Summary
The Cup
For more than two thousand years, the Passover meal has been celebrated with four cups of wine, each tied to one of the great "I will" promises God spoke to Israel in Exodus 6:6-7. The cup of sanctification answers God's promise, "I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." The cup of deliverance answers, "I will deliver you from slavery." The cup of redemption answers, "I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment." And the cup of praise answers, "I will take you as my people, and I will be your God."
It is into this ancient meal, with these four cups, that Jesus sat down with His disciples on the night before He suffered Luke 22:14-20. He tells them He has eagerly desired to eat this Passover with them before His suffering, and that He will not drink of the fruit of the vine again until the kingdom of God comes. In that upper room, the Lord who first gave the Passover its meaning now redefines it around Himself. Sanctification is fulfilled in the new creation we have in Him 2 Corinthians 5:17; deliverance, in His giving Himself to set us free from the present evil age Galatians 1:4; redemption, in His rescuing us from the power of darkness into His kingdom Colossians 1:13-14; and praise, in God dwelling forever with His people Revelation 21:3.
But there is another cup in Scripture, and it stands behind everything that happens that night. The Old Testament speaks of a cup of God's wrath—"in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed" Psalm 75:8—and Revelation describes the wicked drinking "the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger" Revelation 14:10. This is the cup our sin has earned: the cup of an unholy life, of wandering, denial, and betrayal. It is the cup Jesus prayed about in Gethsemane: "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done" Luke 22:42.
When we contemplate the cross, we rightly remember the physical agony—the scourging, the crown of thorns, the nails. Yet it was the cup of judgment, drained to its dregs, that drew from Him the cry, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46. Only the sinless Son of God could receive the full punishment for sin. He drank the cup of wrath so that we might drink the cup of salvation. The new cup He places in His Church's hands is bought at the steep price of His own righteous life, a price no sinner could ever pay.
This is the cup Christ now gives at the altar: the new covenant in His blood, poured out for the forgiveness of sins. Paul warns that whoever eats and drinks in an unworthy manner is answerable for the body and blood of the Lord, and so he calls each communicant to examine himself 1 Corinthians 11:27-28. Left in our sin we would have every reason to tremble before the holy God who meets us there. But we are not left in our sin. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" 1 John 1:9. "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" Romans 5:8-9.
So come without fear. The cup of judgment has already been drunk; what is set before you is the cup of grace. In the bread and wine you receive the true body and blood of Jesus Christ, given through, with, and under them—tangible forgiveness, strength against temptation, and a foretaste of the marriage supper of the Lamb Revelation 19:9. The four cups of the old Passover have been fulfilled in the cup of Christ, the new and final cup of the new covenant.
Video citations
- "The Cup" 3-28-24 — 4 cups for at least 500 years before then. 4 cups for at least 200 or 2,500 years before today. 4 cups of Passover, 4 cups signifying God's covenant with His people found in Exodus 6. 6. Say,…