October 19, 2011
Clear Conscience
Once a year on the Day of Atonement the High Priest would enter the
inner room and offer a blood sacrifice for himself and for the sins the people
had committed in ignorance. Rather than having one’s sins forgiven, this was
simply a reprieve by rolling those sins forward to next year’s sacrifice. In
error I’ve always pictured the worshippers having peace of mind that they have
taken care of last year’s sins by boxing them up and putting them on a shelf. However
the writer of Hebrews says, “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.” (Heb 9:9
NIV)
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----Conscience is an interesting word. The basic sense of its Latin roots is “with mind”. The meaning in its Latin usage was full mental consciousness, which of course includes consciousness of guilt. Ignoring its technical usage in psychoanalysis, Merrriam-Webster says it is, “1a) the sense or consciousness of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one’s own conduct, intentions, or character together with a feeling of obligation to do right or to be good; b) a faculty, power, or principle enjoining good acts; 2) conformity to the dictates of conscience; 3) sensitive regard for fairness or justice." I thought “with mind” sufficed. Clearly, conscience is a quite abstract mental process, and I have always taken its value from its being a process.
-----It is hard for me to see the error in your picture of a worshipper’s peace of mind resulting from the year’s sins being boxed up and shelved for their day of final atonement. After all, that was the principle behind the animal sacrifices’ rolling the sins forward. It wasn’t to just clear some time for people to live until their sins would later be picked up and used against them for condemnation. That just doesn‘t square with trust. It was for their pouring into Jesus Christ upon the Cross wherein they would become completely flammable. It mattered no more to God then that the trust of those people was the lit flame eventually igniting their sins to burn into nothing than it matters to Him today that our faith is the same which burned our sins up back then, when Christ hung on the cross. I have always understood conscience to be linked to the cross regardless of time’s sequence. For concepts are the parts of processes having naught to do with chronology. The trust and faith the worshipper places in the process God made for destroying guilt is the concept shared between himself and the Worshipped that makes conscience work benefit.
-----I believe God every bit intended peace of mind to be available for His people before the Crucifixion as He intends it to be available for us since then. I love the Scriptures’ technical accuracy even in its metaphors. The sins rolled forward, always in front of time, until they dropped into that container for their destruction. Yet the worshippers’ consciences could not clear at that time because sins were not yet dealt with by their only being rolled forward through time.
-----Conscience is a mental process as bound by time as is the mind processing it. It must admit the reality that whatever the event coming to destroy the sins rolling forward has indeed not yet come, so the sins are still there, rolling forward. But that technicality wasn’t to mean anything in conscience’s contribution toward peace and joy. The difference within the process of conscience between its “clear” aspect and its “to be cleared” aspect was more a technical matter about Who to be watching for than it was about an ability to enjoy peace of mind.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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