The Lord’s blood redeemed us from our fallen condition back to God, back to the inheritance we lost through the fall of Adam, and back to God’s full blessing. Concerning the Lord’s table (1 Cor. 10:21), the bread signifies our participation in life, and the cup, our enjoyment of God’s blessing. Hence, it is called the cup of blessing (1 Cor. 10:16). In this cup are all the blessings of God and even God Himself as our portion (Psa. 16:5). In Adam our portion was the cup of God’s wrath (Rev. 14:10). Christ has drunk that cup for us (John 18:11), and His blood has constituted the cup of salvation for us (Psa. 116:13), the cup that runs over (Psa. 23:5). By partaking of this cup we also have the fellowship of the blood of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16).
Mark 14:25 speaks of the fruit of the vine. The fruit of the vine within the cup of the Lord’s table is also a symbol. It signifies the Lord’s blood shed on the cross for our sins. His blood was required by God’s righteousness for the forgiveness of our sins (Heb. 9:22).
Mark 14:24 says that the Lord’s blood is the blood of the covenant. The Lord’s blood, having satisfied God’s righteousness, enacted the new covenant. In this new covenant, God gives us forgiveness, life, salvation, and all spiritual, heavenly, and divine blessings. When this new covenant is given to us, it is a cup (Luke 22:20), a portion for us. The Lord shed the blood, God established the covenant, and we enjoy the cup, in which God and all that is of Him are our portion. The blood is the price Christ paid for us, the covenant is the title deed God made to us, and the cup is the portion we receive from God.
Concerning the Lord’s table, we have the blood, the covenant, and the cup. When we come to the Lord’s supper, we see a cup on the table. That cup is a covenant and is also related to the blood. Therefore, the blood, the covenant, and the cup are one. The blood is the price paid by Christ, the covenant is the title deed of our inheritance, and the cup is the portion we receive and enjoy. Christ paid the price. God made the covenant, and we enjoy the portion.
By instituting His table the Lord Jesus was indicating to His followers that they would enter into His death and resurrection. The Lord served them not only with His body and blood, but also with His death, resurrection, Himself, and His enlargement, His mystical Body. At His table He served His disciples with Himself, with His death and resurrection, and with His mystical Body as His enlargement. This means that the disciples should enjoy His death, His resurrection, the Lord Himself, and His enlargement.
I doubt that the disciples were clear concerning the significance of the Lord’s supper when the Lord Jesus instituted it. They heard the words spoken by the Lord, but they probably did not understand them. According to what the Lord Jesus prophesied in the Gospel of John, when the Spirit of reality came, He led them into all reality (John 16:13), including the reality of the supper instituted by the Lord. Then the disciples certainly recalled the Lord’s words. They may have said, “On the night the Lord was arrested, He instituted a table with the bread and the cup. We did not understand the significance of this at the time. Now we know that the Lord’s intention was to bring us into a full realization of His all-inclusive death, His wonderful resurrection, Himself, and His mystical Body as His enlargement.”
The Lord’s death, resurrection, the Lord Himself, and His enlargement are for the producing of the new man. This new man is the development of the seed of the kingdom in chapter four. The full development of the new man will be the kingdom. Instead of reading the Bible in a superficial way, we need to be enlightened to see this vision.
Today the Lord Jesus is still bringing us into the reality of His table. Before He entered into death, He instituted the table with His death, resurrection, Himself, and His enlargement, which are signified by the broken bread and the cup. The bread signifies His mystical Body. The Lord’s blood has become a cup as the portion for us covenanted by God and paid for by Christ. Week after week we review this story at the Lord’s table.
When we come to the Lord’s table, we are not celebrating a religious communion or performing a so-called mass. On the contrary, at His table we have a revelation of the Lord’s death, resurrection, the Lord Himself, and His mystical Body as His enlargement. As we participate in His death and resurrection, as we take Him as our all-inclusive replacement, He becomes everything to us for the producing of the new man. Eventually, this new man will become the kingdom of God. When this process has been fulfilled, the Lord Jesus will come back to receive this new man and to have the kingdom. May we all see such a marvelous vision!