Why did Jesus use the words “the new covenant in my blood” at the Lord's Table?

Introduction:

    Why did Jesus state in His institution of the Lord's Table in Luke 22:20-22 that the cup represented "the new covenant" of His blood? This post will set out to answer that question. Let's first look at the text itself. Luke 22:20-22 “And when He had taken some bread and 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.’ 20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.” 

    So, again we ask: why did Jesus describe the cup of the Lord’s Supper as “the new covenant in my blood”? To guide us in our thinking, I'll have us keep in mind what a covenant is first of all. Then, we will briefly tour what the Bible teaches about covenants, as well as noting the Biblical terminology of “Old Covenant” and “New Covenant”. We will then conclude our observations with how these words from Jesus actually shape Christian identity, and why it is spiritually beneficial for believers in the local church to partake of the Lord's Supper. 

Defining a covenant.

    A covenant is a binding agreement made between two parties, or one party fulfilling the agreement and bestowing its benefits on another. Included in covenants are oaths, promises, sanctions in the event one party breaks the covenant, and a sign or symbol reminding the participants of the covenant (compare Hebrews 6:18-20). Covenants are throughout the Bible.

God never relates apart from covenant.

    Whether God’s relationship with creation (Jeremiah 33:20), Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:16-17; Hosea 6:7), or even with the original couple following their disobedience in the garden (Genesis 3:20-21), God has never done nothing in our world apart from covenant. When God had ordained Abraham and his descendants to be His chosen people, He ratified that choice by covenant (Genesis 12:1-7). 

    

    The sign of the Abrahamic Covenant was circumcision to remind him and his descendants of their need to be born again or to have a heart change by faith (Genesis 17; Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6; Romans 2:29). This Covenant with Abraham was God’s promise of a nation (Israel) and ultimate descendant (Jesus). Also, God’s later covenant with David was that of an ultimate descendant (Jesus) in 2 Samuel 7:13-16. Both covenants forecasted what would be the New Covenant (see Genesis 17:6; 2 Samuel 7:13-16; Jeremiah 31:23-26; Galatians 3:16). Once Abraham’s descendants, through his grandson Jacob, made their way down to Egypt, they became enslaved by the Egyptians for over 400 years. God called Moses to deliver them and to bring them to Mount Sinai.

C. The Old Covenant.

     In Exodus 20, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Hebrew people, would become a nation, Israel at Mount Sinai. To administrate or provide a context for God and the people to relate, God instituted a temporary arrangement, a covenant, which the books of Hebrews and Galatians called “the first covenant” (Hebrews 9:1,18); God’s covenant through Moses (Hebrews 9:19); and “The Law” (Galatians 3:15-16).

    God ratified this particular covenant by the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:18-19), through Divinely administered signs or symbols (sacrificial system, commandments, circumcision, various Jewish festivals), and by the giving of Divinely revealed books (Luke 24:44).

    Although this “first covenant” had all these components, it was not meant to bring salvation, but to point the people to their need for heart changed by grace through faith in God’s promise of salvation. God used it as a temporary prototype to guide the people as He revealed His promises and salvation by grace through faith by way of the Abrahamic and eventually New Covenants (Galatians 3:23-25).

    Israel and the Jews under the Old Covenant were redeemed as we are today – by a changed heart, faith, and repentance (Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6; John 3:3-5; Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:1-3; Isaiah 30:15; Acts 2:37).

    To illustrate. The Old Covenant was like a set of training wheels on a child’s bike (this borrows in principle from Paul’s illustration of a tutor in Galatians 3:23-25). The child has to trust their parents as they learn to ride the bike as they ride with the wheels. The time comes though when the parent takes the wheels off. The child is told to still trust the parent as they learn to ride the bike without the wheels.

    The principles of trust (faith) are the same in each situation, even though the way the parent administrated their time with the child is different (with training wheels, without them). When Jesus came, the promised New Covenant was inaugurated, meaning the ceremonial aspects of that first covenant were rendered obsolete or “old” (hence “the Old Covenant, Old Testament” Hebrews 8:18). 

    Nonetheless, the principle of a changed heart, made even more robust in the New Covenant by the Spirit’s work of the New Birth or regeneration, is identical whether Old Covenant or now New Covenant believers.

The New Covenant.

      The prophets Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:31-34) and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 36:25-27), as well as other prophets, foretold what would be a future second covenant, a “New Covenant”, wherein God would bring salvation and heart change to sinners from the nations (called Gentiles) and restore Israel as a nation upon the return of Messiah to earth (see Isaiah 11; Jeremiah 23; 31-33; Ezekiel 11; 36-27 and many others). They predicted the Holy Spirit Himself, being God, would dwell in the hearts of His people – Jew and Gentile.

Why did Jesus call the Lord's Supper a covenant meal?

    

    We've looked at the meaning of a covenant in the Bible. We've noted some examples of covenants, as well as defined and compared the Old and New Covenants. This leads us to the night our Lord instituted His covenant meal for His church and the homestretch of today's post. Four implications follow from Jesus' identification of the Lord's Supper as a covenant meal.

1. The Lord's Table indicated the New Covenant was inaugurated by Jesus. 

    When you read Jesus stating that “this cup is the blood of the New Covenant in my blood”, it was a sign that the predicted New Covenant was spiritually underway, with the Lord’s Table being one of the two premier signs (baptism being the other) administered to believers. We saw already that all covenants in the Bible always have some sort of symbols or signs to signify the promise of God, the believer's need to relate to God by faith, and His covenantal commitment to the believer. 

2. The New Covenant was to be ratified by Jesus' work on the cross.   

    As the Old Covenant was certified by blood being sprinkled on the people and the revelation of the Law of God (see Exodus 24:8), so too the New Covenant needed ratified by the shedding of Christ’s blood (Hebrews 9:27; 1 Peter 1:17-18; 3:18). Jesus was already associating this covenant meal with His then pending substitutionary atoning work on the cross with the bread and the cup. 

3. The Lord's Supper conveyed its association with God's Word and the revelation of the New Testament books. 

    Just as the revelation of 39 inspired books served God's people to expound and remind them of their covenantal relationship to Yahweh from Mount Sinai through the Kingdom years to their exiles to their return to Jerusalem at the end; God revealed 27 additional books to expound on the implications of the New Covenant work of Jesus Christ (see John 14:16-17). In other words, this is why we have 27 additional books to indicate Jesus’ getting the New Covenant spiritually in motion. The Lord's Supper is never separated from the preaching, teaching, and mediation on God's Word - the Bible. 

4. The Lord's Table as a covenant meal reminds the Christian of their spiritual identity in Jesus Christ. 

    

    Finally, when we participate in the Lord’s Supper as a covenant meal, we are expressing our identity with Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the New Covenant. born-again Christian enjoys unity due to their union with Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-13). The Lord’s Supper conveys this truth of our union with Him as we already noted (see 1 Corinthians 10:16-17). Some 40 or so places in the New Testament we find reference to Christians being “in Christ” or “with Christ” as tell-tale signs of union with Him. Such union with Christ is captured in the ultimate sense of the great “marriage of the supper of the Lamb” feast spoken of yet-future when we’re with Christ in Revelation 19, all pointed ahead in the Lord’s Supper. 

    His Holy Spirit has written God’s Law in our hearts (Romans 2:29), and has brought about our New Birth in saving faith. Furthermore, we would even say that God’s promise to redeem Israel still holds as the final expression of the New Covenant (Romans 11:25). The covenant meal proclaims the central message of New Covenant Christianity in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”