OTHERWISE, WOULD THEY NOT HAVE CEASED TO BE OFFERED: epei ouk an epausanto
(3PAMI) prospheromenai (PPPFPN): (He 10:17; 9:13,14; Psalms 103:12;
Isaiah 43:25; 44:22; Micah 7:19)
Otherwise
(1893)
is a conjunction which means in other respects or under different
conditions.
Cease
(3973)
(pauo
[word study]) means to cease from an activity in which one is engaged.
This verse implies that the Temple sacrifices were still being carried
out, which would date the writing of Hebrews prior to 70AD, the date
of the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem by the Roman
general Titus (who later became Emperor).
Offered
(4374)
(prosphero from prós = to, toward + phéro =
bring) means to carry or bring something into the presence of someone
usually implying a transfer of something to that person carry to. It
refers to an offering, whether of gifts, prayers, or sacrifices.
Vincent...
The
present
participle brings out more forcibly the continuous repetition: “Ceased
being offered.”
BECAUSE THE
WORSHIPERS HAVING ONCE BEEN CLEANSED WOULD NO LONGER HAVE HAD CONSCIOUSNESS OF SINS:
dia to medemian echein (PAN) eti suneidesin hamartion tous latreuontas (PAPMPA)
hapax kekatharismenous (RPPMPA):
The worshipers
(3000)
(latreuo
[word study]
from latris = one
hired or latron = reward, wages) means to work for reward, for
hire or for pay, to be in servitude, render cultic service.
Latreuo was used literally for bodily service (e.g., workers on
the land, or slaves), and figuratively for “to cherish.”
In the NT the idea is to render service to God, to worship, to perform
sacred services or to minister to God in a spirit of worship.
John
MacArthur explains that latreuo
"might best be translated “to
render respectful spiritual service.” True worship goes beyond
praising God, singing hymns, or participating in a worship service.
The essence of worship is living a life of obedient service to God.
“Do not neglect doing good and sharing,” exhorts the writer of
Hebrews, “for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Hebrews 13:16-
note).
True worship involves every aspect of life." (MacArthur,
J. Philippians. Chicago: Moody Press)
Latreuo
can therefore convey either the idea of "worship" or "service"
and frequently appears to mean both which suggests that "service"
cannot be separated from "worship."
Many Christians
desire to "worship" the Lord on Sunday but are too busy to "serve" Him
at other times. The New Testament knows nothing of this dichotomy. On
the other hand notice that the order in Scripture is first “worship”
and then “serve”. Acknowledgment of God Himself must have
precedence over activity in His service. Service to God derives its
effectiveness from engagement of the heart with God. Any true
worshipper of God is also a servant, ready to do his Master's bidding,
discharging his or her priestly duties.
Anna the
prophetess exemplifies latreuo in action for even thought she
was
"a widow ... age of
eighty-four...she never left the temple, serving (latreuo)
night and day with fastings and prayers." (Lk
2:37)
How did she
"serve"? "Fastings and prayers"! From Anna's example, one can see how
the serving aspect of latreuo overlaps with the idea of
worship.
Once
(530)
(hapax) means once for all. The idea is that which is done has
perpetual validity and never needs repetition. The animal sacrifices
could not effect such a "cure".
Once in
Hebrews - Heb 6:4 Heb 7:27 Heb 9:7, 12, 26, 27, 28 Heb 10:2, 10 Heb
12:26, 27
F B Meyer
on the word "once"...
