Is Your Conscience Clear? (Hebrews 9:1-28)
The sermon outline can be found here in the ministry guide.
Is your conscience clear this morning? Is your conscience clear to speak God’s word to a fellow church member struggling with sin? Is your conscience clear to be a representative of Christ to the people you’re meeting today? Is your conscience clear to be here to meet with God?
Some of us come with conscience stained. Some may be plagued with shame. Some may come to this service out of guilt, or perhaps even out of fear — fear of the consequences of not going to church. The temptation is often to repair our conscience by our own standards using our own means. From this passage, we’ll see that Christ has perfectly mediated and reconciled us to God by His sacrifice. If we come to Him, He will cleanse us, even our conscience.
The big question the author of Hebrews has been trying to explain in the past few sermons is: Why should we, with confidence, draw near to God? The answers so far have included:
Because Christ is the better High Priest;
because, being compared to Melchizedek, the King of Salem (meaning: the King of righteousness and the King of peace), Christ is not only a High Priest, He is also a King; and
what we heard last Sunday, because Christ has established the perfect New Covenant.
Earthly things can’t cleanse our conscience before God, but only Christ can.
Hebrews 9 will go further into why the New Covenant is better than the First Covenant. The big Idea for this sermon is: Earthly things can’t cleanse our conscience before God, but only Christ can.
Hebrews 8:13, gives us the context for Hebrews 9: “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” So why is the First Covenant made obsolete?
Earthly things can’t cleanse our conscience (Heb 9:1-10)
From Hebrews 9:1-5, we see that the first covenant had “regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness”. Hebrews 9:6-10 goes on to explain the ritual duties of the priests.
We are reminded of two Old Testament concepts: the Tabernacle and the Day of Atonement. Unlike the audience for the Book of Hebrews, we don’t wake up thinking that we need to go to the Tabernacle this Saturday, or we should buy a goat for the Day of Atonement next month. Those two concepts may be foreign to us.
The Tabernacle is designed to have the “Outer Courtyard”, open field. Then there is a tent that has two sections. The first section is called “The Holy Place”, and the second section “The Most Holy Place”, or “The Holy of Holies”. In order to enter the second section, one must enter through the first, because the second section is holier than the first. The second section is where God’s presence is supposed to dwell, once a year, in the presence of one person representative. But notice there is physical separation between the Outer Courtyard with everything inside the Tent. Common people can’t enter the Tent, let alone The Most Holy Place. So, while God may be present at the center of the crowd on that special day every year, common people are separated physically, and by a distance, from God’s presence. The saying is fitting here: “So close, yet so far.”
There are special items inside the two sections with their various symbolisms, but “of these things we cannot now speak in detail”. What we need to know is that cleansing with the sacrificial blood and intercession happen inside the Tent. The sacrifice is done outside, but the blood is brought inside, with sweet incense as a pleasing aroma unto God. The scene is bloody and messy, because sin is messy and demands blood.
The second concept we need to revise is the Day of Atonement from Leviticus 16. It is a special day once a year when the high priest enters The Most Holy Place, wearing certain holy garments. He has to sacrifice animals for:
Burnt Offering,
scapegoat, and
Sin Offering, both for himself and his household and for the people.
Burnt Offering is for general atonement of sin. The scapegoat is to be sent away into the wilderness, either to die starving or eaten by wild animals. Sin Offering is for cleansing unintentional sins, or sins that are not high-handed, meaning sins that are not meant to harm others. Essentially, all the animal sacrifices act as substitutes for us. What happened to those animals, should have happened to us instead.
So those are the two concepts central to Jewish lives and required to our understanding of the Old Covenant and, as we are going to see, its insufficiency. Those things may not be our past rituals personally, but if you come from another religion that has cleansing rituals, sacrificial rituals, or a once-a-year festival when the devotees are cleansed from impurities, you can think of those too, if that’s helpful for you. But generally, we all struggle with a concept of sacrifice in one way or another, especially when we are faced with guilt, shame, fear. We either recluse ourselves, essentially sacrificing ourselves; wallow in self-pity, essentially considering ourselves as a sacrifice; blame others, essentially sacrificing others; find excuses, essentially sacrificing whatever thing we can find; or go above the system, essentially denying the righteous God who will judge sinners. This shows that we are made with a conscience to know right from wrong and that wrong ought to be made right.
