BY JOHN BLOORE
(The reader should always turn to the Bible and read the passages referred to.)
QUES. 2.-What may we learn from the difference in order as to the bread and cup in 1 Cor. 10:16 and 11:25?
ANS.-The subjects of these chapters are somewhat different, and in this we may find the explanation. In chap. 10 the Lord's table stands for Christianity as such in contrast to the altar for Israel, and the table of demons for idolatry. In this connection the subject is our identification with the first, and therefore necessary separation from wickedness. In chap. 11 it is our remembrance of His death-its announcement according to His desire and after the manner instituted on the night of His betrayal. Here the order is the bread and the cup, for in His death the body was given and then the blood shed-the life laid down when the whole work of judgment had been accomplished. In chap. 10 it is not so much the historical order of the event, but rather the divinely established character of Christianity, and so the cup may be mentioned first as being the symbol of the blood shed, of life given up in death, because in this we have the moral basis of all fellowship with God. With what the cup signifies, the shedding of blood, we find linked the basic blessings of Christianity- the remission of sins, our nearness, peace, redemption, justification, boldness to enter the holiest, sanctification.
In the typical system of sacrifices the blood was brought into God's presence, not the body of the sacrifice. What this suggests seems indicated for us by the form of expression in the New Testament in which the truth of our positive place before God and blessing in fellowship with Him is linked with the blood of Christ. Then, too, the blood is mentioned in relation to the Lord's place in resurrection (Heb. 13:20), and our new place is one of identification with Him as raised from the dead. This is our portion as having communion with that precious blood.
Our communion is also with the body of Christ, symbolized in the bread we break. With the mention of that body as given to the death of the cross is linked not what we are brought into or given, but rather what has come to an end for us-our alienated-enemy state (Col. 1:22); our sins, for they were borne; and we are perfected forever ( Pet. 2:24; Heb. 10:10); then also "made dead to the law" (Rom. 7:4). These things have to do with the work of judgment executed upon Him who suffered in that body on the Cross.
The consideration of these things may serve to show that it is rather moral relations which are in view in chap. 10, while it is more what is historical in the order of Chap. 11. -JOHN BLOORE.