How can I get a clear conscience?

How then is this purged conscience to be obtained? Simply by the hearty reception of God's testimony to the value of the blood of Christ. Hence the first part of Heb. 10 is taken up with showing on several distinct grounds — the will of God, the work of Christ, and the witness of the Holy Ghost — that the sins and iniquities of God's people will be remembered no more, because they are for ever put away by the one offering of Christ. Whosoever reads this Scripture, and from his heart believes what God there testifies, will enjoy the priceless possession of a purged conscience. He will be able then to sing - "How bright, there above, is the mercy of God! And void of all guilt, and clear of all sin, Is my conscience and heart, through my Saviour's blood - 'Not a cloud above' — 'not a spot within.'"

In the next place, let us notice the remarkable words in this chapter, "No more conscience of sins." By conscience we understand, God knows and I know. If you owed a man a thousand pounds, every time you met him you would be troubled, because you knew that you were in his debt, and that he knew it too. Suppose a friend went to him and paid him, and you did not know it, then, though your debt were paid, yet because you did not know it, you would still blush when you met your creditor. But if the creditor called upon you, told you he had been paid, and bade you read the receipt in full of all demands, then would you not be at once reconciled to him, and be in such perfect peace about your debt that, however frequently you met him, your conscience would no more be troubled? You would have a purged conscience, because you knew and he knew the debt had been justly discharged. So is it with regard to God and your sins. Though Jesus had borne your sins, suffered for your sins, died for your sins, shed His precious blood for the remission of your sins, and though God gave you remission, when first you drew nigh to Him, through Jesus and His blood, yet till you knew that God was satisfied, that He pronounced you cleansed, your conscience would not be purged, you would still feel burdened, and have dread of God. When you were quite sure from God's word that through the blood of Christ you were cleansed, that He justifies you, and will no more remember your transgressions and lawlessness, your conscience would be purged, you would have no more conscience of sins. Conscious of disobedience you may be after this, which will call forth the confession of your sins to the Father as His child, in order to your communion being restored; but there would be no more question of sin as to condemnation. You will then seek so to walk as to keep a conscience void of offence, both toward God and toward man. The Scripture which cannot be broken, setting before you as it does God's mind, and brought home to your heart by the Holy Spirit, you will be kept in perfect peace. Self-occupation, or brooding over circumstances, will disturb this; but looking off again to God and His word, you will realize that you are an object of divine favour and blessing. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee."

Anxious reader see I beseech thee that thou apprehendest the true ground of the forgiveness of sins. There is no use in our proceeding to the extent and style, until thy poor troubled conscience has been led to rest upon the imperishable ground of forgiveness. Let me reason with thee. What is to hinder thee from this very moment, resting on the foundation of accomplished atonement? Say, does thy conscience need something more to satisfy it than that which has satisfied the inflexible justice of God? Is not the ground on which God reveals Himself as a righteous Justifier sufficiently strong for thee to stand upon as a justified sinner? What sayest thou, friend? Art thou satisfied? Is Christ sufficient for thee? Art thou still searching for something in thyself, thy ways, thy works, thy thoughts, thy feelings? If so, give up the search as utterly vain. Thou wilt never find anything. And even though thou couldst find something, it would only be an encumbrance a loss, a hindrance. Christ is sufficient for God, let Him be sufficient for thee likewise. Then but not until then, wilt thou be truly happy.

Now this must give peace to the conscience, if only it be received in the simplicity of faith. How is it possible for a person to believe that God has satisfied Himself as to his sins, and not have peace? If God says to us, "Your sins and iniquities I will remember no more," what could we desire further as a basis of peace for our conscience? If God assures me that all my sins are blotted out as a thick; cloud — that they are cast behind His back — for ever gone from His sight — should I not have peace? If He shows me the Man who bore my sins on the cross, now crowned at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, ought not my soul to enter into perfect rest as to the question of my sins? Most assuredly.

