Devotion - The New Covenant “cleanses” my Conscience

Once in a while my “spiritual barometer” will pop out. It is that kind of prompting that tells me that I am not doing right, or maybe I should have done better. I think you may have experience that also. My spiritual barometer works in many ways. But I will just talk about one way – the conscience. Sure you have it also, right?

I was just going through Hebrews 8 to 10, the sermon we heard last Sunday. It’s all about the old covenant and new covenant stuff. The old covenant doesn’t mean much to us. It applies only to the Jews. I am quite sure most of us don’t know much about it unless you have read the Book of Leviticus or attended an Old Testament Theology class. Even though I read the book and attended the class, I still need about 3 morning of pondering over this Hebrews passage before I am able to draw some applications! 2 verses finally hit home to me:

Heb 9:9 This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. (old covenant)

Heb 9: 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (new covenant)

I couldn’t agree more with these verses. Before I became a Christian, conscience is not so much to accuse or excuse me from my words, thoughts or action. What’s wrong with a seemingly innocent lie to get me off the hook or a little aggressiveness against sub-ordinates to make sure they perform and do their job with diligence? Different people (Christians, I mean) see conscience differently and I believe you have your comments too. But I see God is constantly working at my conscience. 2 issues happened to me recently. Let me relate one of them. I have an engineer working under me for 1 year already. However, he is a slow learner and on many occasions when he made mistakes, my voice would go up a few decibel. Somehow, I felt bad about the way I handled him, because I usually treat every workers with respect, even to the operators and cleaners. My conscience may have bothered me. I decided to be patient with him. I have to use praise and encouragement to help him along. Perhaps, it sounds trivial to you. But it has changed me and the way I relate to people.

Let me simplify my version of Bible study:

Bible Study / Devotion Questions (Hebrews 8:7- 10:18):

Objective: To help us see how the New Covenant has changed our lives and strengthen our relationship with God, others and even ourselves

Warm-Up: How’s your life before you became a Christian? What difference to do you see yourself now (as a Christian)?

1. Observation Question: What is the old covenant (Heb 9:1-10)? What is the new covenant (Heb 9:11-28)?

2. Understanding Question: What does living in the new covenant mean to me?
Heb 9:14 – cleanse our conscience , serve a living God
Heb 9:15- to receive promised eternal heritance
Heb 9:28 – bring salvation to all who believe
Heb 10:10 – to lead a holy life
(What does holy life mean?)

3. Application Question: In which areas of my life is my conscience not right with God, with others, with myself? What specific action should I take to rectify this? (Read Acts 26:16)

So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man (Acts 24:16)


Blessings
Mark Lim