Peace by believing

‘Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Romans 5:1

Suggested Further Reading: Exodus 12:1–13

Write this for your motto—‘None but Jesus.’ Men and brethren, if those Israelites of old, who were inside their houses that night, had gone outside to the lintel of their door-post, and said, ‘Now here is this lintel made of very common wood; we will paint and grain it;’ and if they had then gone inside, and trusted to the painting and graining of the lintel, the destroying angel would have found them out and destroyed them. If, again, they had said, ‘We will write up our name over the door—it is a respectable name; we will record the list of our charities and good works over the door,’ the plague-angel would have smitten through the whole, and there would have been a wailing through the house as through the houses of the Egyptians. But what did they do? They took the blood; they marked the lintel and the two side posts, and smeared them with a crimson stain. Then in they went, and ate the passover with joy; and while the shrieks of Egypt went up in the cold midnight air, the sons of Israel went up also into heaven, for the angel of death had seen the blood, and by that mark he knew that he must pass by that habitation, and smite none that were there. The word of the Lord was not ‘When I see your faith,’ but ‘when I see the blood, I will pass over you.’ O soul, if you trust Christ, the blood is on your brow today; before the eye of God there is no condemnation. Why, then, do you need to fear? You are safe, for the blood secures every soul that once is sheltered thereby. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, but if you believe not, trust where you may, you shall be damned.

For meditation: A lamb within the house, dead or alive, was not enough for the Israelites. It had to be sacrificed and its blood applied (Exodus 12:6–7). Likewise it is not enough for us to admire the life of Christ, our Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7), or to assume that his death automatically saves us. His blood had to be shed and must be ‘sprinkled’ upon us individually by faith (Hebrews 9:22; 12:24; 1 Peter 1:2).

Sermon no. 510
9 June (Undated Sermon)