Participating in the sacraments is necessary for your salvation!
Exodus 12 (NIV)
CONTEXT: We began this passage yesterday in which the Israelites were commanded to protect themselves from the coming Angel of Death by covering their door frames with the blood of a sacrificial lamb.
21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. 23 When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
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Deuteronomy 7:7-8 (NIV)
7 The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your fathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Listen to passage & devotional:
Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 33: The Sacraments
We believe that our good God,
mindful of our crudeness and weakness,
has ordained sacraments for us
to seal his promises in us,
to pledge his good will and grace toward us,
and also to nourish and sustain our faith.
He has added these to the Word of the gospel
to represent better to our external senses
both what he enables us to understand by his Word
and what he does inwardly in our hearts,
confirming in us
the salvation he imparts to us.
For they are visible signs and seals
of something internal and invisible,
by means of which God works in us
through the power of the Holy Spirit.
So they are not empty and hollow signs
to fool and deceive us,
for their truth is Jesus Christ,
without whom they would be nothing.
Moreover,
we are satisfied with the number of sacraments
that Christ our Master has ordained for us.
There are only two:
the sacrament of baptism
and the Holy Supper of Jesus Christ.
Summary
In looking at the beginning of this passage yesterday, we noted how anxious the Israelites must have been as they watched the drama unfold between a God they barely knew and Pharoah, the mighty despot who held them in slavery. As he conveys God's instructions for how they needed to protect themselves from the terror about to be unleashed, Moses increases the anxiety level by several notches.
He commands the Israelites to go at once to select and slaughter their best lambs. Don't stop to discuss things with friends and neighbors, don't even take time for prayer or reflection, drop what you're doing and go at once. Then after you've killed the lamb and smeared its blood all over your door, go inside and stay inside until morning.
Then Moses tells them what the blood of the lamb will protect them from: the destroyer. If they were to go out, they'd no longer be covered by the blood and the LORD would not stand in between them and the destruction that would be unleashed. After having already witnessed the first nine plagues, I'll bet each man huddled tightly with his family behind their blood stained doors.
That night these enslaved Israelites learned what it means to truly fear the LORD.
Dig Deeper
Often times the conventional wisdom is that in order to be saved, you need to do the best you can to be righteous, and then Jesus will cover any shortcomings that need to be filled in. But the wonderful good news of the gospel is that your salvation is fully accomplished by grace alone, because of Christ alone, and that all of this becomes yours through faith alone.
So what about sacraments? Is being baptized and regularly participating in communion necessary for salvation if salvation is fully the result of God's grace?
Yes! Notice how the short passage we read from Deuteronomy demonstrates God's sovereignty in saving Israel. The LORD saved them not because of their strength or the things that they had done, but solely because He is faithful to His covenant.
Yet in order for them to realize their salvation, they had to take action. They must comply exactly with God's instructions on that fateful night, for if they deviated from them, they would certainly die.
It's not that God saved them because they did what they were told, but it was through their obedient participation in that sacrament that God made known His sovereign, saving grace to them. This is why we understand sacraments to be part of the ordinary means of grace. If you don't obediently participate in them, you will not (ordinarily) come to know God's grace.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: The LORD, who strikes down all who stands against Him, but who passes over all those covered in the blood of the Lamb;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for making His Word visible to you and pray that you will see the gospel more deeply each time you participate in the sacraments;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: John 13
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