Liberty of conscience is the very essence of true worship. Not what men call liberty of conscience, but the ability to approach God without any sense of guilt upon the conscience. This, be it observed, is not presuming on innocence, neither is it the profession of unconsciousness of sin—for if "I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified,"—but it is the fullest consciousness of an acknowledgment of sin, with the profession (let us hold it fast) that it has been forever put away by the one sacrifice of Christ offered once for all.
All the gifts and sacrifices offered by a worshiper under the law "could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience." Heb. 9:99Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; (Hebrews 9:9). He might have approached God strictly according to the ritual prescribed, but he must have had a burdened conscience. No conscience can be at ease before God where anything depends on what the person himself is doing or has to do. In fact, the conscience could not be at ease now if it had to depend on what Christ has to do, instead of resting on that which He has already done. The worshiper must be once and forever purged, or he must have conscience of sin. But only let him by faith follow Christ through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, by which he has entered into the holy place, only let him see that it is "not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, that He hath entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption," and where can be the conscience of sin? Christ has not to enter in again; He has no more sacrifice for sin to offer—no other blood to carry in, for where could any be found of like preciousness? All is done once, and once for all, hence the worshiper once purged, and purged by such blood (Heb. 9:1414How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14)), has no more conscience of sin. He can serve the living God. Nothing now depends on what the worshiper has to do; all hangs on the accomplished sacrifice, the precious blood and permanent priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. J.L. Harris