“How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:14)
If you are participating in the Bible Challenge 2022, then reading through Hebrews 9 is similar to what we have been reading in Exodus. While accepting this as God’s Word, it sometimes seems “old and strange and culturally foreign” to us. What relevance do tabernacles, altars, and the sprinkling of blood have to do with my life?
We find the connection in verse 14. All of these ‘old and strange and culturally foreign’ things have been replaced by the sacrifice of Christ, which begins what the author calls the “time of the new order.” (v.10) We see three benefits in this verse:
First, Jesus’ sacrifice is able to “cleanse our consciences from dead works.” From verse 9, we see that the practice of all the old things were unable to “perfect the worshiper’s conscience.” But, now, Jesus’ more perfect sacrifice is able to cleanse our conscience. Every person has a guilty conscience because everyone sins. The only solution for the guilt is for Jesus to cleanse it. There is nothing that modern medicine, technology, or psychology can do to cleanse the guilty conscience. Jesus made the perfect sacrifice.
Secondly, having a clean conscience allows us “to serve the living God.” Notice the progression. Jesus cleanses, then we serve. Our service, our good works, aren’t for the purpose of making us pleasing to God. Rather, their purpose is our rightful response of thanksgiving to our gracious Savior.
Finally, the Trinity is revealed in Jesus’ sacrifice. For, in verse 14, we see the mention of “the blood of Christ . . . the eternal Spirit . . . to God.” The remedy for the sin that started in the Garden of Eden and separated all men from God, was accomplished through the working of all persons of the Trinity. Our response can only be “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift” (2 Cor. 9:15).