Making Peace With Yourself, Hebrews 10:22

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I. Making Peace with Yourself, Hebrews 10:22

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:22

A little boy visiting his grandparents was given his fi rst slingshot. He practiced in the woods, but he could never hit his target. As he came back to Grandma’s backyard, he spied her pet duck. On an impulse he took aim and let fl y. The stone hit, and the duck fell dead. The boy panicked. Desperately, he hid the dead duck in the woodpile, only to look up and see his sister Sally watching. Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing. After lunch that day, Grandma said, “Sally, let’s wash the dishes.” But Sally said, “Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today. Didn’t you, Johnny?” And she whispered to him, “Remember the duck!” So, Johnny did the dishes. Later, Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fi shing. Grandma said, “I’m sorry, but I need Sally to help me make supper.” Sally smiled and said, “That’s all taken care of. Johnny wants to do it.” Again, she whispered to her brother, “Remember the duck!” Johnny stayed while Sally went fi shing. After several days of Johnny doing both his own chores and Sally’s, he couldn’t stand it. He confessed to Grandma that he’d killed the duck. “I know, Johnny,” she said, giving him a hug. “I was standing at the window and saw the whole thing. Because I love you, I forgave you. But I wondered how long you would let Sally make a slave of you.” This is what Satan does to us. He whispers to us, reminding us of our guilt. This is what an “evil conscience”—the kind of guilty conscience described in Hebrews 10—does to a person. An evil conscience. We have all experienced this at one time or another. It is not pleasant, is it?

This is not to suggest that our conscience itself is bad. God has given a conscience to each of us. It is a gift! Our conscience is the ability to see ourselves as someone else might see us. We want to keep our conscience sensitive so that we are able to hear the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit. Should we lose this sensitivity, we then become vulnerable to our conscience being misled. We fi nd ourselves being infl uenced by the opinions and views of other people instead of being responsive to the One who created us in his likeness. This is when the conscience becomes evil.

Satan uses it to tempt us into sin and then to pierce us with guilt, shaming us when we fall. The Word of God itself calls upon us to keep our conscience clean. (Read Acts 24:16.) An evil conscience is unable to discern between what is good and sinful, what is holy and what is wicked, what is true and what is a lie being told by Satan. In the end, an evil conscience fears death for it overlooks God’s grace and expects only bad things from God. Our guilt overwhelms us and our shame disgraces us, convincing us that we are not good enough. In the end, our evil conscience makes us a slave to the Law, much like Johnny to his sister. During the past fi ve weeks, we have stood before the torn veil described for us in Hebrews 10. We have considered the implications. We have seen that God invites us to come into his presence boldly, confi dent in knowing he has made peace with us through the blood of Jesus. Being at peace with God is one thing, a great thing! Being at peace with ourselves, though, is something else again. An evil conscience can be a relentless voice deep within our soul, a voice often diffi cult to silence. As Thomas à Kempis once noted, “An evil conscience is always fearful and unquiet.” We stand today at the threshold of Holy Week. In the days ahead, we will witness the Passion of our Lord as he journeys to the cross. We will also see the power of an evil conscience as it attacks and assaults Jesus’ followers. However, it is here in this week that the Word provides us with the defense we need against an evil conscience. By faith in Jesus, in his death for us and his mighty resurrection, we take up the shield of faith and overcome the assaults of Satan.

Let us then enter this week, hearing and obeying the invitation that is before us. (Reread Hebrews 10:22; see page 24.) When the high priest entered in behind the veil on the Day of Atonement, he did not go in lightly or carelessly. First, he took a ritual bath to cleanse himself. He would then carry in the blood of the sacrifi cial lamb and sprinkle it on the mercy seat on behalf of all the people. As God invites us to draw near, he reassures us that his cleansing goes much deeper than an outward bath. Jesus himself once taught that what makes us unclean is not what lies on the surface but what comes out of our hearts. We are defi led by our sinful pride, our self-pity, our bitterness, our lust, our apathy in spiritual matters, and our faithless fears. The only cleansing agent that can remove these stains is the blood of Jesus. (Read Hebrews 9:14.) Where do you fi nd it hard to make peace with yourself? Where is it that Satan assaults you with an evil conscience, whispering to you again and again, “Remember the duck!”

As we enter this Holy Week, I hold before you the Word of God as your shield. I suggest three passages to consider and to memorize. Pray over them. Hold them before Satan and say, “I may not feel forgiven, but I trust God’s Word, and I know that I am forgiven!” Feelings may come and go. Feelings are often deceiving. Our shield is the Word of God. Nothing else is worth believing. The fi rst passage is 1 John 3:19–20: By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. “God is greater than our heart.” He knows the guilt and shame that haunt you. But set your heart at rest. Be at peace with yourself, not in your failed promises to do better but in the Lord’s promise that Jesus won full forgiveness for you—for you!—on the cross. Only in Christ can we fi nd peace and forgiveness. Forgiveness is a settled issue. Past sin, present sin and future sin—it is all washed away. The details of what we have done, why we did it, and how many times we did it are irrelevant. Sin is sin! Paid is paid! Forgiven is forgiven! Free is free! The second passage is Psalm 103:11–12: For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Aren’t you glad that God did not say, “As far as the north is from the south”? Fly north and eventually the compass will read south. Fly west and the compass will always read west. East and west never meet. When God removes your sin in the blood of Jesus, he will never again recall it. And neither need you! The fi nal passage in your arsenal is John 8:36: So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Can you take Jesus at his word? Will you believe him?! What condemned Judas was not that he betrayed Jesus but that he did not believe Jesus. Judas was an eyewitness when Jesus spoke his forgiving words to the adulterous woman, to the paralyzed man, and to the Samaritan woman. Yet, when it came to his own sin of betrayal, Judas did not believe that Jesus could pardon him. Judas could not make peace with himself.

But we . . . we look to Jesus on the cross. We listen as he prays not only for those who crucifi ed him but for you and me as well: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Jesus is praying there for you and for me. It is in that prayer that we fi nd peace with God and peace with ourselves. It is there that our Savior invites us to draw near with sincere hearts in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience! We pray . . . Jesus, help me never to forget that sin is sin. Paid is paid. Forgiven is forgiven. Free is free. Knowing this, trusting this, may I live at peace with you and with myself. Amen.

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