I just finished an awsome book entitled "A Father Who Keeps His Promises," by Scott Hahn. This is about about a page of one of the last chapters that discusses Christ's "once for all" sacrifice on Calvary. I know I always talk about this, but my other thread was left up in the air, so I thought I'd try once more. Someone promised me they'd talk further about it, anyway.
1. The Synoptic Gospels clearly depict Jesus instituting the Euchatist within the context of the Jewish Passover.
2. The Jewish Passover was the covenant sacrifice that Jesus meant to fufill by His own self offering.
3. The Passover sacrifice should not be seperated from Jesus' sacrificial death on the Cross; Jesus didn't finish the Passover until Calvary, where he fulfilled it (It is finished Jn 19:30).
4. The Eucharist is also inseperabely united to Christ's death; for Calvary began with the Eucharist, while the Eucharist ended with Calvary. They are one in the same sacrifice.
The "it" that was finished in John 19:30 was the Passover that Jesus had begun-but interupted-in the Upper Room. His completion was marked by the sign of drinking the sour wine, the fourth cup of the ancient Jewish Passover. What was finished was finished was Jesus' fulfillment of the Passover of the Old Covenant, through His transformation of it into the New Covenant Passover. He is the first born son who was slain, the Lamb without blemish or broken bones (Jn 19:36), the one who is slaughtered-and whose body must therefore be eaten (John 6:53-56). We, too, must eat the Lamb. That is why Christ instituted the Eucharist.
Jesus is no longer bleeding, suffering, or dying (Heb 9:25-26). But if Jesus' offering has ceased, then there would be no basis for His ongoing priesthood, and we read in Scripture that His priesthood is permanent, and will "continue forever" (Heb 7:24). In the heavenly court Jesus appears as "a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered" (Rev. 5:6; cf. 13:8).
The "once for all" character of Jesus' sacrifice points to the perfection and perpetuity of His self offering. It can be represented upon our altars, in the Eucharist, by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that "through Him, [we] continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God" (Heb 13:15).