Hebrews 9:11-28

Hebrews 9:11-28

Line by line, brick by brick the author of Hebrews argues and proves the superiority of the new covenant in Christ over the old covenant. It is not just a slightly improved covenant but a vastly superior and in every way superior covenant, superiority so great that no analogy can adequately express the truth. But the central statement is so clear and understandable that an analogy is unnecessary. Where the priest enters the tabernacle on earth, which is a copy of the one in Heaven, Christ entered the real and heavenly tabernacle. The priest offers the blood of livestock as a dumb and unwilling sacrifice. Christ offers his own blood freely, lovingly, and willingly. The sacrifices of the priests offer surface cleansing on an annual basis. The blood of Christ cleanses us down to the conscience and is once and for all effective. He, that is Christ, has effectively put away sin once and for all. For Jewish Christians suffering for their faith, the appeal to return to their old way would have had a surface appeal. It would have seemed comfortable and an effective way to avoid notice or persecution. But they would have given up the real for what was at best an out-of-date copy.

The author also tells us that the blood of Christ “cleanses your conscience from dead works.” The conscience is a powerful part of our makeup. The conscience is like a wristwatch or a wall clock, and it’s very useful if two things are true. 1) It must be operating properly, and 2) it must be set to the correct time. A wristwatch that is running haywire is useless. One that keeps time but is 40 minutes late is only a little better. Having our conscience be our guide can be dangerous. Psychotics and sociopaths have a conscience that is running amok. Without their conscience bothering them, they can torture, kill, or even cannibalize their victims. The conscience can be highly trained and scrupulously functioning but wrong. Nazi SS soldiers were highly conscientious to do what they believed was right, and they did so with a clear conscience. Thankfully the blood of Christ can heal, cure, repair, and reset our conscience. The cleansed conscience is still not foolproof, but it is moving in the right direction. Never trust a conscience that has not been touched by the blood of Christ.

“Lord, keep my conscience attuned to You and Your holiness. AMEN”