Hebrews 9:14 “how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
Guilt, shame, distress, these are all factors that determine whether we can move on from past mistakes or continue to languish in an identity of brokenness.
The world wants you to remember and even embrace your mistakes but can we really make restitution for our past?
Some believe that spending a lifetime in prison is adequate compensation for failure. Others might say that one will forfeit their life when the crime is egregious enough to warrant it.
There is always consequences for sin. When the sin directly affects another then the legacy of failure lives on in the victim. Can moral failings have an expiration date?
Shame and regret are common among most people. Most people wish they had certain moments of life they could do over. Decisions that were ill conceived, reactions in a moment of intensity, or lapses in judgement are common within the lineage of Adam.
The Word of God gives hope.
Hebrews 10:22 “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
The process of purification requires an act of will, coupled with humility, and a recourse by which to be cleansed. There is a reason the Lord wants to cleanse and purify His people.
To serve the living God.
Believers cannot continue with the mindset of the world and be found effective in God’s Kingdom. The acts that lead to the moral failings came from a heart that is corrupt.
Romans 2:14-16 “or when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.”
Within the heart there are elements at work that lead people toward holiness. The law of the Lord is universal in authority and is found demonstrated within the heart of mankind. As Paul commented, even those who have no affiliation with the old law of Moses demonstrate a natural proclivity to the law because it is the Lord who wrote it upon their hearts.
Imagine, when the Lord God your Creator wove you together in your mother’s womb, He interlaced within the framework of your being a code that demonstrated His sacred holiness. The Moral law given to Moses was not new at the time of Moses, there were people before who acknowledged the sacredness of God by observing them. But rather the law was a reminder of a covenant relationship the Lord had formed with Israel and His desire to sanctify them and make them holy.
Exodus 20:20 “Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.”
The conscience is an individual’s sense of right and wrong. It is often measured through self-assessment, moral knowledge, and determined by the motivation to act ethically.
Everyone has a conscience, but the standard they use is often determined by the god they serve. The atheist will neglect the Word of God and decide that morality is founded on societal expectations, with a mindset to personal achievement. Whatever benefits the godless becomes their standard of morality. It is a standard that shifts with the times and changes to fit the current need. The law of the Lord is still written on their hearts, but they attribute its foundation to man and not to God.
For those who violate their own set of ethics, they experience personal shame but then try to justify themselves by self-prescribed ‘good deeds’, attempting to justify their actions.
A Right Understanding
When a person comes to the realization of God’s holiness, they discover a standard that holds them accountable.
Romans 7:7-10 “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.”
When a person walks in darkness, they essentially live apart from God’s holiness. The gospel becomes the purity of holiness which illuminates the darkness and exposes sin. Sin is defined by offending God’s law (1 John 3:4), so when the knowledge of the law affirms what their conscience already knew, it connects the individual to God.
The gospel must include a knowledge of the law, otherwise people cannot understand the need for a Savior. When the law affirms the position of the conscience, sin comes alive and eternal death becomes evident. For those who realize they cannot justify themselves by good deeds, the reality of having offended God’s law becomes the guilt of knowing they cannot make restitution on their own.
Romans 7:13 “Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.”
The law of the Lord is good, and since goodness is attributed only to God, the law becomes a reflection of the character of God.
Did you know that God has woven His character into your being?
When the world exalts mankind and praises the achievements of mere flesh, they miss God’s fingerprints and assign god-like attributes to mankind himself. There are so many false religions that exalt the attributes of man without acknowledging God.
Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.”
The gospel moves people from a position of ignorance, into a knowledge of the Holy.
A Right Decision
Once understanding has been given, then a decision must be made….
Will I reject the gospel and continue in my own standard of goodness, or will I accept my fate, my guilt, and look for some other hope besides myself?
False religion tells you to try harder, act better, and follow a particular set of man-made ideals that will justify you. Pray a certain prayer so many times, get dunked in a particular water in a certain temple, be true to yourself, practice kindness, change the scales, go to a particular church, identify as a particular follower…and the list goes on.
The law says….you are still guilty. You cannot change the past, therefore no manner of right living can elevate your position as a lawbreaker.
Romans 7:24 “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
This is the dilemma…I have offended God Himself, and no manner of good works can change the offense. My conscience reminds me of my moral failings and the law has elevated sin into a position of high treason against God’s throne.
What will I ever do? Where can I turn? Is there any recourse for a man condemned to die?
Romans 7:25 “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”
Once a conscience is turned to God, the heart begins to follow. A Savior has been given to the hopeless sinner, a sacrifice for sin, an opportunity to be justified. For those who accept God’s freewill offering of grace, they must humble themselves and believe and then turn from the sin that brought the offense.
The blood of the Lamb of God is sufficient for the cleansing and purifying of the guilty. It is only by Christ that we might be saved. There is no manner of good works that justifies the guilty. Jesus does it all. He gave His life that we now might have eternal life with Him.
The Good News
The gospel is the good news because it is the knowledge of God given to the hopeless. Once received, once believed, the sinner confesses their offenses from a guilty conscience and the guilt is then removed by the sprinkling of the blood of the Lamb.
Romans 8:1-4 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Jesus has fulfilled the law.
What we couldn’t do, He did. We owe Him everything. I choose now to honor the Lord by walking in obedience to the law out of love for Him. I was justified by Him, but now I walk in obedience out of relationship with Him.
The redeemed of the Lord have been cleansed and purified from a guilty conscience and now stand in right relationship with God. Their future is secure because it is established by God.
Do you want to be cleansed?
Know His salvation. The Spirit of God is given to the redeemed and He leads them in new life. It’s not religion, it is relationship.
Walk in the purity of holiness and you will know the freedom that is found in Christ alone.
U.T. 