Living Hope

I want you to imagine something.

We sometimes have difficulty looking ourselves in the mirror because of the shame we feel because of the bad things we have done. 

Imagine being brought before someone who knows everything about you.  And when I say knows everything about you, He knows absolutely every thought and desire you have ever had.  Not in some sort of faded memory kind of way.  He has the kind of mind where everything you have ever wanted, everything you have ever thought, it is right there in front of Him perfectly.

 And what is more He is absolutely pure.  This is someone you look at and besides the fact that He is awesome, huge, powerful, massive, you see Him and you know He is perfection.  You know the feeling you get when you see something that just seems so right, take that feeling and multiply it by infinity.  This person knows everything about you, and this person is absolutely glorious and right.

 Now take this one step further, imagine being able to stand before a person like that.  And not just stand but to be confident before a person like that.  And not just that, but to be fully assured before a person like that.  Not quivering because you think He might see something. 

That is a clean conscience.

This is not just having a group of friends who approve of you and what you have done.  This is having someone who actually matters and someone who knows everything that you have done, approve and not just having Him approve but being fully assured of that approval and the writer of Hebrews says that those who are believers in Jesus Christ have just that because of the work of Christ on the cross on their behalf!

“When Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.  For if the blood of goats and bulls and ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh , how much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

 John Piper explains what is going on like this,

 “All throughout the Old Testament conscience was an issue.  But the animal sacrifices themselves could not cleanse the conscience.  Hebrews 9:9 and 10 explains, ‘Gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washing, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.’ As a foreshadowing of Christ God counted the blood of animals as sufficient for cleansing the flesh – the ceremonial uncleanness, but not for the conscience.  No animal blood could cleanse the conscience.  They knew it and we know it.  So a new high priest comes – Jesus the Son of God – with a better sacrifice: himself.  Hebrews 9:14, ‘How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.’”

That’s a reason for confidence!

Or as the writer of Hebrews puts it, 

“Since therefore brethren we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

I know a man who:

Was rich but became poor so that the poor people he served might become rich. Was powerful but chose to become a servant so that those who didn’t even deserve to be his servants might become his sons. Was healthy but spent his entire life working with the sick that the sick might become healthy. Was worthy of honor but put himself in a position where he was continually shamed so that those who were worthy of shame might be put in a position where they would be honored. Was entirely against sin but humbled himself so that the sinners he served might themselves be one day without sin. Was wise but spent his life among the ignorant that they might become wise. Was someone of whom it could honestly be said, he had everything but made himself nothing that those who are nothing might come to have everything. Was without need yet willing to sacrifice his very life for those who only had need that they might spend their entire eternity needing nothing but Him.

I know this man, I love this man, but the question is am I willing to follow this man wherever he leads me?

Here are four things you can do when someone says something negative about you that you don’t think is accurate:

1. Slow down and think carefully about what they are saying. If you are like me, you have heard a whole lot of rationalization in your time, and you know you are not all that different than other people, so you are probably pretty good at rationalizing yourself - even though usually when you are doing it it doesn’t seem like rationalizing to you.

2. The bad news is that even if they are wrong about why and what in that particular situation, they are right in the sense that you are actually worse than what they realize. The good news is that because of faith, you are in Christ and dearly loved by God.

3. You can reflect on the fact that this has happened to other people as well. Paul, Jesus to start. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day looked at what he was doing and said he was Satanic. The courts of Jesus’ day condemned him to death. So…

4. You can rejoice in the fact that although other people may look at what you do in different ways, God’s view of you stays steady. He sees you in Christ. He doesn’t look at you as disconnected from Christ. You are inextricably linked to Jesus in His view which means He looks at you as having living Christ’s life, loves you with the kind of love He loves His own Son and that’s not going to change.