Hebrews Chapter Ten, Cleansed From An Evil Conscience

Hebrews 10:21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, [22] let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

 

Verse 21 reiterates the truth that Jesus our Lord is our High Priest, who made propitiation (or satisfactory payment) on our behalf to God, Hebrews 2:17. We are instructed to consider Jesus, the High Priest of our confession, Hebrews 3:1. Christ was faithful in the Father’s house as a Son, worthy of greater honor than Moses because He is the Creator. 

We are counseled to hold fast our confession since we do have Jesus, the Son of God, who has passed through the Heavens and into the Father’s presence on our behalf, Hebrews 4:14. This High Priest, being Man as well as God, was tempted in all points as we are, but is without sin, Hebrews 4:15. He knows the frailty of flesh. He knows that man is enticed by sin and led astray by his own lusts, James 1:14. Rather than an austere priest who does not commiserate with us in our weakness, Jesus felt the frailty of flesh. He was fatigued, hungry, betrayed, sorrowful, misunderstood.

 

I will not continue in this vein, but I wanted to make the point that the writer makes it abundantly clear that Christ serves as High Priest over God’s house. While all Christians will be kings and priests in God’s house (Revelation 5:10), there is one King of kings, and one High Priest, the Man Christ Jesus, Revelation 19:16, Hebrews 7:24, 26.

 

The Greek word for “true” in verse 22 is “alethinos” and as an adjective means, “real, ideal, and genuine.” The NASB renders the term, “sincere.” This is contrary to what James describes as the “double minded man, unstable in all his ways,” James 1:8. The distinction is a true heart whose faith is genuine, not fleeting or intellectual only. James 1:6 tells us that asking of God requires genuine faith, a faith that goes beyond mere mental acquiescence to God’s existence, which even demons manifest, James 2:19. The essence of a true heart is one’s complete trust and reliance on God, manifested by obedience to His revealed word. How else can one’s faith manifest, unless it is given a visible, tangible, testable expression?

 

With such a heart, believers are to approach God in full assurance of faith. What does this expression mean? Simply that when our Lord related to His audience that belief in Him equals eternal life, they were to trust in that statement, and in the veracity of the One who spoke it, John 6:29. The full assurance of faith requires complete trust in the One we place said faith in. Do I trust Jesus as my Savior? If I trust Him as my Savior, then my life will begin conforming to express that reality in a visible, tangible, testable way. My trust is not in me, or how well I believed, but in Christ, and how well He has saved. Jesus took great pains, went to great lengths, to make sure His audience understood that faith in Him meant that the believer would live forever, John 11:25, 26, 20:31. Furthermore, Jesus assured us that, “if you have faith as a mustard seed,” nothing will be impossible, Matthew 17:20.

 

So then full assurance of faith has nothing to do with the quantity of one’s faith, but rather focuses on the quality. Is our professing faith genuine? Does it move beyond mental assent? Does it invade our daily life and transform us through obedience born out of love? Little or vast, there is a world of difference between a true heart and a false professor.

 

The sprinkling of our hearts is symbolic of the earlier passage the writer mentioned. Recall how Moses sprinkled the people and the book of the Law with blood. The blood (symbolic of death) ratified the covenant between Israel and Yahweh. Hebrews 9:20 is worth quoting again: “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” The blood sprinkled then was animal blood, efficacious ceremonially to picture the great sacrifice the incarnate Creator would later undergo for humanity’s redemption. The sprinkled blood we are covered with now is our Lord’s. It sprinkles our hearts, purging us from an evil conscience, 1 Peter 1:2.

 

The English word “evil” here rendered is an interesting Greek term. It is, “poneros,” and means, “evil in effect or influence, or degeneracy from original virtue. It can also mean diseased or culpable.” Poneros differs from another Greek term, “kakos,” which indicates the absence of something within someone or something, translated “evil” 40 times in the New Testament. Poneros is translated “evil” 51 times, and wicked 10 times. The difference in terms is influence (poneros) verses innate character (kakos).

 

The latter portion of verse 22 may indicate something so simple as, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved,” Mark 16:16. One confesses Christ as Savior, and as their first act as a Christian, they are publically baptized as commanded, Matthew 28:19, Acts 8:36, 37.

 

For further consideration, I would like to also consider what being washed with pure water symbolizes. In Ephesians 5:25, 26, we read, “Christ…loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word.”  Peter adds, “For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins,” 2 Peter 1:9. The cleansing Peter refers to is likened to the Levitical washings from the Old Testament, only the Greek term “katharismos” denotes washing from sin in a moral sense, rather than a physical one. This verse from Peter is inextricably linked to the passage in John, where Jesus explains to His apostles about being washed. “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you,” John 13:10. The 11 were completely clean, whereas Judas Iscariot was not.

 

Why? Judas remained in unbelief, while the rest of the apostles, though they may have only a mustard seed’s worth, believed with a true heart. Being washed in the blood of Christ (Revelation 1:5) cleanses us from all sin, and makes us fit for the kingdom of God. But the saint still sins, even after being saved, and we must confess our sins, permitting God to cleanse us anew, akin to having our feet washed while walking through this sin-infested world, 1 John 1:7, 9. Paul refers to the first washing as, “the washing of regeneration,” Titus 3:5, defined in Ephesians as the washing of water by the word. Washing in this sense then is synonymous with believing the gospel message. “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation...so then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” Romans 10:10, 17.