for them — for He condescends to be so — in better days: "I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." But, these links broken, who, save Jesus, could sustain the conflict? All would forsake Him. The testimonies of the word should be accomplished. It was written, "I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered abroad."

Begin with the first in Matt. 26:28. Can there be the shade of a doubt here, or in Mark 14:24 (substantially equivalent), about the matter? Our Lord is speaking of the cup that He gave the disciples, saying, "Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new covenant." First, Where would be the propriety of "new" applied to a "testament" or will? Nobody ever talks about a "new" will. But, secondly, there is another and stronger objection. What has "blood" to do with a testament or will? The moment we turn to the new "covenant" all is in place. The blood of Christ is exactly its foundation. The first covenant may have had the blood of victims connected with it, as its sanction, threatening death on those that proved unfaithful. This is the meaning of the blood in the first covenant (Ex. 24), which said as it were: If you fail to obey the law, you must die, as these victims died. The blood of the new covenant has an altogether opposed character. Christ's blood, as a starting-point, secures a perfect clearance for every soul who believes in Him. So the Lord, in giving the cup to the disciples, says, "This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins." What has a "testament" to do with "remission of sins"? What has a will to do with blood? These constitute the strongest proofs that "covenant" is the thought, and that "testament" has nothing whatever to do with this place.

Century after century passed, and no fresh word was dropped by any prophet or messenger about the new covenant. Had God forgotten it? Had Jeremiah held out delusive hopes? At length, in the upper room in Jerusalem, to just the Twelve the Lord referred to it, and in a way to show it had not been forgotten on high. He spoke of it as that which was to be expected, and which would be realised. But when, was still a matter undisclosed. "The days come," Jeremiah had said (Jer. 31:31). He spoke of the new covenant as certain; but the time for it was left purposely indefinite. The Lord, as we have said, also spoke of it, but gave no hint how near was the making of it. He added, however, to the revelation of Jeremiah two important particulars: one, that it would rest on the blood of a sacrifice; and the other, that that blood was to be His own (Matt. 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25). Years again rolled by, and not till the Epistle to the Hebrews was written do we learn who would be its Mediator. Of the surety of it, even the Lord Jesus, we have already learnt (Heb. 7:22). Of the Mediator, and that thrice over, are we now informed (Heb. 8:6, 9:15, 12:24). That covenant to be made, the blood on which it will rest, and the Mediator of it, these important facts revealed, the whole subject awaits its completion, when the time for it to be made is definitely known. It was not made before the cross, that is clear, for the blood on which it will rest was not shed till then. It has not been made since the cross, for God has not been dealing directly with Israel and Judah; nor will He whilst the Church, the Body of Christ, is on earth. Further, it will not be made with Christians, but with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, though Christians share, and that now, in blessings connected with it — viz. the knowledge of God and the forgiveness of sins.

But more, there was a cup of which they were to drink. When celebrating the paschal supper He received a cup (Luke 22:17), one, we may suppose, which had been handed to Him, according to custom. Now He took the cup (Matt. 26:27) — a spontaneous act on His part — and gave thanks. How full must His heart have been! After that He handed it to His disciples, with words explanatory of what it symbolised: "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you." So writes Luke. Of that new covenant Jeremiah (31:31) had written, a revelation made only to him. The first covenant had been ratified by the blood of victims (Ex. 24:1-8). On what would the new one rest? Hitherto that had been a secret. Now it was disclosed, and He who was about to suffer, shedding His blood for it, had the joy of disclosing this. On His blood it would rest.

Of the blessings connected with the new covenant Jeremiah had also written. Those with whom it will be made will know God and the forgiveness of their sins. Of forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ Matthew makes mention (26:28), and he only; for, in harmony with the dispensational teaching of his gospel, he fittingly has put on record those gladdening words of the Lord, and thus has directly connected that blood which we remember in the supper with Jeremiah's prophecy. Israel nationally will be blessed by virtue of the blood of Christ. Christians, too, and that now, share in blessings through that blood, even forgiveness of sins and justification, etc. (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; Rom. 5:9). So, though Israel will enjoy the blessings of the new covenant which will rest on the blood of Christ, the Lord at the institution of His supper, whilst mentioning that covenant, connected the blessings of the disciples, as ours also, not with that which as yet has never been made, but directly with His precious blood shed, now long ago, on the cross. It is important to mark and to understand this. We have nothing to do with the new covenant, though the blood on which it rests is that in which we have everlasting interest.

With what touching simplicity and care for them does the Lord give them these symbols of His deep and infinite sufferings! He thought of them here entirely. As to the blood, the Lord gives not merely the fact of suffering, but an immense new principle. The new covenant is established in His blood - the blood of the everlasting covenant, through (in) which the Great Shepherd of the sheep is brought again from the dead. Here they are looked at, as to both parts, as disciples. It is not: "You and many," i.e., Jewish disciples and Gentiles. Old things were passed away in what was said in the previous part, and the Church was now viewed. His blood here is viewed as shed for His disciples, after the supper, for it was not in the light of intercourse here, or communion, but of the establishment of the covenant, of the new covenant for His disciples - the old things being passed, the expression of His love for them, though one of them was to betray Him. The passing away of the old made place for a better. When the Lord said: "New," that one word, as the apostle reasons, decided all on the old. It was sentenced, and for ever, and Israel, as in the flesh, with it, for it was the ground of their relationship with God. But then also was there a great principle of distinction. The blood of the old covenant sealed the undertaking of obedience by Israel in the flesh under the Law, the blood of the new the accomplishment of grace for the people who believed in Jesus by the Spirit: "In my blood which is shed for you." In fact this last principle of "Shed for you," is of all possible importance. It is the divine accomplishment of grace brought to light beyond all question with man or thoughts of man, the accomplishment of the counsels of God entirely proceeding from Him. The Jewish economy had been disposed of, enjoyment of visible communion postponed, and now the gift and efficacy of the blood of the Son of man, according to the counsels of God, for the disciples is laid as the one great basis of all dealing of the Lord with man. As to man's part in it, it was treachery and wickedness. "The Son of man indeed goes as it is determined, but woe unto that man by whom he is delivered up." It was given to them; He took it with them. This was just the difference. It was the memorial then of the basis of the new covenant in His blood shed for them that believed in Him. It was not a mere question of Judah and Israel, for the blood-shedding of the new covenant, while it received its accomplishment, admitted thus to peace all those who trusted in it. Further, how little of legal institution is in this revelation as to the Lord's supper. Its sense, import, and value is given, and there it is left to the faith, and love, and grace of the disciples to profit by it.

The words of Jeremiah 31:31–34 must have puzzled the prophet and his hearers alike: what was the basis for this covenant, for God’s ‘I will pardon’ and ‘their sin will I remember no more’? How could He remain righteous and yet ‘remember no more’? Centuries later, this question was answered by the Lord Jesus Himself when He said, ‘this is my blood, that of the new covenant’ (Matt. 26:28). He was about to accomplish the work of redemption and thereby lay the basis for the new covenant: His own blood.

The Lord's supper then is to remind us of Christ, of His death; not of our sins but of our sins remitted and ourselves loved. It is in no wise the old covenant of condemnation, but the new covenant (God known in grace, iniquity forgiven, and sins remembered no more); not yet made with the houses of Israel set for ever the land under the reign of Messiah, but the blood shed which is its foundation, and we who believe, Jew or Gentile, having it in spirit, not in letter. (See 2 Cor. 3) Of this the cup especially is the pledge.