THE subject of Christian liberty is one of the deepest importance. At its very threshold lies the question of sin, for there can be no liberty in the presence of God until freedom from the condemnation attached to sin be known, and the conscience be clear before God. Man may avoid or shirk the question of sin, but if he does so he cannot know liberty before God. God is holy, man is sinful; how can a sinful man enjoy freedom in the presence of the holy God?
There is an answer given to this question in the tenth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the answer opens to us one phase of Christian liberty. Will the reader ponder the chapter from the first to the end of the twenty-second verse; and having done so, follow us in a few remarks upon it? It was in the nature of the sacrifices under the Jewish dispensation that they could never bring the worshippers into liberty. Could those sacrifices have effected such an end—could they really have taken away sin they should have ceased to be offered. The worshipper, once purged by them, should have had no more conscience of sins, and therefore there would have been no further need of the sacrifices. The blood of the sacrifice would have purged him, and being purged his conscience would have been at rest before God. That is to say, so far as his guilt as a sinner, and God’s claims as the righteous One were concerned. We do not here take up the question of the heart being at rest as a dear child before the Father, but simply the conscience of a man who is a sinner being purged, and his being before the holy God in the spirit of liberty, because purged. Now the ancient sacrifices could not make him that did the service, perfect as pertaining to the conscience (ch. 9:9), consequently A worshipper without a purged conscience (verses 1 & 2) marked the state of the Jewish worshipper; and such, alas, too frequently is that of the Christian!
By a worshipper in the passage before us is signified, one who serves God, who comes to God rendering Him religious homage. The great mass of professing Christians in our day render God religious homage, but, like the Jewish worshipper of old, they lack a purged conscience. They come to God rather to get their sins forgiven than to praise Him for forgiveness; far less can it be said of the millions who “attend religious worship,” that they worship the Father in spirit and truth. Thus it is that in the greater part of religious Christian service there is a remembrance of sins, rather than a remembrance of Him who died to put them away. Now, such a state of soul when coming to God shuts out liberty.
If we apply a practical test, our statement will be borne out by facts. The mass of “Christians attending their places of worship” would not dare say that their sins “are forgiven.” (1 John 2:1212I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. (1 John 2:12).) To them it would be arrogance and assumption to declare “We have been ‘once purged;’ we are, so far as our liberty before God is concerned, perfect. ‘We are sanctified,’ that is, we are saints, not sinners, though, alas, in practice, saints who often sin.” In coming to God, and in viewing the sacrifice of Christ, they are remembering their sins, and, alas, are continually pleading for forgiveness.
It may be desirable to notice here that conscience of sins and consciousness of sins are not alike. Every man has a conscience. He knows something concerning right and wrong. And the conscience of the professing Christian, when enlightened by the word of truth—when seeing what the holy God is, and what sinful man is, makes him tremble. But thus speaks the Holy Spirit:— “If the blood of bulls and of goats... sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ.... purge your conscience?” (chapter 9:13, 14.) Consciousness of sin is the sense of the sins which we have committed. None possess such acute consciousness of sins as those whose consciences have been purged by the blood of Christ, for none, save them, can (and yet without fear of condemnation) come into God’s presence and consider their sins and shortcomings. If a man lacks the consciousness of sin it is most serious, for “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” (1 John 1:1010If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:10).)
We now inquire—Why was it that the Jewish worshipper obtained not a purged conscience? It was because he offered—
Sacrifices which could never take away sins. (v. 3, 4.)
“Without shedding of blood is no remission.” (ch. 9:22.) Sins can only be expiated by death.
Such is the decree of God, and it is made upon the basis of His own holiness. Tears and prayers could never take away sins. No work or toil could remove them. Sins must be cleansed by blood. The ancient sacrifices were but types. There was nothing in them of intrinsic value Their actual worth consisted simply in what they foreshadowed. And, as our portion teaches they did not even, as types, give the very image of what they foreshadowed. They were not an exact likeness of the reality. The worshipper who offered them received a blessing, because they offered them in faith and in obedience to the word of God. Faith ever receives blessing. But the word is plain, “It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.” (v. 4.) How could the blood of the anima brought to the altar cleanse a responsible mar from his sins in the sight of God? How could such blood give an intelligent man rest of conscience, and open up for him the path of liberty in God’s holy presence!
