I do believe (and I think you are saying the same thing) that the fruit is more akin to the fruit of righteousness which has its genesis in Christ alone, His perfect work. This “new” cup will be like seeing Christ for who he really is……which now we only see in part. Any glimmer of hope, or obedience, or self control is only a taste of what the Spirit has in store for us “new” in the Kingdom, “to the glory and praise of God”.

Philippians 1:9-11 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, (10) so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; (11) having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Colossians 1:3-8 We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, (4) since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; (5) because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel (6) which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth; (7) just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, (8) and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit.

The constant bearing of fruit in this world is a clear reminder of the Holy Spirit’s active renewal in us today. So we remember (our Lord’s Supper), looking forward to the “new” cup of knowing our Savior in such a way that all things become “new”.

2 Corinthians 3:5-6 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, (6) who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

O how we will understand the Spirit and His work, when we drink of the cup with the Savior in His kingdom!

Blessings,
Chris

This brings to light an interesting point of the Lord’s Supper. My first reading brought a new thought with the comparison of Jesus drinking the fruit of the vine new in God’s Kingdom. Since the symbols of earth are used to describe for us the shadows or images of heaven, do you think the fruit produced by those of us engrafted will be the new wine we will drink with Him in heaven? It’s speculitive, but fresh for me.

Thanks for the topic.

That gives me some beautiful new thoughts to meditate upon, whenever I share in the Lord’s Supper, as I abide in the Vine throughout the day every day, and as I look forward to sharing the new wine with Jesus at the consummation of His Kingdom.

Yes, I do believe that scripture points to a great difference. The drink that Christ bore with us was so much different than we can envisage, yet to “obey” His command to remember Him through the grapes that have been crushed as He was is significant… (Isaiah 53)….for to obey is better than sacrifice.

The symbolism is more closely related to the vine, visible in the grape (the grape is the manifest fruit of the vine) …pointing us, in the current world, to the one that was crushed. When we drink the cup of remembering, we drink looking to the new cup, the resurrected Jesus that is now with the Father. This gives us great comfort as we understand what Jesus said….

John 6:53-56 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. (54) “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. (55) “For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. (56) “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

Our remembering today is simple obedience by His Spirit,…. but when compared to the “new” He drinks with us in His Kingdom…we shall see Him and will fully know. The vine, grapes, and skin represent a tremendous picture for the temporary, mirroring by analogy a transformation looking forward to a “new” cup with Christ alone (He being a Nazarene is very helpful here as well). We are sustained in the vine now (all of what it produces), yet earnestly look to Christ through the Spirit for the lasting drink in His Kingdom.

So, yes…getting hung up in the process of fermentation is a play in myopic arrogance….where we run the risk of missing the real picture.

Blessings,
Chris

Happy Thanksgiving!

Interesting article. You have caused me to think about some things I had never really considered before.

I agree with you that the essence of the Lord’s Supper is not in the fermentation, or lack thereof, of the fruit of the vine. It is rather in the new covenant established through the blood of Jesus. I would hope that, as Baptists (and, indeed, as members of the Body of Christ), we would not get so bogged down in details that we end up overlooking that.

However, I have always assumed wine was the chosen medium for the Lord’s Supper, because its color (reddish) and consistency (liquid) bear a certain likeness to blood, and also because it was (other than water) the typical drink used in the time of Jesus. However, your article has led me to consider the possibility that the symbolism goes deeper than that.

After consulting a number of different versions, I am surprised I had never noticed that in Mark 14:25 Jesus says, “I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it NEW in the kingdom of God.” I had always read that “when I drink it ANEW.” But, like I say, upon consulting different translations, it seems the translation of NEW is preferred to ANEW.

NIV does translate it ANEW, and HCSB translates it “when I drink it in a NEW way.” However, KJV, NASB, ESV, and various others translate it NEW. The Amplified Bible shows a clear preference for this understanding: “till that day when I drink it of a new and a higher quality.”

So, it seems that indeed there is some special symbolism inherent in the difference between the wine drunk by our Lord and his disciples at the Last Supper, and the NEW wine He will drink in God’s Kingdom.

Yet, I am still unclear if you are meaning to give us a clue as to what you think this symbolism is. Could you elucidate a bit further on this?