THE VERSE
How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.~Hebrews 9:14
THE THOUGHT
Some of the great news of the “good news” is that Jesus died to cleanse our guilty consciences. His blood “purifies our conscience.” For those laden down with guilt from past and present “dead works,” what good news this is! The cross of Christ frees us from the condemnation of our consciences, that voice in your head that says, “You did that! You knew it was wrong, and you did it anyway! If anybody knew, they wouldn’t love you. You think God loves you? Ha! He knows what you did!” Romans 8:1 says that for all who are in Christ—for all who bank on the blood of Jesus as their only hope and righteousness—there is “no condemnation.” There is no condemnation from God—all your sin was placed on Christ, punished in Christ, buried with Christ, forgiven and forgotten. And there is no more real condemnation from our consciences. Rather, the Holy Spirit now turns our consciences from tools of condemnation to instruments of conviction. He now lovingly points out our sin and keeps bringing us back to the cross for new supplies of mercy to fight that forgiven sin.But note that the work of Christ does not terminate on our guilty consciences. The point of the cross is not ultimately to free us from guilt. The blood of Christ purifies our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. The gospel is not ultimately a self-help tool. Rather, it frees us from our preoccupation with ourselves by assuring us that we are cared for, and then directs us outward and upward to serve the God who saves us.
THE PRAYER
Holy Spirit, Thank you for Your work in applying the blood of Jesus to my conscience, for convicting me of my suicidal, self-destructive sin, and mercifully pointing me again and again to the cleansing and empowering cross to forgive and free me. Thank you for how You use the gospel to make me more like You.EXTENDED READING
Hebrews 9:11-14Romans 8:1-6
THE QUOTE
“If there is one stitch in the celestial garment of our righteousness that we must insert ourselves, we are lost; but this is our confidence- what the Lord begins, He completes… Our confidence must not be in what we have done, nor in what we have resolved to do, but entirely in what the Lord will do.” ~Charles Spurgeon
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