Hebrews 9:13-14
13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 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.
Those verses are a bit complicated for a modern reader. The images of the animal sacrifice, the robed priest, and the bloody altar all seem as foreign to our experience as a Tesla would be to Moses. But we can understand the desperate need to be clean. We may not have burned cows but we do know shame.
Your conscience can burn you with a constant smoldering shame. We can try to clean ourselves, but we need something infinitely stronger than soap. God taught the Old Testament saints to do sacrifices as a small scale example of what Christ came to do. We can’t clean ourselves, but Jesus’ blood purifies us so we stand up to serve the living God.
Prayer prompt: Lord, don’t let me hide from my shame or try to clean myself with dead works. Teach me to trust in and really enjoy Your cleansing work for me through Jesus.