Originally posted at The Calvinist Gadfly.
Questions 33–35 itemize the differences between the old and new covenants. These differences are important to our understanding of redemptive history, and the catechism offers valuable instruction in them. However, while we frequently talk about the distinctions between the covenants, we less often think of the continuity of God’s redemptive plan that runs through them. While we cannot deny the new covenant language of the New Testament, and should rejoice that we now have a “better covenant,” we should not lose sight of the fact that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever,” and so is his gospel. Old Testament saints were saved by the very same grace through the very same faith as we are. So, while not denying the newness of the new covenant, I prefer to think of it as completing the old, rather than replacing it.
When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” 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.” 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.
—Luke 22:14–20
Since the Exodus, every generation of God’s people had commemorated their release from the bondage of Egypt by repeating the sacrifice of a Passover lamb. On that first Passover, the Lord had gone through the land of Egypt and killed every firstborn of man and beast. But at every home where the blood of the lamb was on the door, he passed over, sparing the lives within. By the blood of the lamb, they were spared, and they were set free. And every year following, God’s people were commanded to repeat the sacrifice as a memorial to the day.
Now Jesus gathers his disciples with him in the upper room to celebrate another Passover, but this one will be different. This Passover will be the transitioning point from the old to the new covenant.
This will be the last time God requires a death. When Jesus institutes the new covenant, he doesn’t slice off a hunk of lamb and declare, “this is my body,” even though that lamb was a type of Christ, and as much a symbol of a saving sacrifice as the bread and wine of the new covenant. That lamb has no place in the new covenant; a new lamb has come, a perfect lamb, this one truly without blemish, not only physically, but spiritually. The blood of this lamb, unlike the countless Passover lambs slaughtered by generations of Israelites, can atone for sins, once and for all. So we kill nothing and eat no flesh, yet a symbol of flesh is present in the bread. And since we kill nothing, there is also no blood, yet the symbol of the blood remains in the cup.
Now I join old and new. As the blood of the lamb sprinkled around the doors of Israel caused death to pass over, so the blood of the Lamb applied to our hearts causes death to pass over us. It is the same thing. As we gather on the Lord’s Day and take the bread and wine together, we also share communion with all the Old Testament saints in a new Passover. We sprinkle the blood of the Lamb on our posts and lintels and are not separated by old and new covenants, but joined together in Christ in a fulfilled covenant.
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