THE WONDER OF FORGIVENESS

Communion

Jesus drank your cup full of sin in your place. He invites you to now come and drink from His cup: the cup of the new covenant. Such mercy! Just before His wrestling in Gethsemane, Jesus started the first Communion by giving the Passover celebration new meaning. He took the cup: ‘”Drink it, all of you,” He said; “this is My blood, which seals God’s covenant, My blood poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins”‘²¹.

In reality Jesus drank not one but four cups of wine on the evening of the Passover Seder. The Jews drank from four cups to celebrate the fact that God had delivered them from Egypt. The number four symbolises the different ways in which God revealed Himself: ‘I am the Lord; I will rescue you and set you free from your slavery to the Egyptians. I will raise my mighty arm to bring terrible punishment upon them, and I will save you. I will make you my own people, and I will be your God’²².

The four cups are known as:
Kos Kaddesh: the cup of sanctification (‘I will rescue you’).
Kos HaMakot: the cup of the plagues (‘I will save you’).
Kos HaGeulah: the cup of salvation (‘I will set you free’).
Kos Hallel: the cup of praise (‘I will make you my own people’).

When you celebrate Holy Communion, remember that Jesus drank your life-cup and that you now may drink from His cup because God has rescued, saved, delivered and accepted you as His own beloved child, in Christ²³. Through the wonder of the Cross, God has made a new covenant with you through which you may receive forgiveness, salvation, cleansing, healing, deliverance, reconciliation and a whole new life in Christ.