The author of Hebrews specifically mentioned “unintentional sins” in Hebrews 9:7 intentionally, reminding his audience that Sin Offering sacrificed on the Day of Atonement only cleanses their unintentional sins. A proper reaction to it is: “Oh no! I’m not fully cleansed!” And that’s the point: The Old Covenant is insufficient to cleanse us. Even the high priest himself needs cleansing. Numbers 15:27-31 gives us categories for unintentional sins and high-handed sins. From Numbers 15:29-31, we see that in the Old Covenant, those who commit high-handed sins have no way of being cleansed. Their just reward is to be cut off. To be cut off carries the same connotation as to go to eternal damnation (or to go to hell) today. That’s how serious it is.
Beloved, is any of us here capable of claiming that you have only committed unintentional sins?
No wonder then that the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 9:9 that all this arrangement “cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper”. How can it cleanse the conscience if they don’t deal with all my sins? The time when I said mean things to a friend to punish him for his mistake. The time when I shared an embarrassing experience of a friend to make him look bad. All the guilt that comes from regretting those ill intents. It can’t. Just as what’s said in Hebrews 9:8, as long as the entire Old Covenant sacrificial system is still standing, not just then in the past, but now in our hearts, in our minds, there’s no way for our conscience to be cleansed.
Furthermore, the Old Covenant is all about earthly things (meaning: physical things, created things). It has earthly Tabernacle, earthly special items inside the Tabernacle, earthly ceremonies, earthly sacrifices, earthly priests, earthly efforts. All these earthly things can only deal with external things. It can only cleanse outwardly. Again, it is no wonder that all the earthly things involved in the Old Covenant system “cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper”. Conscience is within, inside us. A location that earthly things can’t reach, let alone cleanse.
Are we relying on earthly things, earthly efforts, to cleanse our conscience? To make us feel better about ourselves?
Beloved, are we relying on earthly things, earthly efforts, to cleanse our conscience? To make us feel better about ourselves? I’m always busy at work, but at least I bring my kids to playground on weekends. I may not be the best parent when I was younger, but I’ll show that I’m a great grandparent to my grandkids. I’m not regular in Sunday gathering, but at least I’m faithful in my own outside Bible study. I’m not walking with anyone, but at least I’m serving in five ministries. I hurt a lot of people, but look! I got into Harvard. We keep on punishing ourselves, or someone, something, when Christ has taken all the punishments for us. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not arguing about right or wrong. We need to be close friends first before I can tell you for sure if what you do is right or wrong. But the question is this: what do we turn to when our conscience convicts us? Do we turn to earthly achievements? Earthly excuses? Earthly punishments? Earthly sacrifices? Oh, how frail our hope is if we turn to earthly sacrifices that will always change and get updated. Yes, you may need to do some restitution, some reparation, to fix relationships. But do it because you have come to Christ, and are now cleansed. Do it with a clear conscience. Not do it to cleanse your conscience.
As long as the Tent is still standing, not just in the past, but now in our hearts, our minds, we will still have no access to the real presence of God, that’s heavenly, that can cleanse to the innermost. Because He is inside the Tent, and we are stuck outside the Tent, dependent on our earthly schemes to mediate. Like the priests who keep on dying, earthly schemes keep on changing and getting updated.
Only Christ can cleanse our conscience (Heb 9:11-28)
The Old Covenant is not all bad, if we understand its real purpose, that is, to anticipate a better Covenant. The Old Covenant sacrifices should make people think, “Oh, they are insufficient, so I should trust God to provide for the sufficient one.” As we are reminded of the insufficiency of the Old Covenant system, we should be grateful for what Christ has done that has established the New Covenant for us. The time of reformation is here. So, our second point from Hebrews 9:11-29: Only Christ can cleanse our conscience.