ONCE
Hebrews 9:26, 27, 28, 10:2-10
THERE is a word here which recurs,
like a note on an organ beneath the tumult of majestic sound. Five
times, at least, it rolls forth its thunder, pealing through all ages,
echoing through all worlds, announcing the finality of an accomplished
redemption to the whole universe of God "ONCE!" And there is another
phrase which we must couple with it, spoken by the parched lips of the
dying Saviour, yet with a loud voice, as though it were the cry of a
conqueror: "When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, he said,
'It is finished'; and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost." It is
very seldom that man can look back on a finished life-work. The chisel
drops from the paralyzed hand ere the statue is complete; the chilling
fingers refuse to guide the pen along another line, though the book is
so nearly done; the statesman must leave his plans and far-reaching
schemes to be completed by another, perhaps his rival. But as from his
cross Jesus Christ our Lord looked upon the work of redemption which
he had undertaken, and in connection with which he had suffered even
to the hiding of his Father's face, he could not discover one stitch,
or stone, or particle deficient. For untold myriads for thee and me
and all there was done that which never needed to be done again, but
stood as an accomplished fact forevermore.
I. THE "ONCE" OF A COMPLETED WORK
(Heb. 9:26). In these words there
is a sigh of relief. A thought had for a moment flashed across the
sunlit page of Scripture, which had suggested an infinite horror. In
pursuing the parallels between the incidents of the great day of
atonement and the great day when Jesus died, we had been suddenly
reminded of the fact that the solemn spectacle was witnessed once a
year " The high-priest entereth into the holy place every year with
blood of others" (Heb. 9:25). Every year the same rites performed, the
same blood shed, the same propitiation made. Suppose that, after the
same analogy, Jesus had suffered every year! Every year the agony of
the shadowed garden! Every year the bitter anguish of the cross! Every
year the burial in the garden tomb! Then earth would have been
overcast with midnight, and life would have been agony! Who could bear
to see him suffer often! But there was no necessity for him to suffer
more than once; because repetition means imperfection, of which, in
his work, there is no sign or trace. There petition of the sacrifices
of the Jewish law meant that they could not take away sin, or make the
comers thereunto perfect. Again and again the crowd of pious Jews
gathered, driven to seek deliverance from the conscience of sins,
which brooded deeply and darkly over their souls. Perhaps they would
receive momentary respite as they saw the elaborate ceremonial, and
felt that they were included in the high-priest's confession and
benediction. And so they wended their way homeward; but ere long a
weary sense of dissatisfaction would again betake them: they would
reflect on the inadequacy of the atonement which stood only in the
offering of the life of slain beasts. Sins were remembered, but not
put away; it was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats could do
that (Heb. 10:4). And so, doubtless, in the more thoughtful, hearts
must have failed, and consciences moaned out their weary plaint
unsatisfied. Therefore the sacrifices had to be presented continually.
On the other hand, Christ's work needs no repetition. It is final
because it is perfect. Its perfection is attested, because it has
never been repeated. "In that he died, he died unto sin once." Our
Saviour set his hand to save us: he did not mean to faith he came into
our world with this distinct purpose; he died to do it; and, having
done it, he went home to God. But if from the vantage-ground of the
throne, reviewing his work, he had discerned any deficiency or flaw,
he would have come back to make it good; and, inasmuch as he has not
done so, we may be sure that the death of the cross is perfectly
satisfactory. "Now once, in the end of the ages, hath he appeared to
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Oh, ponder these wondrous
words! Once. He liveth forevermore; and shall never again pass for a
moment under the dark shadow of death.
He hath appeared (or been
manifested). What then? He must have existed previously. The
incarnation was but the embodiment in visible form of One who existed
before all worlds; and the death of the cross was the unfolding in a
single act of eternal facts in the nature of God. As the great
sun-disk may be mirrored in a tiny mountain tarn, so in the one day of
crucifixion, there were set forth to men, angels, and devils, love,
sacrifice, and redeeming mercy, which are part of the very essence of
God. Marvelous, indeed, the rending of the veil, by which such marvels
are revealed.
