Man has a conscience. He knows good and evil. Some are so troubled that they try by various ways to have a quiet conscience. They think they need consolation, but what they really need is salvation. They try this and that to secure a quiet conscience, but every now and then conscience terribly accuses them. Numberless sins crowd upon the memory; death stares them in the face; the fear of death and of judgment frightens them, and they dread to appear before God.
Religiousness, reformation, and works of any kind fail to set such people right before God, and they learn from Scripture that the divine verdict is, "There is none righteous, none that doeth good-no, not one," but that "all have sinned" and are "guilty before God." The more they ponder God's truth, and the more they try to avoid what is wrong, the more guilty they feel. Their best works look like filthy rags, and they find themselves increasingly unfit for God. Thus they become much distressed.
The burden of sins becomes intolerable, and the constant accusing of an evil conscience make them cry out for forgiveness of sins. They then learn it is not a quieted conscience, but a purged conscience that they need—the divine certainty that all their sins have been righteously judged and blotted out forever from the eye of God.
Moreover, they learn there is but one thing which can give a purged conscience: it is the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, and it cleanseth from all sin. This they believe, because God says so, and their conscience is purged. What a relief! Every one, on believing, can say,
"I hear the words of love,
I gaze upon the blood;
I see the mighty sacrifice,
And I have peace with God.”
The blood of Christ satisfies the conscience because it has satisfied God about sin. It is only when the heart is cleansed from an evil conscience that we can approach God by Him who is gone into heaven by virtue of His own blood. Such have "no more conscience of sins," and know "It is God that justifieth." They are assured that by one offering they are perfected forever, and their sins and iniquities God will remember no more.
Now brought to God, reconciled to God by the death of His Son, they enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, and praise and give thanks. They know, through God's grace, that their sins are purged, their conscience purged, and that they are purged worshipers. This separates them from dead and unscriptural religiousness, to serve and obey the living and true God, according to His Word, and to wait for His Son from heaven.