Read
the focus verse again, and considerate it at face value and be
amazed!
Speaking
in the editorial “we”, the writer of Hebrews, officially
anonymous, is confident of
his good conscience.
While at first this may seem an utterly arrogant statement, given the
pervasive sin in the human heart - a heart so universally and
desperately wicked (Jer
17:9) that even we ourselves cannot plumb the depths of its darkness
- in reality it is a declaration of praise and a tribute to the
ultimate superiority of Christ over all else.
The
writer's conscience is good, not because of himself, but because the
writer has been remade in his Savior's image, adopted into the family
of God rather than imprisoned in the family of Adam, and is in
all things desiring to live honorably.
These
three things are only conceivable in
Christ,
and should be a tremendous source of joy to all who believe.
We
are all made new in Christ. The old things have passed away and we
are new creations. We are moment-by-moment being transformed into the
image of Christ, and the completed work is guaranteed by God Himself.
We
have been rescued from the slavery of sin and made permanently a part
of God's family, legally, positionally, and in the end,
experientially. All this by faith in His Son.
Now,
we desire
to do good and eschew evil. This is a supernatural occurrence,
something that can only be true in a regenerated spirit. That is not
to say that we succeed in that desire, but it is to say that the
desire itself is a work of God, an aspect of the sanctifying He does
within us after coming to faith.
This
last point is irrefutable given Scripture's indictment of the
unregenerate man. Note God's view of the unsaved:
As
it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There
is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.” “Their throat
is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;
“The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Whose mouth is full
of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Destruction and misery are in their ways; And the way of peace
they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their
eyes.” (Romans 3:10-18, NKJV).
But
we are all like an unclean thing, And all our
righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a
leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. (Isaiah
64:6, NKJV).
In
contrast, do you see the reason for joy in the writer's statement
above? He is not saying anything about himself directly, but is only
stating the facts of his redemption through Christ. It is none of his
doing and all the Lord's, and because that is so, it is certain “to
take”. He is on the road to guaranteed eternal righteousness and
therefore destined irrevocably for eternal life, rather than
inevitable eternal punishment.
This
is the joy of our salvation.
Note
too his humble request for prayer, coupled with his longing to be
reunited with the recipients of this wondrous epistle, to be
restored to them the sooner.
What
kind of prayer is he requesting? I suspect ones like these:
that
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to
you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the
eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what
is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His
power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty
power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and
seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, (Ephesians
1:17-20, NKJV).
that
He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be
strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that
Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted
and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints
what is the width and length and depth and height-- to know the love
of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the
fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19, NKJV).
And
this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in
knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that
are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the
day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which
are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians
1:9-11, NKJV).
There
is no amount of penance that can cleanse a human conscience; no human
act of contrition, no self-sacrifice, no self-inflicted punishment
that can undo the guilt of sin, nor take away its stain.
But
there is cleansing freely offered in Christ through his
substitutionary death on the Cross. Through faith in His sacrifice,
our sin is appropriated by Him, while, in return, we receive His
righteousness. It is a transaction that could only have been
performed by God Himself. Dare we hold onto any guilt in view of His
miraculous grace and atonement?
It
is sheer blasphemy and human pride to not let go of the guilt of our
past. We have been forgiven by the most exorbitant act imaginable:
Christ's sacrifice. To believe, feel or think otherwise is to declare
that His work is insufficient.
Hence,
like the writer of Hebrews, we are confident that we have a good
conscience, for:
If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9,
NKJV).
Beloved,
do not hold onto the past, nor the guilt of the past, but follow the
example of our brother Paul:
Brethren,
I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind and
reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the
goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 3:13, 14, NKJV).