In the end of the world (or of the
ages). God is called the King of Ages. Time is probably as much a
creation as space or distance or matter. It is an accommodation to
finite thought; a parenthesis in eternity; a rainbow flung across the
mighty age of deity. We break time into hours; God breaks it into
ages. There are ages behind us, and ages before. We stand on a narrow
neck of land between two seas. The first age of which we know anything
is that of creation. The second, of Paradise. The third, of the world
before the flood. The fourth, of the Patriarchs. The fifth, of Moses,
ending with the fall of Jerusalem, and the death of the Messiah. The
sixth, of the Gentiles, in which we live. And before us, we can dimly
descry the forms of the Age of Millennium; the Age of Regeneration and
Restitution; the Age of Judgment; and the Age in which the kingdom
shall be delivered to the Father. There is thus a complete analogy
between the creation of the material world, and the creation of the
new heavens and earth. Geologists love to enumerate the strata of the
earth's formation through which the processes of world -building were
carried; and we shall probably discover some day that God has been
building up the new creation through successive ages of history and
development. Christ's death is here said to have happened at the end
of the ages; and we should at once see the force of this, even though
there may remain several great ages to be fulfilled, ere time run out
its course, if only we knew how many ages have preceded. Compared to
the number that have been, this is the end, the climax, the ridge of
the weary climb; what lies beyond are the miles of level surface, to
the sudden dip down of the cliffs in face of the ocean of eternity.
He hath put away sin. Oh, marvelous
word! It might be rendered to annihilate, to make as if it had never
been. The wreath of cloud may disappear, but the separated drops still
float through space. The bubble may break on the foam-tipped wave, but
the film of water has gone to add its attenuated addition to the ocean
depth. But Jesus has put sin away as when a debt is paid, an
obligation is canceled, or a sin-laden victim was slain, burned, and
buried in the old days of Moses. All sin, the sin of the world, the
accumulated sin of mankind was made to meet in Jesus. He was made sin.
He stood before the universe as though he had drawn upon himself all
the human sin which has ever rent the air or befouled the earth, or
put the stars of night to the blush; and, bearing the shame, the
horror, the penalty during those dread hours which rung from him the
cry of desolate forsakenness, he put it away, and wiped it out
forever; and, in doing this, he has put away the penal results of
Adam's fall. The inherited tendencies to evil remain in all the race;
but the spiritual penalty which Adam incurred for himself and all of
us, as our representative and head, has been canceled by the
sufferings and death of our glorious representative and head, the
Second Adam, the Lord from heaven. Men will still have to suffer the
penalty of sins which they voluntarily commit, and for which they do
not seek forgiveness and cleansing through the blood; but men will not
have to suffer the penalty which otherwise must have accrued to them,
as members of a fallen race-fallen with their first parents and
father, because Jesus put away that when he died. And thus it is that
the multitudes of sweet babes, idiots, and others who belong to Adam's
race, but have had no opportunity of personal transgression, are able
to enter without let or hindrance into the land where there entereth
nothing which defileth.
By the sacrifice of himself. Not by
his example, fair and lovely though it was. Not by his teaching,
though the food of the world. Not by his works, the source and
fountain-head of modern philanthropy. But by his death, and by his
death as a sacrifice. If you want to understand a writer, you must
know the sense in which he uses his characteristic words, and you must
carefully study the definitions which he gives of them. And if you
would understand the meaning of Christ's death, you must go back to
the definitions, given in minute detail in Leviticus, of the meaning
of sacrifice, atonement, and propitiation, by which that death is
afterward described; and Only so much you dare to interpret. Whatever
sacrifice meant in Leviticus, it means when applied to the death of
the cross. And surely there can be no controversy that of old it stood
for the substitution of the innocent for the guilty; the canceling of
deserved penalty because it had been borne by another; the wiping out
of sin by the shedding of blood. All this it must mean when applied to
the death of Christ, with this difference, that of old the suffering
was borne and death endured involuntarily; but in the case of our
blessed Redeemer, God in him took home to himself, voluntarily and
freely, the accumulated results of a world's sin, and suffered them,
and made them as if they had never been. "He put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself." What was the death of Christ? "A martyrdom,"
cries modern thought. "A mischance in an unenlightened age," replies
the reviewer. "An outcome of all such efforts to battle with evil,"
says the broad-church teacher.
