Today’s devotion comes from Exodus 34:25.
“You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread, nor is the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover to be left over until morning.” Exodus 34:25.
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First, “leavened bread” represents false teaching a/k/a false doctrine.
“How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Matthew 16:11-12.
“A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.” Galatians 5:9.
The “blood of My sacrifice” represents Christ’s blood of His sacrifice.
Thus, putting it together, we are commanded to avoid using false teaching a/k/a false doctrine in speaking about Christ’s blood.
Yet, there are many who casually talk about Christ’s blood all the time. In a sense, they are trampling it, not by being hateful to it but in the sense of treating it as ineffective by itself, like the description in Matthew 5:13: “…if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.”
“For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said: “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Hebrews 10:26-31.
They steadfastly continue to hang on to false teaching a/k/a false doctrine about what was accomplished by Christ’s blood despite receiving knowledge of the truth (despite, so to speak, being “sanctified” in the language of the prior Scripture).
They hang on to false doctrine that Christ died for everyone and His blood was shed for everyone. They love to loosely speak about Christ’s blood and the power of Christ’s blood.
But, they really believe that Christ’s blood (as they claim, shed for everyone) by itself did not save, “purchase”, or “redeem” anyone, because they maintain that most people are not saved. They claim that it is up to man to generate his own faith through his own free will in order to make Christ’s blood effective to save. They claim that the only difference between the saved and the unsaved is not Christ’s blood, because everyone gets the blood, but rather the only difference is whether or not a certain individual will generate his own faith through his own free will to make the blood effective. According to their logic, man’s faith, not Christ’s blood, is the determining factor as to whether or not one will be saved.
But, there is hope!
Reformed Doctrine teaches the truth of “Limited Atonement”, the “L” of “TULIP”, the Five Points of Calvinism, as more fully taught in the Canons of Dordt.
Consider what the Canons of Dordt teaches about what was accomplished by Christ’s blood for God’s elect in the section titled SECOND HEAD OF DOCTRINE Of the Death of Christ, and the Redemption of Men Thereby.
The “saving efficacy of the most precious death of his Son should extend to all the elect, for bestowing upon them alone the gift of justifying faith, thereby to bring them infallibly to salvation: … that he should confer upon them faith, which together with all the other saving gifts of the Holy Spirit, he purchased for them by his death”.
Article 8. For this was the sovereign counsel, and most gracious will and purpose of God the Father, that the quickening and saving efficacy of the most precious death of his Son should extend to all the elect, for bestowing upon them alone the gift of justifying faith, thereby to bring them infallibly to salvation: that is, it was the will of God, that Christ by the blood of the cross, whereby he confirmed the new covenant, should effectually redeem out of every people, tribe, nation, and language, all those, and those only, who were from eternity chosen to salvation, and given to him by the Father; that he should confer upon them faith, which together with all the other saving gifts of the Holy Spirit, he purchased for them by his death; should purge them from all sin, both original and actual, whether committed before or after believing; and having faithfully preserved them even to the end, should at last bring them free from every spot and blemish to the enjoyment of glory in his own presence forever.
Second, consistent with this “high view” of what Christ’s blood accomplished, today’s Scripture also commands “nor is the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover to be left over until morning.”
There are many who are more focused on their own worship services and their own prayers as if thereby they viewed Christ’s blood was applied to them by their work or at least their will which they think they need to do every day or at least every Sunday. They are like the priests in the Old Testament in the following Scripture who offered “time after time the same sacrifices”.
“Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He (Christ), having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying,
“THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM
AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD:
I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART,
AND ON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM,”
He then says,
“AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS
I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE.”
Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.” Hebrews 10:11-18.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace”. Ephesians 1:3-7.
Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions 