Sacraments are designed to Spiritually cut your heart.
Romans 2:28-29 (NIV)
28 A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 29 No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.
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
I've written before in this space about the Red Delicious variety of apples, that look so good from the outside, but on the inside are often mushy and tasteless. This is what Paul has in mind here as he writes of people who externally look really good and proper, but in reality have no depth or character.
You probably know people like this. Maybe you've even been a person like this! People who go through all of the proper religious motions: show up like clockwork to church on Sundays, maybe even serve on a committee or two, and faithfully contribute to the financial needs of the congregation, but yet who have no real relationship with God and who don't seem to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit or the marks of Christians in their daily lives.
It takes more than just participating in outward (literally: lit up / visible) activities to make a person a true believer. Even things that are otherwise holy, like attending worship services or participating in the sacraments, have no lasting effect upon a person if they are simply taken externally.
True religion, Paul writes, is that which is inward. Literally, it shows up in the hidden, concealed aspects of your life that nobody else can see. The physical act of circumcision, one of the sacraments that God had ordained for Israel, involved the cutting off of external flesh, but truly spiritual circumcision happens when the Holy Spirit cuts a person's heart (see Acts 2:37).
Dig Deeper
Unfortunately many people view the sacraments as if they're some sort of magical rite. Grieving parents may want a dying child quickly baptized to ensure the child will go to heaven. More commonly, people might think that nibbling on a bit of bread and chasing it down with a swig of wine every so often will miraculously absolve their sins.
That's exactly the type of thinking that Paul warns against in today's passage. On their own, sacraments - whether it was the circumcision and Passover meal of the Old Testament, or the baptism and communion of the New Testament - have absolutely no effect on a person. Taken by themselves, sacraments are simply empty and hollow signs which fool and deceive those who think that their salvation comes by merely participating in them.
We properly refer to sacraments as being part of God's ordinary means of grace. There is true power that's conveyed through the water of baptism and the bread & wine of the Supper. But their powerful truth is Jesus Christ. Their life altering effect comes from the precise circumcision (cutting) of the heart that the Holy Spirit works through them.
All of this to say that if you are not truly and Spiritually experiencing Christ as you participate in the sacraments, you might just be simply going through the external motions of an otherwise meaningless religious rite. Understand that such an experience of Christ may occasionally feel like a profound and extraordinary spiritual high, but ordinarily it's most evident in a slow but steady life of increasing sanctification.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: The LORD, who cuts His people to the heart by the powerful working of His Holy Spirit through the ordinary means of grace;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that as you participate in the sacraments, you will clearly see the evidence of a life changed by Christ;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: John 14
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