II. "A SACRIFICE!"
Thunders this Book. A voluntary
sacrifice! A voluntary sacrifice by which sin has been borne and put
away. Here we rest, content to abide, in a world of mystery, at the
foot of one mystery more, which, despite all its mystery, answers the
cry of a convicted conscience, and sheds the peace of heaven through
our hearts.
III. THE "ONCE" OF MORTALITY
(Heb. 9:27). With a few exceptions
mentioned on the page of Scripture, where miracles of raising are
recounted, men die but once. For those there was one cradle, two
coffins; one birth, two burials. But for most it is mercifully
arranged that the agony and pain of dissolution should be experienced
only once. And this, which is the ordinary lot of humanity, also
befell Jesus Christ. He could not die often, because he was literally
man, and it would have been inconsistent to violate in his case the
universal law. He must become man, because only through the portal of
birth could he reach the bourne of death; but, having been born, and
assumed our nature, he must obey the laws of that nature, and die but
once.
IV. THE "ONCE" OF DEITY
(Heb. 9:28). There must have been
something more than mortal in him, who in his one death could bear
away the sins of many. Good and great men have died, who would have
done anything to cancel or atone for the sins of their nation, their
family, and their beloved; but in vain. How marvelous then must be his
worth, whose sufferings and death will counterveil for a world's sin!
And we can see the imperious necessity that our Saviour should be God
manifest in the flesh; and that he who became obedient to the death of
the cross should be also he who was in the form of God, and thought it
not robbery to be God's equal. If it be true that his death "once" has
put away sin, then, bring hither your songs of worship, your wreaths
of empire, your ascriptions of lowliest adoration; for he must be God.
No being of inferior make could do for man what, in that brief but
dreadful darkness, he has done once for all, and forever.
V. THE "ONCE" OF A PURGED CONSCIENCE
(Heb. 10:2). We are not in the
position of the Jews, needing to repeat their sacrifices year by year,
in sad monotony; our sacrifice has been offered once for all.
Therefore, we have not, like them, the perpetual conscience of sins.
Our hearts are, once and forever, sprinkled from an evil conscience
(Heb. 9:22). There is no necessity to ask repeatedly for forgiveness
for the sins that have been once confessed and forgiven. God does not
accuse us of them; we need not accuse ourselves. God does not remember
them; we may well forget them, save as incentives to gratitude and
humility. There is daily need for fresh confession of recent sin; but
when once the soul realizes the completeness of Christ's work on its
behalf, it cries with great joy: "As far as the east is from the west,
so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."
VI. THE "ONCE" OF A FULFILLED PURPOSE
(Heb. 10:10). Space forbids our
lingering longer. In our next chapter we may show how completely the
purpose of God has been realized in Jesus, and, therefore, that there
is no necessity for a repetition of his sacrificial work. The will or
purpose of God for man's redemption asks for nothing more than that
which is given it in the life and death of our Saviour. Nothing more
is required for the glory of God, for the accomplishment of the divine
counsels, or for the perfect deliverance and sanctification of those
who believe.
"Once for all, O sinner, receive
it!
Once for all, O brother, believe it!
Cling to the cross, the burden will fall;
Christ has redeemed us, once for all"
F. B. Meyer. The Way Into the Holiest
Cleansed
(2511)
(katharizo
from katharos = pure, clean, without stain or
spot; English words - catharsis = emotional or physical purging,
cathartic = substance used to induce a purging, Cathar = member of a
medieval sect which sought the purging of evil from its members) means
to make clean by taking away an undesirable part. To cleanse from
filth or impurity.
Click here
(and
here) for more
background on the important Biblical concept of clean and
cleansing.
Figuratively
katharizo referred to cleansing from ritual contamination or
impurity as in (Acts 10:15). In a similar sense katharizo is used of
cleansing lepers from ceremonial uncleanness (Mt 8:2-3, et al)
Another
figurative use in 1John 1:9 (cf James 4:8, Hebrews 10:2) describes the
purifying or cleansing from sin and a guilty conscience thus making
one acceptable to God and reestablishing fellowship.
To cause to
become clean as from physical stains and dirt (Mt 23:25).
This word group
conveys the idea of physical, religious, and moral cleanness or purity
in such senses as clean, free from stains or shame, and free from
adulteration.
In secular Greek
katharizo occurs in inscriptions for ceremonial cleansing.
There are 31
uses of katharizo in the NT...
Matthew 8:2 And behold, a
leper (see Lev 13) came to Him, and bowed down to Him, saying, "Lord,
if You are willing, You can make me clean." 3 And He
stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be
cleansed." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. (Comment:
cleansing leprosy had religious, physical, and cultural implications
because it was regarded as a defilement and hence made the leper
ritually unclean and entailed in the lepers segregation from everyday
society. The cleansing of leprosy had religious implications and thus
the healing had to be verified by priests before the person was
sanctioned as ritually cleansed).
Matthew 10:8 "Heal the sick,
raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons; freely you
received, freely give.
Matthew 11:5 the blind
receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and
the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the
gospel preached to them.
Matthew 23:25 "Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of
the cup and of the dish (Mark 7:4), but inside they are full of
robbery (Luke 16:14, 20:47) and self-indulgence. 26 "You blind
Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so
that the outside of it may become clean also. (see parallel verse Luke
11:39)
Mark 1:40 And a leper came
to Him, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying
to Him, "If You are willing, You can make me clean." 41
And moved with compassion, He stretched out His hand, and touched him,
and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed." 42 And
immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.
Mark 7:19 because it does
not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?" (Thus
He declared all foods clean.)
Luke 4:27 "And there were
many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet (2Ki 7:3); and
none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian (2Ki
5:1-14)."
Luke 5:12 And it came about
that while He was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man full
of leprosy; and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and implored
Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me
clean." 13 And He stretched out His hand, and touched him, saying,
"I am willing; be cleansed." And immediately the leprosy
left him.
Luke 7:22 And He answered
and said to them, "Go and report to John what you have seen and heard:
the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel
preached to them.
Luke 11:39 But the Lord said
to him, "Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of
the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and
wickedness.
Luke 17:14 And when He saw
them, He said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And it
came about that as they were going, they were cleansed...17 And
Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But the
nine-- where are they?
Acts 10:15 And again a voice
came to him a second time, "What God has cleansed, no longer
consider unholy." (see cross references - Romans 14:2, 14, 20; 1 Tim.
4:4; Titus 1:15; Matthew 15:11; Mark 7:15)
Acts 11:9 "But a voice from
heaven answered a second time, 'What God has cleansed, no
longer consider unholy.'
Acts 15:9 and He made no
distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by
faith.
2 Corinthians 7:1 Therefore,
having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves
from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the
fear of God.
Ephesians 5:26 (note)
that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing
of water with the word,
Titus 2:14 (note)
who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless
deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession,
zealous for good deeds.
Hebrews 9:14 (note)
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God?
Hebrews 9:22 (note)
And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are
cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no
forgiveness. 23 Therefore it was necessary for the copies of
the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but
the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. (Comment:
consecrate by cleansing or purifying)
Hebrews 10:2 (note)
Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the
worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no
longer have had consciousness of sins?
James 4:8 Draw near to God
and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners;
and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
1 John 1:7 but if we walk in
the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one
another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all
sin.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Katharizo
is used 93 times in the
Septuagint (LXX)
(Note the predominance of uses in Leviticus) (Gen. 35:2; Exod. 20:7;
29:36f; 30:10; 34:7; Lev. 8:15; 12:7f; 13:6f, 13, 17, 23, 28, 34f, 37,
59; 14:2, 4, 7f, 11, 14, 17ff, 23, 25, 28f, 31, 48, 57; 15:13, 28;
16:19f, 30; 22:4; Num. 6:9; 8:15; 12:15; 14:18; 30:5, 8, 12; 31:23f;
Deut. 5:11; 19:13; Jos. 22:17; 1 Sam. 20:26; 2 Ki. 5:10, 12ff; 2 Chr.
29:15; 34:3, 5, 8; Ezra 6:20; Neh. 12:30; 13:9, 22, 30; Job 1:5; Ps.
12:6; 19:12f; 51:2, 7; Prov. 25:4; Isa. 53:10; 57:14; 66:17; Jer.
13:27; 25:29; 33:8; Ezek. 24:13; 36:25, 33; 37:23; 39:12, 14, 16;
43:26; 44:26; Dan. 8:14; 11:35; Hos. 8:5; Mal. 3:3).
Here are a few
representative uses...
Genesis 35:2 So Jacob said
to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign
gods which are among you, and purify (Lxx = katharizo)
yourselves, and change your garments
Psalm 12:6 The words of the
LORD are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth,
refined (Lxx = katharizo = purified with the
perfect tense
= describing the
persistent state of purification of God's Word) seven times.
Psalm 19:13 Also keep back
Thy servant from presumptuous sins; Let them not rule over me; Then I
shall be blameless, And I shall be acquitted (Lxx = katharizo =
cleansed of) of great transgression.
Psalm 51:2 Wash me
thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse (Lxx = katharizo) me
from my sin.
Psalm 51:7 Purify me with
hyssop, and I shall be clean (Lxx = katharizo); Wash me, and I
shall be whiter than snow.
Malachi 3:3 "And He
(Messiah) will sit as a smelter and purifier (Lxx = katharizo)
of silver, and He will purify (Lxx = katharizo) the sons
of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present
to the LORD offerings in righteousness.
John Donne
spoke of spiritual cleansing...
Sleep with clean hands, either kept
clean all day by integrity or washed clean at night by repentance.
Roy Hession
(The Calvary Road) noted that one of the dominant themes of the
great awakening in East Africa was a constant cleansing from sin which
prompted him to write
We do not lose peace with God over
another person's sin, but only over our own. Only when we are willing
to be cleansed, will we have His peace.
No
(3367)
(medeis from medé = and not, also not + heís =
one) means not even one.
Longer
(2089)
(eti) refers to extension of time up to and beyond an expected
point.
Consciousness
(4893)
(suneidesis
[word study]
from sun = with + eido = know) literally means a
"knowing with", a co-knowledge with oneself or a being of one's own
witness in the sense that one's own conscience "takes the stand" as
the chief witness, testifying either to one's innocence or guilt. It
describes the witness borne to one's conduct by that faculty by which
we apprehend the will of God.
Suneidesis
- 30x in 29v - Acts 23:1; 24:16; Rom 2:15; 9:1; 13:5; 1 Cor 8:7, 10,
12; 10:25, 27ff; 2 Cor 1:12; 4:2; 5:11; 1 Tim 1:5, 19; 3:9; 4:2; 2 Tim
1:3; Titus 1:15; Heb 9:9, 14; 10:2, 22; 13:18; 1 Pet 2:19; 3:16, 21.
NAS = conscience(24), conscience'(4), consciences(1),
consciousness(1).
Webster
defines "conscience" as the sense or consciousness of the moral
goodness or blameworthiness of one’s own conduct, intentions, or
character together with a feeling of obligation to do right or be
good.
The Greek noun
suneidesis is the exact counterpart of the Latin con-science,
“a knowing with,” a shared or joint knowledge. It is our awareness of
ourselves in all the relationships of life, especially ethical
relationships. We have ideas of right and wrong; and when we perceive
their truth and claims on us, and will not obey, our souls are at war
with themselves and with the law of God
Suneidesis
is that process of thought which distinguishes what it considers
morally good or bad, commending the good, condemning the bad, and so
prompting to do the former and avoid the latter.
To have a "clear
conscience" does not
mean that we have never sinned or do not commit acts of sin. Rather,
it means that the underlying direction and motive of life is to obey
and please God, so that acts of sin are habitually recognized as such
and faced before God (1Jn 1:9)
A "clear
conscience" consists in
being able to say that there is no one (God or man) whom I have
knowingly offended and not tried to make it right (either by asking
forgiveness or restoration or both). Paul wanted Timothy to have no
doubt that he endured his present physical afflictions, as he had
countless others, because of his unswerving faithfulness to the Lord,
not as a consequence of unfaithful, ungodly living. So as Paul neared
his death, he could testify that his conscience did not accuse or
condemn him. His guilt was forgiven, and his devotion was undivided.
To continually reject God’s truth causes the conscience to become
progressively less sensitive to sin, as if covered with layers of
unspiritual scar tissue. Paul’s conscience was clear, sensitive, &
responsive to its convicting voice. Click on the books below to study
the NT picture of conscience.
NIV = and would no longer have
felt guilty for their sins.
The continued
consciousness of sins despite offering sacrifices for sins sums up the
the problem with the Old Covenant which could not cleanse the heart
and mind of guilt (He 9:9, 9:14-see notes
Heb 9:9,
9:14).
In marked contrast, the new covenant in Christ provides a clean
conscience and access to God to Whom worshipers can now draw near with
boldness.
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TODAY IN THE WORD - “Climax”
is a narrative term meaning a very important or exciting moment--a
moment at which the main character’s fate is decided, or at which the
audience discovers what the story is about or if the story has a happy
or sad ending. At least one “climax” is required in any form of story,
whether a novel, television drama, or classical opera. This might take
the form of a confrontation, a conversation or speech, a revealed
secret or sudden insight, a fight or battle, an escape, a choice, or
any event to which a storyteller or character gives great weight or
emphasis.
In the story of salvation, Jesus Christ is the “climax” of the Old
Testament sacrificial system. His actions determined the outcome of
the story, which is already guaranteed by God (cf. Eph. 1:4-10).
Why was Christ the climax or fulfillment of the old system? First, His
sacrifice was the reality, of which the preceding sacrifices had been
only shadows or forerunners (He 10:1; cf. Col 2:17). Second, His
sacrifice was powerful and effective, while the sacrifices that had
gone before were powerless to take away sin (He 10:3, 4, 10-14). His
sacrifice actually did all that the Law had only shadowed.
When Ro 10:4 calls Christ’s sacrifice the “end” of the Law, the Greek
word used is “telos.” “Telos” can mean a
stopping or cessation; or a goal, culmination, or fulfillment; and in
this case it probably suggests both. Christ’s sacrifice put a stop to
the old system, because the goal had been reached. The price for sin
had been paid.
A whole “new” system is now established. Instead of worshipers making
burnt offerings and sin offerings, we see the total submission and
obedience of our Savior (Heb. 10:5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10). His once-for-all
sacrifice is the basis for faith and worship. It has already made us
perfect forever, yet paradoxically is still working to make us holy
(He 10:14). (MBI
- Today in the Word)
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Andrew Murray...
THE SACRIFICES OF THE
LAW
CANNOT MAKE PERFECT
Hebrews 10:1-4.
WE have now seen the Priest for ever, able to save completely (Hebrews
7.); the true sanctuary in which He ministers (Hebrews 8.); and the
blood through which the sanctuary was opened, and we are cleansed to
enter in (Hebrews 9.). There is still a fourth truth of which mention
has been made in passing, but which has not yet been expounded, What
is the way into the Holiest, by which Christ entered in? What is the
path in which He walked when He went to shed His blood and pass
through the veil to enter in and appear before God? In other words,
what was it that gave His sacrifice its worth, and what the
disposition, the inner essential nature of that mediation that secured
His acceptance as our High Priest. The answer to be given in the first
eighteen verses of this chapter will form the conclusion of the
doctrinal half of the Epistle, and especially of the higher teaching
it has for the perfect.
