#DailyDevotion God has sprinkled us with His Blood
January 13th
Read Ezek 36:13–28
Eze 36:23-28 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. (24) I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. (25) I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. (26) And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (27) And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (28) You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Jeremiah who was a contemporary of Ezekiel said something very similar. Jer 31:33-34 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (34) And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
It for the sake of the name of the Lord, that the Lord will accomplish this great thing. He is doing this even to this day. He started in the days of John the Baptist who came proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This very baptism Jesus experienced on behalf of all people. Jesus sends forth his disciples to continue on with this baptism. We are baptized into his name, the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Here in baptism we are sprinkled with water and cleansed from our sins. Here the Holy Spirit comes upon us and gives us a new heart and a new spirit. We are now able to fear, love and trust in God above all things. In baptism we know the Lord for we know he forgives us for his name’s sake. We are called to be his holy people and he makes himself our God, the One whom we look to for every good.
So as God calls us to be his holy people out of the nations and before the nations his name is vindicated. His holiness is upheld as we are brought into the covenant, the new covenant and made God’s holy people. We are given new impulses, new thoughts, and new affections. We desire to do God’s will and not the will of the flesh. Such it is for those whom God calls to be his own through baptism.
Lord Jesus Christ, you call us to be your holy people though baptism and you enter into an eternal covenant with us. Grant us you Holy Spirit as you have promised that we may know you and live according to your Word. Amen.