This is the New covenant, or as Jesus said, “this is My Blood of the New Testament that is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt. 26:28). In this shedding of blood, in His coming to do His Father’s will, Jesus put away the old covenant that He might establish this new and Living Way.(Hebrews 10:9) The law that could not bring about righteousness or access into the holiest because it was weak THROUGH OUR FLESH (Romans 8:3), found satisfaction in this Man’s Flesh that delighted to do His Father’s Will. (Psalm 40:7-8)
You see, our blood cannot wash away anything. It can only mark the scene of the crime. If you have seen any forensic TV shows, it seems there's always blood or DNA or fingerprints or something left at the scene of the crime. Such as the state of our blood, it purifies nothing! And then there is our flesh, the only thing that our dead flesh can feed is worms.
And yet, set before us are the emblems of the flesh and blood of a man, God’s Man, the Man of God's Right Hand spoken of and hinted at throughout the old covenant. This is the man that David looked for in his futility in Psalm 12:44, “there was no man that would know me”. He had no refuge echoing Job’s plea in Job 9:32-33. Throughout the Old testament there was no man to help the crippled into the Waters of salvation save the Man that was to come as Abraham’s Seed.(Galatians 3:16)
Beloved, He has come. Our continual coming to Him and believing upon Him, in His perfect Body and Blood is what is testified to in these emblems before us. We must have this cup and bread before us that we might partake of their meaning in our hearts and souls for we are still in OUR FLESH and are extremely forgetful of the fact that ONLY HIS FLESH IS ADEQUATE FLESH. If we do not humble ourselves consistently at this table, if we do not feast at this table, or if we allow it to descend into ritual or tradition, we are exhibiting an unhealthy trust in our own frail and corrupt flesh. We do God no favors by being here.
Our God has ordained this as a feast of remembering and Thanksgiving and it is His ultimate call to worship. Rightly understood, this is the means of His Holy Spirit to keep us in our proper place, low at his feet, rejoicing in His Presence as His adopted family, ever grateful for His sending His Beloved Son with the adoption papers and payment for our sins.
The truth of this feast declares time and again that there is no other way to come to the Father but by the death of Him Who Is the Father's Pleasure, that is His Beloved Son. If we are not continually feasting upon His Son we have no life of His Spirit within us, and we are living in our own arrogance.
This is Adams tree of Life.
This is the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
This is Noah's ark of safety.
This is the seed of Abraham's covenant promise, the focus of his faith.
This is Isaac's sacrifice carried out to it's it's full.
This is Jacob's ladder, the house of God and the gate of heaven.
This is the blood on the doorpost of Egypt, the lamb eaten in haste, our Passover.
This is Moses rod that parted waters of Israel’s affliction, enabling them to cross to safety on dry land.
This is the Rock struck once that we may drink of the Waters of life.
This is the Embodiment of God's law broken at the foot of the mountain, now gloriously written by His Spirit on the heart of every adopted child of God.
Need I say that this is the Tabernacle of Witness for God's people in it's every detail?
And I need to emphasize, that this is the Glorious activity of our Melchizedek who not only offered the perfect sacrifice but offered Himself as that Perfect Sacrifice. This is that Melchizedek who had no beginning nor end of days, Who now reigns as our High Priest, our King of Salem, our Living Satisfactory Sacrifice before our Father. And may I conjecture that our being made kings and priests in the Kingdom of our Christ, is but our bringing a pittance of the spoils of our warfare to lay before our King Priest, our Melchizedek who is our only plea through all that He IS and does in answer to Job's lament, David's cry, Abel's blood.
This is this is the prophetess Hannah's Samuel.
You see the Holy Spirit is preaching this bloody sacrifice throughout the Old testament if we had but humble hearts, open ears and eyes to see.
This is David's King proclaimed so eloquently by the renewed Peter. This is the message of the prophets, our resurrected Jesus proclaimed to the dull of hearing disciples on the road to Emmaus.
This is the focus of the faithful of Hebrews 11, faithful saints who had a glimmer of the light that we seem to not see in the blaze of Resurrection Glory. May the Father forgive us for our blindness.
This is Paul's gospel, the Gospel of Power in Romans 1:16, so beautifully summarized in 1 Timothy 3:16, seen of angels, proclaimed unto the world, received up into heaven!!.
Feast beloved, come with humble, hungry and thirsty hearts, but don't you dare leave the meaning of these elements on the table as you leave. You must take this Body and Blood with you as your pocket promise, as your only source of a clear conscience when, in the next two seconds, when your little faith drives your flesh and it's weakness into guilt and unworthiness. Pull out your pocket promise, fasten your heart in the Blood on the doorpost, pour His Blood over all your worrisome circumstances, plead His Flesh in the midst of your fleshly lusts, weariness, and failures. Beg His indwelling Spirit to work out Galatians 2:20 in you, living this life in our flesh by the faith of the son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us.
Only on the basis of His Body and Blood can we present our bodies as living sacrifices by Union with His Body and Blood. John 6:35 says, “and Jesus said unto them I am the bread of life. He that comes to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst”. And that is what Jesus meant when he said “except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood you have no life in you for who so eats My Flesh and drinks of My Blood has Eternal Life and I will raise him up in that day for My Flesh is meat indeed and My Blood is drink indeed. Hw that eats of My Flesh and drinks of My Blood dwells in Me and I in him, and as the the Living Father has sent Me, and I Live by the Father, so he that eateth Me even he shall live by Me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as your father's did eat manna and our dead, but he that eateth this bread shall live forever.” (John 6:53-58) Are you merely eating the manna. The manna is your own effort, trying to feast on your own knowledge and understanding and effort. Fleshly manna spoils by the next day. But the Blood and Body of Jesus, our God/Man, is eternal and you must feast on him continually, moment by moment coming and believing in the face of the corruption of your own body and blood.