In the previous sermon, we were introduced to the idea of a Tent and sacrificial system that is just a copy and shadow of the real thing in heaven. Here, we learn that it’s talking about the Old Covenant earthly Tent with all its special items and ceremonies, only a copy and shadow. Christ, too, has entered into a Tent. But into a Tent that is greater and more perfect, the real Tent, the heavenly Tent, the basis for the earthly Tent served by the Levitical priests. The Tent that’s not made with hands, not of this creation, not earthly. Such superior Tent cannot accept earthly things, earthly priests, earthly sacrifices. It requires superior High Priest and superior Sacrifice.
The High Priest is Christ Himself, superior to the Levitical priests, because He is truly God truly man and after the order of Melchizedek. Unlike the Levitical high priest who has to sacrifice a Sin Offering for his own sin, Christ doesn’t need to, since he has none.
The Sacrifice, that acts as our substitute, is also Christ Himself, who lived an unblemished life, and yet sacrificed once for all for sinners who repent and trust in Him. Surely He’s superior to animals, even humans, since He’s no less than God.
Christ outweighs them all. His sacrifice is superior, His blood is superior. As Hebrews 9:12 says, the once for all sacrifice of Christ secures a redemption that’s not just for one day, or for a year that He needs to repeat it every year, but forever. Eternal. It doesn’t just cleanse us from one kind of sins like the Day of Atonement is only for unintentional sins, or a few kinds of sins, or most kinds of sins, or even almost all kinds of sins. But it cleanses us Christians from all kinds of sins: intentional kind, unintentional kind, high-handed kind, underhanded kind, constructive kind, voluntary kind, involuntary kind, premeditated kind, negligent kind, defensive kind, ignorant kind, and all kinds in between.
The blood of Christ can purify our conscience so that we can serve the living God. All of our earthly efforts, earthly achievements, earthly excuses are called dead works.
No wonder then, if the earthly sacrifices, earthly rituals and ceremonies can purify the flesh, cleanse the external, how much more then the unblemished sacrifice of Christ can purify not just the outside, but even the innermost. It can cleanse our conscience. Listen to how the author of Hebrews puts it: “purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” The blood of Christ can purify our conscience so that we can serve the living God. All of our earthly efforts, earthly achievements, earthly excuses are called dead works. Just like animal sacrifices can never sufficiently purify our conscience to serve the living God, all our earthly efforts are also. They are useless. Dead works.
Beloved, perhaps whenever we feel guilty, embarrassed, afraid, it’s actually a call-sign, that reminds us: “Come to Christ, my son! Come to Christ, my daughter! He will cleanse you.” Perhaps the feeling of guilt, shame, fear, is God’s grace, if we know how to respond as a true follower of Christ.
Hebrews 9:15, therefore shows us that Christ is the mediator of the New Covenant. Because of Christ’s sacrificial and intercessory work on our behalf, Christ has established the New Covenant for us, for us have God’s laws written in our minds and hearts (c.f. Heb 8) and for us who have a new heart of flesh and God’s Spirit within us (c.f. Eze 36-37). We have a covenant that’s no longer dependent on our faithfulness, since it has been guaranteed by Christ’s faithfulness.
Beloved, when we’re burdened, do we come to ourselves or other humans who often lack faithfulness? Or do we come to Christ who’s always faithful?
The ESV translators choose to explain the concept of “Covenant” in Hebrews 9:15-18 this way:
Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.
I think the explanation here is straightforward. The author is comparing Covenant to “Will”. Essentially, he’s saying that Christ must die for His Will to take effect, so that the beneficiaries, us Christians, can receive the promised eternal inheritance. The emphasis is on inheriting from the One who has died willfully. Straightforward. I’m satisfied if that’s what you take away about Covenant. But I think there’s a better way to translate these verses, and the Legacy Standard Version helps us to understand it in this way:
And for this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the trespasses that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives. Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.
