Communion means sharing, participation, and fellowship. In I Corinthians 10:16-17, Paul teaches that the cup is the communion of Christ's blood and the bread is the communion of His body, and that a sacrificial meal joins the participant in fellowship with the object of the sacrifice, whether the true God or an idol. The Passover therefore unites believers with Jesus Christ through a sacrificial meal. The bread is broken only so that everyone can share it, yet it remains one bread because believers are together one body, Christ's unbroken and undivided body. Christ Himself was not defeated or broken in death. His crucifixion was a supreme victory that fulfilled the sin, burnt, grain, drink, and peace offerings and made fellowship between God and men possible. Throughout Scripture, and especially in John 6, bread symbolizes life, and Jesus calls Himself the living bread whose flesh is given for the life of the world. The bread therefore pictures living flesh, not a dead or broken body, while the wine pictures shed blood. In partaking, believers take in and are joined to His sinless life. Having been baptized into His death, they are saved by His life. Eating the bread symbolizes the living Savior abiding in them and they in Him. They must eat this living bread to remain connected to their Savior and to the others who share it.

Communion is fellowship with God and with one another through a sacrificial meal, and the Passover bread and wine are that meal. The Passover is not chiefly a sin offering. Like the peace offering, which commentators call the communion sacrifice, it is a shared meal in which God has already extended favor and accepted His people. In Egypt, God overlooked Israel's sins (pesach means exemption) and redeemed them, so the Passover demonstrates mercy and the start of a relationship rather than atonement. Paul uses the same term in I Corinthians 10:16-20: a sacrificial meal joins the participant to the object of the sacrifice, so the bread and cup are communion with Christ's body and blood, and those who share the one bread become one body. The bread symbolizes Christ's living, sinless life, and partaking of it joins us to that life, which strengthens us spiritually and is the basis of God's acceptance of us. The wine is the blood of the New Covenant, a pledge of God's loyalty to complete those who remain faithful. Forgiveness comes within the covenant, not before it. Jesus' Passover discourse in John 13-17 speaks of oneness with the Father, love, peace, joy, and friendship, without mentioning the disciples' sins. Communion is therefore a solemn yet joyful celebration of peace, fellowship, and hope. God and the participant are both satisfied, and the redemption it pictures will be fulfilled in the Kingdom.

The Passover is a peace offering, not a sin offering, so taking the New Covenant Passover pictures the relationship the sacrifice for sin makes possible rather than the cleansing of sin itself. Like the Old Testament peace offering (a shalom, thanksgiving, or fellowship offering), it is a shared meal in which the offerer, the priest, and God each receive a portion of the lamb and sit in harmony. No sins are confessed over the animal, its blood is poured out to present a life rather than to cleanse, and God is pleased and rejoices at the table. The original Passover lamb was likewise a household meal, with the blood marking the family as God's people. At His last Passover Jesus longed to eat with His disciples, with the Father as the third party, and He spoke of love, peace, joy, and oneness rather than sin. By changing the symbols to bread and wine, He revealed Himself as the Lamb. Paul says the cup and bread are the communion, the fellowship or sharing, of Christ's blood and body, and that partaking unites many into one body and one family under the covenant. Sin is dealt with in the sacrifice of the next day and memorialized on the Day of Atonement, but the intimate communion of the Passover belongs to the elect now, and it anticipates the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and eternal fellowship with God.