Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion comes from Leviticus 24:5-9.

“Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake.  You shall set them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table before the Lord.  You shall put pure frankincense on each row that it may be a memorial portion for the bread, even an offering by fire to the Lord.  Every sabbath day he shall set it in order before the Lord continually;  it is an everlasting covenant for the sons of Israel.  It shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place;  for it is most holy to him from the Lord’s offerings by fire, his portion forever.”  Leviticus 24:5-9.

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The bread in today’s Scripture points us to Jesus Who is “the bread of life”.

“35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life;  he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”  John 6:35-40.

And, we notice the focus and emphasis on God’s will, not on alleged man’s free-will.  “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.  This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.  For this is the will of My Father …”  John 6:38-40.

Reformed Doctrine therefore points out this focus and emphasis on God’s will.  The basis of our salvation is God’s will:  “Unconditional Election”, the “U” of “TULIP”, the Five Points of Calvinism, the Reformed Doctrine of Salvation.  “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”  John 1:12-13.  “For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”  So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”  Romans 9:15-16.

Rather than bristle against this Reformed Doctrine, we should joyfully embrace it.  For what is the result of God’s will being done?

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.  For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.  This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.”  John 6:37-39.

“For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.”  John 6:33.

Let us compare man’s bread with “the bread of God”.

“Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.  This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.  I am the living bread that came down out of heaven;  if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever;  and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”  John 6:49-51.

Let us compare man’s alleged free-will (and what it could not do) with God’s will (and what it did).

“Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith;  and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;  not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  Ephesians 2:3-9.