Liberty in God's Presence

From: Scripture Gleanings By: Henry Forbes Witherby

• 4 min. read • grade level: 8

There can be no liberty in the presence of God until freedom from the condemnation attached by God to sin be known. Man may avoid or shirk the question of sin; but God is holy, man is sinful, and sinful man cannot enjoy freedom in the presence of the holy God.

Ponder Hebrews 10:1-22¹For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. ²For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. ³But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. ⁴For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. ⁵Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: ⁶In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. ⁷Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. ⁸Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; ⁹Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. ¹⁰By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ¹¹And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: ¹²But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; ¹³From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. ¹⁴For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. ¹⁵Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, ¹⁶This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; ¹⁷And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. ¹⁸Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. ¹⁹Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; ²¹And having an high priest over the house of God; ²²Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:1‑22), and observe there that the nature of the sacrifices under the Jewish dispensation was such that they could never bring the worshipper into liberty. They were not designed by God to effect this end as Hebrews 9:8⁸The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: (Hebrews 9:8) teaches. If those sacrifices could really have taken away sins they would have stopped being offered. The worshipper, once purged by them, should have had no more conscience of sins, and therefore no further need of sacrifices for sin. 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 righteous claims in relation to the sinner are concerned. We do not refer to the heart being at rest as a dear child before the Father, but simply to the conscience of a man who is a sinner, being purged, and now at rest before the holy God in the spirit of liberty.

Without a purged conscience (Hebrews 10:1-2¹For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. ²For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. (Hebrews 10:1‑2)) was the state that marked the Jewish worshiper; a great mass of professing Christians in our day render God religious homage, but, like the Jewish worshiper of old, they also lack a purged conscience. They come to God to have their sins forgiven, rather than to praise Him for forgiveness. Thus it is that there is so little remembrance of Jesus, who died to put away our sins.

Now God says of believers, 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)). He says they have been “once purged”; and are, so far as their liberty before Him is concerned, “perfect.” They are “sanctified,” set apart to God by virtue of the sacrifice of Christ, therefore their portion is to praise God and to remember what Jesus has done for them.

Every man has a conscience; he knows something concerning right and wrong. The conscience of the professing Christian, enlightened by the Word of truth, makes him tremble, unless he knows how perfectly the blood of Christ has purged him. “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?” (Heb. 9:13-14¹³For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: ¹⁴How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:13‑14)).

Now, the sacrifice of Christ has been once offered, and it will never be repeated. By “one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14¹⁴For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. (Hebrews 10:14)). The sacrifice is absolutely perfect in itself, and its effects are eternal. Once and forever offered, Jesus has, by His blood, put away our sins once and forever. There is no truth more necessary to hold with all our spiritual energy than this, that since Christ’s sacrifice is perfect, its effects are perfect. Since He has died once and for all, His work is forever completed. And, as our souls delight in the perfection of Christ’s work for us on the cross, thus we enter into liberty of conscience before God. He who is ever trying to make himself good is never at rest, but he who simply believes God’s Word has rest and is before God in liberty.

“Without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb. 9:22²²And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Hebrews 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 can never take away sins. No work or toil can 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 types they did not even give the very image of what they foreshadowed. They were not an exact likeness of the reality. The worshipers who offered them received a blessing, because they offered them in faith and in obedience to the word of God. Faith in God always receives blessing. But the word is plain, “It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Heb. 10:4⁴For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. (Hebrews 10:4)).

But the sacrifice of Christ is perfect. When He offered Himself, the end for which He did so was accomplished completely. The sins for which He died have been removed, and now there can be no further sacrifice for sins, for “where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin,” (Heb. 10:18¹⁸Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. (Hebrews 10:18)).

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