Veiled Grace, Revealed Promise

"The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever." (Deuteronomy 29:29).

What a thunderclap of a verse. God’s voice rolling across the plains of Moab, through the ages to us. This morning, as we pour water over three tender heads in the name of the Triune God, we're not wetting foreheads. We are talking part in a mystery (sacrament) so vast it could swallow us whole, yet so near it fits into a font.

Moses speaks this gem-of-a-text as Israel teeters on the edge of promise. "The secret things," God’s hidden counsels, the "why's and how's" of election, the architecture of eternity...belong to Him alone. Parents, we don’t get to peek behind the curtain. To think we can, is to climb a ladder to heaven with legs too short and hands too slippery. But despair? That’s not an option either. Look closely at, "the things revealed"; His law, His promises, His covenant, aren’t locked in a vault! They’re ours, handed down like family heirlooms, polished and passed to our children forever.

Three infants, barely able to gurgle a protest, will be marked by God this morning. Not because we’ve cracked the code of their salvation, but because God has spoken. "This promise IS unto you, and your children." (Acts 2:39) Baptism isn’t a religious roll-of-the-dice. No! It’s bowing our hearts under what has been revealed. Grace precedes, faith follows, and the covenant catches all. Yet, we don’t presume salvation by water or by covenant. Lord, save us from such thin theology! It's by blood. Blood that washes, cleanses each individual heart. But neither do we despair, as if God’s arm is too short to reach our little ones. The sign is applied, bold and wet, because the promise is real. "An everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee." (Gen 17:7)

This is awesome to think on. The God who hides the stars behind His hand stoops to sprinkle our children with His name. We’re not left groping in the dark. We have enough light to walk by, enough law to live by, enough gospel to lean on. So, in light of this text, what do we do? We baptize, we pray, we sing humbly, trusting fiercely that the secret things belong to a God who doesn’t flinch. While at the very same time, clutching the revealed things like a lifeline. He will do it. For us, for them, forever. Amen.