The word “Will” in ESV in Hebrews 9:16-17 is actually “Covenant” in the original language. Some slight nuance here. The one who must die is actually not Christ, but men. Consistent with the substitutionary sacrifice theme before and after this passage, this version emphasizes on the substitutionary aspect of Christ’s death. Even at the establishment of the New Covenant, it wasn’t animal that’s supposed to die. It’s us, men, humans. This better Covenant cannot accept inferior sacrifice, animals. It demands either superior sacrifice or the sinners themselves, us. Just like the Old Covenant was inaugurated with animal’s blood, the New Covenant was supposedly inaugurated with human’s blood, but wasn’t, because Christ took our place. Because Christ has died in our place, the New Covenant is established, and we Christians receive the promised eternal inheritance in His place.
Beloved, if you know that the Covenant of Christ is way superior to the Covenant of earthly things, why do we want to be tempted by the inferior Covenant?
We have been bought and cleansed, not just by some poor unfortunate animals happened to be picked this year. We have been bought and cleansed by none other than the blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master, the King of kings.
Let’s just pause for a moment to savour what Christ has done on behalf of us and in favor of us, and consider with me for a moment. We are a New Covenant community. Each one of us is a beneficiary of the eternal inheritance from the Will that Christ has left for us. Each one of us is a beneficiary of the substitutionary sacrifice that Christ has suffered in our place. What an amazing grace. Is our life characterized by self-sacrifice? Is GBC known for our forgiveness to one another? Is Grace Baptist Church well known for its namesake, “grace”, because we have received the amazing grace of Christ? Are we known to the world as the ambassadors for the New Covenant Christ has established? Brothers and sisters, we have been bought and cleansed, not just by some poor unfortunate animals happened to be picked this year. We have been bought and cleansed by none other than the blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master, the King of kings. Beloved, let’s savor that. Let’s meditate on that, so that our lives may be characterized by it.
Hebrews 9:20 quotes Exodus 24:8, which reads, “And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.””
Just as Moses sprinkled the animal’s blood, the blood of the Old Covenant, onto the people to consecrate them, and then the high priest must regularly sprinkle them again and again to re-consecrate them regularly, Christ sprinkles His own blood, the blood of the better Covenant, onto us Christians, once for all. That if we are in Christ, we are consecrated, not just for a period of time, but as long as we are in Him.
Hebrews 9:24 tells us too that Christ has entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Remember the scapegoat released to the wilderness to represent the sinners during the Day of Atonement? Christ, who has gone on our behalf, has entered not the wilderness, but the heaven; not to die starving or eaten by wild animals, but to be in the presence of God. And unlike the poor goats that need to be scapegoated every year, Christ needs to be scapegoated just once, and He has gone to a better destination. He’s in heaven now, to prepare a place for us, if we are His people.
So, here’s the summary of the second point. Only Christ can cleanse our conscience, because:
He can cleanse all sins and all kinds of sins;
He has mediated a sacrificial system that is of heaven;
He offered a perfect substitutionary sacrifice of Himself;
He has established the perfect New Covenant;
He has consecrated us with His precious blood;
He has gone into heaven to prepare a place for us.
Beloved, my prayer is by now you have been convinced of the goodness of Christ’s work, and the New Covenant He established. That you are convinced that you can come to Him, and Him alone, when you lack clear conscience. Instead of waiting for a festival that happens once a year to cleanse our conscience, perhaps by then, we are not bothered any longer, perhaps by then, our conscience has been seared, we can come to Christ anytime and immediately. We can go to Him at 3 am when our troubled minds keep us up; we can go to Him at 8 am when we’re dreading the work day ahead; we can go to Him at 3 pm when we’re home alone, feeling lonely, when we’re exhausted from taking care of the kids; we can go to Him at 8 pm when after a long tiring day, we struggle to love our spouse.
