This ordinance replaced the Passover. The Passover, the oldest of all Jewish festivals, commemorated God’s provision of a substitute for, His protection from His wrath against, and His deliverance of His people from their bondage to the Egyptians. From the Passover, Jews learned that judgment requires bloodshed that could come from a substitute. All of this foreshadowed God’s provision through Christ.

Shortly before His death, Christ celebrated the Passover with His disciples, transformed its meaning, and replaced it with the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. Unlike the Passover which celebrates God’s provision and protection against temporal judgment, the Lord’s Supper commemorates God’s provision and protection through Christ from eternal judgment in hell. By participating in the Lord’s Supper, believers are reminded of God’s saving work through Christ’s death.

By celebrating the Lord’s Supper, we are reminded of Christ’s substitutionary death as well as our sin which made His death necessary for our salvation. Paul, therefore, warns believers to examine themselves before partaking (1 Cor 11:27-32).