Hebrews 9:14 says, “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” The blood by which the new covenant was enacted purifies our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. This indicates that in a sense the Old Testament priests served God in dead works. But today, instead of serving God in dead works, we may serve the living God in a living way. This is because our conscience has been purified by the blood of Christ from the dead works of the old creation.
The blood of Christ purifies our conscience to serve the living God. To serve the living God requires a blood-purified conscience. To worship in dead religion or to serve any dead thing other than God does not require that our conscience be purified. The conscience is the leading part of our spirit. The living God whom we desire to serve always comes to our spirit (John 4:24) by touching our conscience. He is righteous, holy, and living. Our defiled conscience needs to be purified so that we may serve Him in a living way. To worship God religiously in our mind does not require this.
Hebrews 9:14 speaks of “dead works” and “the living God.” Since we were dead (Eph. 2:1; Col. 2:13), whatever we did, bad or good, was dead works before the living God. Hebrews is a book which reveals the living God (3:12; 9:14; 10:31; 12:22). To touch this living God we need to exercise our spirit (4:12) and have a blood-purified conscience.
Whenever we have a feeling that we are sinful or wrong, our conscience is dirty and needs the blood to purify it. Christ shed His blood on the cross to meet all the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory. Then this blood was brought into heaven itself to be sprinkled before the face of God for our forgiveness and redemption. Our conscience within us corresponds to God in heaven. When God in heaven condemns, the conscience within us also condemns, and when God in heaven releases, our conscience also releases. Therefore, when the blood of Christ was sprinkled in the presence of God, our conscience was also sprinkled and released. For this reason we have a good conscience, and we have peace in our conscience.
Since the Lord’s blood cleanses us from our sins before God and His law, it purifies our conscience, thus enabling us to serve our living God with boldness. The blood of Christ is powerful enough to purge, or cleanse, our conscience from every guilty stain.
In keeping with this, 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Whenever we sin and sense guilt within, we may simply open to God and pray in this way: “Forgive me for what I did. Thank You that on the cross Christ died for me and paid for this sin that I have committed. I believe that this sin has been forgiven by You. Now I claim His precious blood to cleanse my conscience from any stain of guilt.”
Christ died nearly two thousand years ago. His blood was already shed and is always available to purify our conscience. His blood is all-powerful. Whenever we sense guilt in our conscience, we should immediately claim His precious blood. Through the precious blood of Christ, the problem of guilt is solved, and we have rest in our conscience.
We must have a purged and pure conscience, a conscience without offense, accusation, or condemnation, so that we may have the peace and assurance to serve God. Paul also tells us that in order to come near to God to contact Him, we must have a heart sprinkled from an evil, wicked, or defiled conscience (Heb. 10:22). If we have a pure conscience without offense or accusation, we will be at peace, and we will have the assurance of faith, the boldness, to contact God and serve Him.
If we do not know how to apply the blood of Christ, we will not know how to exercise our spirit. Whenever we come to exercise our spirit to contact God, we should apply the blood to cleanse our conscience. God is righteous, holy, and in glory, but we are sinful, evil, dirty, worldly, common, and short of His glory (Rom. 3:23). Therefore, we need the blood to bridge the gap between us and God so that we may come into His presence by exercising our spirit to contact Him. We must learn how to apply the blood. When we apply the blood, it gives us the victory over the accusations of the evil one, and we immediately have the peace within and the boldness to contact and serve God (Rev. 12:11).
We should make a thorough confession of our sins so that our conscience would be purified by the blood of Christ. Once our conscience is purged by the Lord’s blood, we can be poor in spirit. We will no longer feel that we know so much. We will be humble and hungry for the real experience of the Lord. If we are proud, our spirit will not be open to the Lord, and He will have no way to abide in us. But the purging of our conscience will issue in an open spirit.
If our conscience is not purified by the Lord’s blood and our spirit is not open to the Lord, if we are not poor in our spirit and pure in our heart, our mind will be loose and dull. For instance, when we come to the meetings and listen to the messages, we will have no discernment. But once our conscience is purged by the blood of Christ, our mind will be keen and our discernment clear. This is what the Scripture calls a sound, or sober, mind (2 Tim. 1:7). Whenever we hear a message, our mind will be sharp to grasp and confirm what is shared in the message.
A blood-purified conscience will also affect our emotion. Before we make a thorough confession of our sins, failures, and weaknesses, our emotion may be lukewarm. But once we have confessed, our lukewarm emotion will be set on fire with love for the Lord. We will declare, “Lord Jesus, I love You! I am on fire for You!” Our will also will be changed from being stubborn to being submissive. We will enjoy obeying the Lord (cf. Phil. 2:12), and we will be willing to obey Him in all things great or small.
With such a blood-purified conscience, open spirit, sober mind, loving emotion, and submissive will, there will be a flow of the Lord within our whole being. We will be abiding in Him and He in us. In this way the Lord will dispense Himself into us continually. There is no way for lifeless people to serve the living God. Through the redeeming blood of Christ, we have life and have been brought into the presence of God to serve Him. The blood of Christ makes it possible for us to serve the living God.