Beloved, consider also how we treat others. Do we weaponize conscience to make our loved ones, especially those with weaker conscience, to feel bad about themselves? Perhaps when you’re upset, when you’re disappointed, when you don’t get the comfort you expect. If you’re a leader in some capacity, you might be prone to this. Or perhaps, for those of us who are married, it’s so easy to make our spouses feel bad about their mistakes, shortcomings and weaknesses, to add to their disappointments, and it’s also difficult to point them to Christ, where they can be cleansed of their disappointments. It’s so difficult to point myself to Christ, when I’m upset. Or, if you have weaker conscience, do you require others to check the boxes to prove if they’re true Christians? Is the Most Holy Place still separated from the common people? Please hear me well, brothers and sisters. I’m not saying that we can do whatever we want. No! But we must distinguish matters of regulation from matters of wisdom. If we make a suggestion because it’s wise, it edifies the body of Christ, we should do that. But if we make a suggestion as a test of faith, I pray that we are so so very careful about testing others, lest we ourselves are not proven worthy.
Having a clear conscience demands obedience to live out our faith.
Beloved, we may think that not having clear conscience is just about guilt, shame, fear. But having a clear conscience demands obedience to live out our faith. Now that we know that the New Covenant is superior, that Christ’s work can, and does, cleanse our conscience to the uttermost, do we then come to God in Christ? Do we join ourselves to a local community of New Covenant? Friends, if you haven’t joined a local church, may I encourage you to seriously consider joining one? We on our own sometimes can forget that we can come to Christ for cleansing. But we, together, can remind one another and guard each other, as we share our lives together. Do we regularly attend our church gatherings, when we actually can?) Do we listen to our church leaders, even when we may have different preferences from them? Do we persevere, especially when temptation to give up is just so great? Do we listen to exhortation from God’s word? If we don’t, I fear that we may not only stain our conscience, but we’ll also sear and damage our conscience - when sustained for too long, irreparably. So, let me encourage us. Don’t dull our conscience. Obey! Obey God’s holy word!
For you here, who have so far resisted Christianity, rejecting Christ, but are still listening nonetheless. I thank you for listening in. Friends, we understand your feeling of guilt, shame, fear, because we also experience them. We are fellow humans afterall. Our natural solutions of self-improvement, or try harder, or distraction, can’t work. Because our problems always evolve, they always demand solutions that always evolve too. There’s no end to it.
Perhaps you’re here because you’ve hit the end of the line. Or perhaps you haven’t, let me tell you that you’ll hit the end of the line. God has made us to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever, not to live in guilt, shame, or fear. But because of sins, our sins and other people’s sins, all of us suffer. We may suffer differently, perhaps to different extents, but we all suffer. In the days of Old, God provided a priestly system to approach him. In His great mercy, God also has given us all conscience, helping us to sense that perhaps it’s a good idea to come to Him to seek right and wrong. But those things don’t resolve our problems, because those things aren’t meant to resolve our problems. Those things are meant to point us to Christ. The King of kings who has humbled Himself to become like us, to die a horrible death, that’s actually for us, in our place, so that everyone who repents and believes in Him can be cleansed, shall be cleansed, perfectly. That we may no longer live in shame, because He has borne the shame of becoming a King who’s publicly executed on that cursed tree for us. The curtain to enter The Most Holy Place has now been torn. Now, we can come to God freely.
As we come to the end of this passage, we read in Hebrews 9:27, “Just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” Christ will come again. Now, as we are still waiting, Christ’s work as a High Priest to offer us His forgiveness and cleansing still stands. This is offered to us if we’re willing to repent and believe in Him. Not just repent once and that’s it, but that we live a life of repentance and trusting in Him throughout our lives. When Christ comes again, He’ll come no longer primarily as a High Priest who would offer forgiveness and cleansing, but He’ll come primarily as a King who will claim His rule over all creation. That those who reject Him should rightly fear and tremble, because the rightful King of kings and Lord of lords, the King of righteousness, has come to hold them accountable for rejecting the King. But for those who submit to Him, us Christians, the King of peace will save us. Hallelujah! Our King shall return to rescue us, to vindicate us. There’ll be no more guilt, no more shame, no more fear, no more stained conscience. So, Christians, let’s persevere. Don’t be tempted. Don’t get distracted. Don’t give up. Focus on that glorious day when our King shall come again.
So, let’s draw near to God, with confidence, not by earthly things, but by Christ alone, because He alone can cleanse us to the uttermost, even our conscience. Let us press on, all ye Saints.