How's Your Conscience Doing? – Hebrews 9 | Video Devotion With Dave Miers | Good News Unlimited

How’s Your Conscience Doing? – Hebrews 9 | Video Devotion with Dave Miers

Oct 20, 2025 5392

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How’s your conscience doing?

That inner sense that helps distinguish between right and wrong – that moral compass – how contaminated does it feel? Because the reality is, our consciences are impure. We’re all guilty of sin. We’ve rebelled against God in thought, word, and deed. We’ve failed to love him as we ought. We’ve failed to love our neighbour as ourselves. And that inner world? It’s been seared and corrupted by the reality of sin within each of us.

So what do we do with a contaminated conscience?

This week, we’re in Hebrews 9:1-28 – a breathtaking passage that gets to the heart of where we can find true cleansing for our consciences.

The Inadequate Solutions

There are several inadequate solutions to deal with our consciences.

Some people turn to religious rituals and ceremonies – washing enough, doing enough, hoping to alleviate guilt and cleanse their conscience.

Others pursue good works, trying to counterbalance bad deeds with good ones. Maybe if I have enough good deeds, they’ll outweigh my wicked deeds. Therefore, hopefully, my conscience can be cleansed.

And then others just suppress it. Push the guilt into the corners. Hide it under the carpet. Deny there’s any mess at all. Pursue the doom scroll, distraction, and denial.

But here’s the problem: any of these human efforts to cleanse a contaminated conscience falls short. They’re inadequate. Yes, rituals and good works might provide some temporary relief – you might not feel as guilty today – but they don’t address the root cause: the sin that stains the conscience.

And guilt lingers. It recurs. Whatever methods we try, the guilt returns, the behaviours return, demonstrating just how inadequate our efforts really are.

The Old Covenant System

In Hebrews 9, we’re given a picture of the Old Testament tabernacle – that portable tent-shrine where God’s people met with him. It was beautiful, intricate, filled with meaning. The lampstand. The table with the bread of the presence. The altar of incense. The ark of the covenant with the mercy seat.

But notice the restrictions. The priests could enter the outer room regularly to perform their duties. But the inner room – the Most Holy Place – only the high priest could enter, and only once a year, and never without blood.

The access was limited.

And the efficacy was limited, too. Look at Hebrews 9:9, the “…gifts and sacrifices cannot perfect the conscience of the worshipper.” The high priest would enter once a year with blood – for himself first, then for the people. But here’s the problem: it was only ever temporary, external cleansing. The rituals dealt with ceremonial uncleanness. They provided a way to keep participating in worship. But a completely clear conscience? That was beyond reach. The guilt would return. The sacrifices would need repeating – year after year after year.

The Old Covenant was good – a gracious gift from God. But it was never enough. It was a shadow, pointing forward to something better.

The Better Sacrifice

That something better is someone.

Everything changed when Christ appeared.

First, we see his superior access. He didn’t slip into the Most Holy Place amid a protective cloud of incense to breathlessly perform a ritual and then exit. No. Jesus entered the heavenly sanctuary – not an earthly copy, but heaven itself – and he entered once for all by his own blood, securing eternal redemption.

Then, we see his superior efficacy. Look at Hebrews 9:13, “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”

That’s good – that’s what the old system could do – external, physical purification.

But then look at 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.”

Can you see it? Jesus goes deeper. He deals with the contaminated conscience. He purifies us internally, not just externally.

Finally, we see his once-for-all nature. Christ didn’t have to offer himself repeatedly, year after year. Hebrews 9:26 says, “…But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

It’s finished. Completed. Eternal.

The Good News Is…

The good news is that Jesus’ blood cleanses your conscience once and for all. You don’t need more rituals. You don’t need to rack up enough good works. You don’t need to suppress or deny your guilt any longer.

Through his perfect life, his sacrificial death on the cross, and his triumphant resurrection, Jesus has dealt with your sin – past, present, and future. His blood washes you clean. His sacrifice purifies your conscience. And now you’re free – free from the weight of guilt, free from dead works, free to serve the living God with joy.

If you’re not yet a believer, this offer stands for you today. Come to Jesus. Lay your sin on him – trust in what he’s done, not in what you can do.

And if you’re already a follower of Jesus but you’re weighed down by guilt today, hear this again: Jesus’ blood has already cleansed your conscience. Bring your sin to him. Leave it at the cross. Walk in the freedom he’s already won for you.