The fact of sacrifices being constantly repeated shows their inefficacy. If otherwise, “would they not have ceased to be offered?” Moreover, the blood shed year by year upon the great Day of Atonement was a remembrance of sins that had been committed, and also that sins needed a continual cleansing. Had the sacrifice been perfect when it was offered it would have accomplished its end completely. The sins would have been removed. “Now where remission of these (sins) is, there is no more offering for sins.”
If these sacrifices of the Jewish age could not purge the conscience of the worshipper, far less did they please the heart of God.
God was not satisfied with such sacrifices.— (verses 1, 6, & 8). Viewing the comer to God with his conscience of sin, his consequent sorrow, his burden, his bondage, God was not satisfied. God had compassion upon His people in their lack of spiritual liberty. He knew their fears and heard their cries. The very yearning within them after Him could only lead them to sorrow more over the weight of their sins. It is so today with believers unestablished in the perfection of Christ’s sacrifice. Their very piety only leads them into deeper distress. The divine life, which they possess, acted upon by the light of the truth, only renders the burden upon their conscience the heavier to bear. Theirs is “the spirit of bondage unto fear,” and “fear hath torment.” They dread the judgment.
This want of freedom before God expresses itself in various ways, according to the varied schools. It drives some into monasteries and convents, in order there to seek to please God by doing “good” works. It forces others into the misbelief that they are reprobates, and leaves them to stagnate in sin.
Woe, is the bitter reward of the heart which weighs in scales of its own the value of Christ’s blood. Neither tortures and penances, nor prayers and religious service, nor moans and bitter experiences can render the balance even. There is no way of liberty before God, save by blood.
Now, God looked down upon His people; He had a gracious desire after them; they were then, as now, the objects of His heart. He beheld them coming to Him, and yet never reaching Him, in liberty. He Himself was hidden within the veil, shrouded from man, dwelling in the unapproachable light of His holiness. God—we say it with reverence—could not find pleasure in any sacrifice which gave not the sinner’s conscience rest before Him. God is love, and God loves men, and God would have the men He loves enjoy His love, and be in holy liberty before Him. “In burnt offerings, and offerings for sin Thou hast had no pleasure.” (v. 6.)
As we look upon Christian worshippers coming to God in the spirit of bondage, we ask, Has God changed? Is His heart altered? Far be the thought. “I am the Lord, I change not.” What, then, must be His thought when looking down upon many of His own children? He sees them coming to Him continually, in the hope that they may some day be pardoned. Yes; coming to Him in such a way, that their very coming seems to deny the fact of an accomplished redemption by the blood-shedding of His own Son. For they come, not believing that Jesus has, by His own blood, once and forever put away the sins of all His people, but, as did the Jews of old, with their ancient sacrifice in the conviction that they will have to come to God over and over again.
Some carry the practice of this doctrine as far as to say, “Though we believe that we are safe at this moment, yet we should have no hope if we died an hour hence, unless we first partook of the sacrament. They require a repetition of the offering for sins.” Others declare, “Yes, today we are saved, but who knows what may be our case tomorrow?” They require a fresh sense that the blood has been applied to them. Where, in either instance, is there soul-rest in God’s estimate of the value of the precious blood of Jesus?
We ask, then, what does the heart of our God feel concerning these things? What does His divine love say to His doubting children?
If our reader be a doubting Christian we beg him to ponder the question, and upon his knees to confess his sin of unbelief, and no more to dishonor his God by regarding the sacrifice of Christ in the same kind of way that the Jewish worshipper regarded that of bulls and of goats.
If he be a rejoicing Christian, then we would enlist his sympathies and beg his prayers for the enthralled children of God, that they may, by grace, be led into the liberty of knowing their sins all put away by the blood of Christ, and their consciences purged. H. F. W.