The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

several. First, in Matthew and Mark the subject is the demonstrative
pronoun touto, this, which I command you to drink, 522 in Luke and Paul,
the subject is: "This the cup" "poured out for you:" meaning of both,
differently expressed, this which I command you to drink (Matt., Mark), to
wit, the cup "poured out for you," (Luke,) the poured out, the shed
contents of the cup, are the blood of Christ, (Luke, Paul). Second. The
copula is the same: Esti, is. Expressed in Matthew, Mark, and Paul.
Understood in Luke. But it can only be left unexpressed on the theory that
the proper force of the substantive copula is unchangeable. It cannot mean,
This which I tell you to drink is a symbol of my blood, or, This the cup is
the symbol of the New Covenant. Third. The predicate is different
grammatically, but identical really: In Matthew and Mark the predicate is;
My blood; the blood of the New Covenant; the blood which is shed for
many for the remission of sins. In Luke and Paul, the predicate is: The
New Covenant in my blood. The blood constitutes the Covenant, the
Covenant is constituted in the blood. In Matthew and Mark, our Lord says:
That which His disciples drink in the Eucharist is the shed blood of the
New Covenant. In Luke and Paul He says, That the cup poured out for
them, which they drink, is the New Covenant (constituted) in His blood.
Now, cup and that which they drink are two terms for one and the same
thing; and blood of the New Covenant and New Covenant of the blood are
one and the same thing, as an indissoluble unity. They are a cause and
effect continuously conjoined. The blood is not something which
originates the Covenant, and gives it a separate being no longer dependent
on its cause; but the blood is forever the operative cause of the Covenant in
its application, of which it was primarily the cause in its consummation.
That which we drink in the Supper is the shed blood of Christ--and that
shed blood is the New Covenant, because the Covenant is in the blood,
and with the blood. This is the identity of
522 So even Meyer: "Dieses was ihr trinken sollet." So far and so far only the Grammar carries him; but he presumes
to add, not from any knowledge gained from the text, but from Lightfoot, that what they were to drink was "the (red)
wine in this cup."