How then is this purged conscience to be obtained? Simply by the hearty reception of God's testimony to the value of the blood of Christ. Hence the first part of Heb. 10 is taken up with showing on several distinct grounds — the will of God, the work of Christ, and the witness of the Holy Ghost — that the sins and iniquities of God's people will be remembered no more, because they are for ever put away by the one offering of Christ. Whosoever reads this Scripture, and from his heart believes what God there testifies, will enjoy the priceless possession of a purged conscience. He will be able then to sing -

A repentant acknowledgement of guilt must come first, and with it a genuine faith in Christ Jesus that finds forgiveness through the value of His blessed sacrifice of Calvary. "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin" (1 Jn. 1:7). When in simple, honest faith one lays hold of this, then faith is known as the great principle by which the deep things of God are apprehended. When faith is in operation the Spirit of God makes these things living and real to the heart (1 Cor. 2: 10).

He himself is able to say presently to the king that he had done him no damage. Lower down in the chapter, in view of God, he says, "Forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt" (ver. 22). It reminds one of the apostle Paul when he says to his accusers, "And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men" (Acts 24:16). That is what all Christians should do. And how do you get and keep a conscience void of offence toward God? It is got first of all by being washed in the blood of the Lamb, and it is kept by walking in dependence on, and obedience to God. Young Christian, you get your conscience purged by the blood of Jesus. But you say, How can I keep a good conscience? By being exercised. You are exercised in your soul, and always have God in view, that is to say, you labour so to walk that God will not be able to say, "That was wrong"; and that no man shall be able to say, "That was wrong." This was Paul's manner of walk.

If God has brought our guilt before us, it is not to have us ever conscious of it; but rather that confessing it we might avail ourselves of the wonderful blessing of "No more conscience of sins" (Hebrews 10:2). To bring this inestimable blessing to men, the Lord Jesus Christ, God's own dear Son, came down from heaven, and on the cross offered Himself a sacrifice for sins. That one offering has glorified God, completely satisfying the claims of His holy and righteous throne; enabling Him to clear the guilty from every charge of sin, if they will but confess their guilt and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. So clear can we be, that not one stain remains on the conscience; and we can enter with holy boldness the very presence of the God against whom we had sinned.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Here again is a broad, all‑embracing principle. If we” involves the same scope as does the expression in each one of these last five verses, that is, if anyone confesses his sins, there is in God perfect faithfulness, perfect justice in forgiving. As the light penetrates, it brings confession with it. Who can say whether repentance or faith is chronologically first? Are they not rather simultaneous? If one believes, it will be manifest in a spirit of confession: if one really repents, he will believe, for the evidence of faith is in his repentance. The confession here is real, of course, as being produced by the light, and cannot in any way be divorced from faith in the Son of God. If this is not specifically mentioned in the verse, yet it is clearly implied in God’s faithfulness and justice. Is God not faithful to His own Son, who has accomplished redemption for confessed sinners? And He is just in forgiving simply because the cross of Christ has satisfied every requirement of justice. Any sinner therefore may come to Him on the ground of this blessed verse, and find eternal forgiveness. On the other hand, a mere lip confession, such as King Saul’s (1 Samuel 15:30), which ignores the justice of God, is not even considered in this verse. Here rather is the reality that faces the facts of God’s faithfulness and righteousness, and frankly confesses. Compare the prodigal son (Luke 15:21,22). Forgiveness is the discharging of every offense against God, no holding it any longer against the offender. But there is cleansing from all unrighteousness also, in order that the soul may be in God’s presence in consistency with the purity of the light.

Who can describe the blessedness of forgiveness? It is quietness after the storm, relief from the great burden. It gives a deep, holy peace to the heart as the sense of it is realized. The Pharisee cannot know this blessedness, nor the man who excuses his sins or refuses to own to God and to himself that he is a sinner. But the man who has felt the smart and sting of sin, the man who has discovered that his sins are neither dead nor done with, that he cannot escape them, that with persistent feet they are pursuing him, gathering round him and crying insistently, "Thou art the man" — that man will welcome it and value it. The man whose conscience has been awakened and who feels that he has sinned against God and has looked into the abyss into which his sins were forcing him, he will find no ease and no rest until be is assured of God's forgiveness; he cannot forgive himself, neither man nor angel can justify him, but God can, and with a broken and contrite heart he will turn to God and find that God will put upon him the kiss of forgiveness and clothe him in the best robe. Then he will take up David's song and say, "Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered."