Monday: Cleansed and Sincere
Read Hebrews 10:22. What conditions for approaching God in the heavenly sanctuary are laid down in this verse?
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According to this verse, worshipers should meet four conditions when they draw near to God:
1. Come with a sincere heart. The heart is our inner being, our thoughts, our motivations, our emotions, our will, and our character. God wants us to be sincere. However, the heart can become sincere only if it is cleansed. This doesn’t mean that we are perfect, just that we are striving toward revealing the character of Christ.
2. Come in full assurance of faith. As we saw in yesterday’s study, there is no more reason to doubt that we will gain access to God.
3. Come with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. The sprinkling of the heart is sanctuary language that refers back to the blood sprinkled upon the people at the wilderness tabernacle (Exod. 24:8; Lev. 8:23-24, which made them ritually clean but could not cleanse their conscience (Heb. 9:9, Heb 9:13). The cleansing in the true tabernacle in heaven, however, is a cleansing of the conscience, brought about by the blood of Christ (Heb. 9:14). The justification of the repentant sinner is symbolized by this cleansing. We can have a clear conscience because we have been forgiven.
4. Come with our bodies washed with pure water. This sounds like an allusion to Christian baptism but we can also understand it in a more spiritual sense as the “washing of water with the word” (Eph. 5:26, NASB), reading the Bible and applying its principles to our lives.
In James 4:7-8, James struggles with the “double-minded” attitude of his readers. They have apparently lost their single-mindedness toward God. They have compromised and are in immediate danger. He uses language associated with purity at the sanctuary. It is truly a sanctuary concept that approaching God is possible only if purification takes place.
It should be clear that only God can cleanse our hearts. The question is: what painful choices do we make that allow Him to do this work of grace in our lives?
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Thanks be to God. May He make clean, pure our conscience.
some bible translations used the word guilty conscience and others use the word evil conscience,is there no difference between the two
when i think of evil conscience , i know all men are born with sin , the bible said the heart of man is desperately wicked or evil,so if jesus's blood cleanses us from such a heart, it makes more sense to me, so that i will not thinking of evil rather the mind of Christ will be in me, Ezekiel in this new covenant he will give a new heart.Then guilty conscience is what we feel , when we realise that we have done wrong, another meaning , that is to say , i don't have to feel bad or even afraid to come to God and recieve pardon because of what jesus has done.
As we consider how God has purge from our sins, through the blood of His son Jesus, our response to; It should be clear that only God can cleanse our hearts. The question is: what painful choices do we make that allow Him to do this work of grace in our lives? Our response should be ; Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord,to Thee;Take my hands, and let them move At the impulse of thy love. Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee; Take my voice, and let me sing Always, only, for my King. Take my lips, and let them be Filled with messages from Thee; Take my silver and my gold, Not a mite would I withhold. Take my will and make it Thine; It shall be no longer mine; Take my heart, it is Thine own! It shall be Thy royal throne.Take my love; my Lord, I pour At Thy feet its treasure store;Take myself, and I will be, Ever, only, all for Thee,Ever, only, all for Thee.
God is the giver of life. We have assuance that he is interceeding for us as he does his work as intercessor. We need Jesus to be our High Priest, when we are sincere God can correct us and remove our character deficts. There is victory in having a sincere heart to serve Christ. It is also, valuable to humanity because we becoming willing to see the needs of others and help to fulfill that need. We live as peace makers here and now. God need believers that are willing to do his work to bless man kind with the intercession of his Son. Amen