1. “He took a cup and gave thanks, and He gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many for forgiveness of sins”; “This cup is the new covenant established in My blood” (Matt. 26:27-28; 1 Cor. 11:25).
When the Lord established the breaking of bread, He not only broke bread, gave it to the disciples, and told them to take and eat, He also took a cup, gave it to them, and told them to take and drink. He said that the cup was the new covenant established in His blood, which was being poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. Whenever we break bread, there is not only a loaf on the table that is ready to be broken and eaten by all but also a cup ready to be taken and drunk by all. According to the Lord’s word, both the bread and the cup are symbols. The bread refers to His body broken for us, and the cup refers to His blood poured out for us. His body was given for us on the cross, and His blood was shed for us on the cross. On the cross, He not only gave His body for us, but He also poured out His blood for us. His giving of His body was to impart life to us so that we could partake of Him; His shedding of His blood was for our redemption so that our sins could be forgiven.
Although the main goal of the Lord’s death on the cross was to release, to dispense, His divine life to us, He not only released His life, but He also redeemed us from all our sins. God’s eternal purpose is to dispense His life to us, but because of the fall we also are sinners before God. In order for the Lord to give us the divine life, He had to resolve the problem of our sin. Thus, on the one hand, the Lord gave up His body so that we could receive the divine life within Him, and on the other hand, He shed His blood so that our sins could be forgiven. Although the main emphasis of the breaking of bread is to symbolize the life dispensed to us through the giving of His body, the cup also symbolizes our redemption, which was accomplished through the shedding of His blood.
Cup in the Bible signifies a portion. David said, “Jehovah is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup” (Psa. 16:5). Originally, we were evil sinners, and the portion we should have received from God was the cup of His wrath, that is, the suffering of eternal perdition in the lake of fire (Rev. 14:10; 21:8). When the Lord Jesus was crucified, He drank the cup of wrath on our behalf (John 18:11) and received God’s righteous judgment for us, tasting all the sufferings of perdition, shedding His blood, redeeming us from our sins, and establishing a new covenant for us in which we are given the cup of salvation as our cup of blessing (Psa. 116:13; 23:5). In this cup of salvation, God Himself and all that He is becomes our portion—our eternal blessing. Because the Lord Jesus accomplished redemption for us, all that God is and has have become the portion of our cup in God’s salvation.
Our sins constituted us as sin and sons of wrath before God and kept us far away from Him; we lost God and all that He is and has. The Lord Jesus bore our sins and God’s wrath for us. His shed blood redeemed us from our sins and averted God’s wrath; through His blood we have the forgiveness of offenses, and we have been bought by Him so that we can obtain God and all that He is and has. The Lord Jesus’ blood established a new covenant on our behalf before God. This new covenant is the portion that we receive from God through the blood of the Lord Jesus; hence, it is symbolized by a cup. The Lord Jesus obtained this cup, the portion of the new covenant, with His blood. Therefore, He said, “This cup is the new covenant established in My blood” (1 Cor. 11:25). This shows that His blood obtained more than just a cup of blessing or an ordinary blessing; rather, the cup is a new covenant, and this blessing, ordained by a new covenant, cannot be changed. The cup obtained for us by His blood is a new covenant established in His blood. In this new covenant, God must forgive our sins and dispense Himself and all that He is and has to us because of the blood of Jesus. Thus, the forgiveness of sins and all that God is and has are the portion that we obtain in the new covenant. This portion is the cup obtained for us by the Lord’s blood. His blood takes away sins and brings in God and all that He is and has. This is the cup that we drink when we break bread, and this is what is symbolized when we drink the cup.
The wine in the cup symbolizes the Lord’s blood. Therefore, the cup not only symbolizes the new covenant established for us by the Lord’s blood but also the blood that He shed for us. The cup is the new covenant established by His blood, and it is also the blood He used to establish this covenant. His blood is for the establishment of the new covenant, and it established the new covenant. The cup of the new covenant was obtained by His blood. Consequently, when we drink the cup, we do not say that we are drinking His blood. Rather, we say that we are drinking the cup of the Lord because His blood established the new covenant for us and became a cup as our appointed portion (v. 27). This portion causes us to be forgiven of our sins and to obtain God and all that He is and has.