To prepare the way for the answer, the chapter begins with once again
reminding us of the impotence of the law. The law having a shadow of
the good things to come, not the very image of the things. The law had
only the shadow, not the substance. The gospel gives us the very
image. The image of God in which man was created was an actual
spiritual reality. The Son Himself, as the image of the Father, was
His true likeness---ever in possession of His Father's life and glory.
When man makes an image, it is but a dead thing. When God gives an
image it is a living reality, sharing in the life and the attributes
of the original. And so the gospel brings us not a shadow, a picture,
a mental conception, but the very image of the heavenly things, so
that we know and have them, really taste and possess them.
A shadow is first of all a picture,
an external figure, giving a dim apprehension of good things to come.
Then, as the external passes away, and sight is changed into faith,
there comes a clearer conception of divine and heavenly blessings. And
then faith is changed into possession and experience, and the Holy
Spirit makes the power of Christ's redemption and the heavenly life a
reality within us. Some Christians never get beyond the figures and
shadows; some advance to faith in the spiritual good set forth;
blessed they who go on to full possession of what faith had embraced.
In expounding what the law is not able to do, the writer uses four
remarkable expressions which, while they speak of the weakness of the
law with its shadows, indicate at the same time what the good things
to come are, of which Christ is to bring us the very image, the divine
experience.
The priests can never make perfect them that draw nigh. This is what
Christ can do. He makes the conscience perfect. He hath perfected us
for ever. These words suggest the infinite difference between what the
law could do, and Christ has truly brought. What they mean in the mind
of God, and what Christ our High Priest in the power of an endless
life can make them to be to us, this the Holy Spirit will reveal. Let
us be content with no easy human exposition, by which we are content
to count the ordinary low experience of the slothful Christian--the
hope of being pardoned, as an adequate fulfilment of what God means by
the promises of the perfect conscience. Let us seek to know the
blessing in its heavenly power.
The worshippers once cleansed would have had no more conscience of
sins. This is the perfect conscience--when there is no more conscience
of sins--a conscience that, once cleansed in the same power in which
the blood was once shed, knows how completely sin has been put away
out of that sphere of spiritual fellowship with God to which it has
found access.
In those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year.
The cleansing of the heavens and the putting away of sin is so
complete that with God our sins are no more remembered. And it is
meant that the soul that enters fully into the Holiest of All, and is
kept there by the power of the eternal High Priest, should have such
an experience of His eternal, always lasting, always acting
redemption, that there shall be no remembrance of aught but of what He
is and does and will do. As we live in the heavenly places, in the
Holiest of All, we live where there is no more remembrance of sins.
It is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away
sins. What is impossible for the law is what Christ has done. He takes
away not only guilt but sins, and that in such power of the endless
life that those that draw nigh are made perfect, that there is no more
conscience of sins, that there be no more remembrance of sins.
To how many Christians the cross and the death of Christ are nothing
so much as a remembrance of sins. Let us believe that by God's power,
through the Holy Spirit, revealing to us the way into the Holiest, it
may become the power of a life, with no more conscience of sins, and a
walk with a perfect conscience before God.
1. Here we have again the contrast between the two systems. In the one
God spake by the prophets, giving thoughts and conceptions--shadows of
the good things to come. But now He speaks to us in His Son, the
likeness of God, who gives us his very image, the actual likeness, in
our experience of the heavenly things. It is the deep contrast between
the outward and the inward--the created and the divine.
2. A perfect conscience. No more conscience of sin. Let me not fear
and say, Yes, this is the conscience Christ gives, but it is
impossible for me to keep it or enjoy its blessing permanently. Let me
believe in Him who is my Priest, after the power of an endless life,
who ever lives to pray, and is able to save completely, because every
moment His blood and love and power are in full operation,--the
perfect conscience in me, because He is for me in heaven a Priest
perfected for evermore.
Andrew Murray. The Holiest of All
