Does Good Doctrine Save Us?

Most pastors who ascribe to reformed theology (myself included) are very clear that we are not saved by “good works”, but I am not sure that we are convinced that we are not saved by good doctrine…at least not in practice. We are very careful not to tell people you need to do the right things so God will love you, but I am wondering if we are not unknowingly telling people they have to think a certain way for God to love them?

What got me asking this question is my recent study of the Passover meal found in Exodus 12. You know the story: God sends Moses to tell Pharaoh to “Let My people go!” Pharaoh refuses, so God sends a series of plagues – boils, frogs, darkness, etc. After nine of these plagues, Pharaoh still says no, so God decides to kill everyone firstborn…all of them. Now God comes to Moses and gives him a plan of salvation, which was to kill a lamb, paint the blood of that lamb on their doorpost and eat the meat for dinner than night. God would then send the “Destroyer” that night to kill every firstborn of every household unless there was blood on the doorpost of that home. Now what’s interesting for us to give serious thought to is that the “Destroyer” did not care if it was an Egyptian home or a Hebrew home. He gave no credence to race, color, or economic status. He didn’t care how good of a person you were and he didn’t even care what your theology was. The only thing he cared about was whether or not there was blood on the doorpost. In other words, there was either a dead son or a dead lamb in every household.

In our preaching, teaching and presentation of the gospel, we must never lose sight that at the heart of Christianity, is not good behavior nor is it even good doctrine. At the heart of Christianity is the substitute death of an innocent lamb.