Hebrews 9:13-14—13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
D.A. Carson gives an illustration of two Hebrews talking in Egypt the night before the first Passover in which the Angel of Death will come and kill all of the firstborn in the land. The men are applying the blood of the sacrificial lamb to their doorpost and talking about what will happen that night. The first man tells the second he is nervous about it. He says that he trusts in God but is still nervous considering everything that has happened with Pharaoh and everything Moses tells them that is about to happen. The first man asks the second man if he is nervous and the second man replies that he is firmly trusting in the promises of his God. Which one of the men’s sons were spared that night? The answer is that both were spared. Death doesn’t pass over them (salvation) based on the ground of the intensity or clarity of faith exercised but on the ground of the blood of the lamb. So often we base our assurance of salvation on our performance or on the strength of faith we feel at any given moment instead of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. In doing so we are like the waves of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. Christ would have us rest all of our assurance on Him, trusting in Him to complete the good work that He begins in us. Something to think about…
Am I resting and trusting in the grace and work of God for my salvation or in my Christian performance?