Daily Devotional: Day 128
“For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:13-14, KJV).
God is holy and pure. Therefore, the only way for anyone to have fellowship with Him is to serve Him with a purged or cleansed conscience. It is impossible to worship the Holy God with a conscience stained with sin. When you serve God with a purged conscience, you are operating with enormous supernatural power through the Holy Spirit who lives in you. You demonstrate calm confidence in the Lord’s presence, knowing that you have allowed Him to purge you. By contrast, when you serve or approach God with a guilty conscience, you are operating from a position of weakness. You may ignore or shut down the voice of your conscience, or desperately confess all the “I am” confessions, but that won’t fix the problem until you come to a place of purged conscience. There is no substitute for a purged conscience. Only the blood of Jesus can provide that.
God sent His Son to shed His blood for us, because, among other things, He knows that a purged conscience is indispensable if we are to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. A purged conscience is, therefore, a quintessential part of the package of redemption that Jesus offers us. Without it, it is impossible for us to offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice (cf. Romans 12:1-2). This is what today’s Bible reading is telling us. Let’s delve into the text for more.
The Old Covenant based on the Law was given through Moses. Animal blood was often shed and sprinkled during various rites of purification and atonement (cf. Exodus 24:1-8; Leviticus 16:1-34). The sprinkling of animal blood sanctified (cleansed, made holy) the worshipers. But this sanctification was external; it didn’t go far enough to purge the conscience of the people once for all. But the blood of Jesus – which is the blood of the New Covenant – did what the blood of animals could not do. The Bible says if animal blood brought some cleansing to those under the Old Covenant, how much more shall Jesus’ blood purge (i.e. purify) our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Did you catch that? The “dead works” is referring to works of sin. Sin is a work; but it is a dead work because it only produces the fruit of death (cf. Romans 6:23). The purpose for purging our conscience is so that we can serve the living God. Do you see the point? You can’t serve the living God if your conscience isn’t clean before God.
When Jesus’ blood purges us from the dead works of sin, we are set free from the burden of a guilty conscience. Not only that, this purging empowers us to consistently perform deeds of righteousness, thereby maintaining a clean conscience before God. The result is that our worship of God becomes acceptable. An added blessing is that it helps us to grow in boldness and assurance before the Father. As you come to Jesus with a heart that has forsaken sin – through authentic repentance – He will purge your conscience with His blood, and you will be free to worship the living God in holiness and righteousness. You shall walk with the boldness, power and liberty of a cleansed conscience. This is the life God wants for you. Just obey Him and see the results.
The Lord let His face shine upon you today!
Pray to the Father about this message that you’ve heard.
For further study: Hebrews 10: 1-22 (note v.1-2)
Higher-Self Realities 