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A HEART SPRINKLED FROM AN EVIL CONSCIENCE (I)
TUESDAY, MAY 25
Hebrews 10:19-22

Hebrews 9:15-28

 

“…having our hearts sprinkled

from an evil conscience…”

 

A HEART SPRINKLED FROM AN EVIL CONSCIENCE (I)
 
The conscience of man is part of the image of God in which we are all created: it is that moral sense that exists even in those “which have not the law,” causing them to “do by nature the things contained in the law” (Rom 2:14). Yet the conscience is marred and corrupted by sin, and functions in  the natural man only to condemn. Ours is an “evil conscience” (Heb 10:22), not so much here in the sense that it is seared or malfunctioning, but in the sense that it is burdened and weighed down by the condemnation of sin. Our conscience bears witness to the fact that we are guilty and deserving of God’s judgment.
 
Now under the Old Testament law, the picture of cleansing was that of sprinkling. As the writer of the Book of Hebrews earlier noted, “when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats… and sprinkled both the book, and all the people” (Heb 9:19). This was a ceremonial gesture, and incapable of cleansing the heart (cf Heb 10:4).
 
But the blood of Christ is that which sprinkles and cleanses the heart, removing once and for all the guilt and condemnation of sin. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom 8:1). A heart thus sprinkled from an evil conscience is a heart knowing peace with God: not on one’s own merits, but on the merits of Christ. It is a heart no longer fearful and trembling, but able to serve God freely.
 
Dear reader, have you been sprinkled by the blood of Christ? Have you trusted in Him alone for your salvation? Then let your sin and guilt weigh you down no longer! Certain it is that no Christian can ever take sin lightly; yet it is equally certain that the blood of Christ is sufficient to purify every stain. “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?” (Heb 9:14).
 
THOUGHT: Only Christ’s blood can cleanse my heart.
PRAYER: “Jesus, thy blood and righteousness my beauty are, my glorious dress; ‘midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head.” (Zinzendorf)

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