Does Cleaning the Conscience by Jesus’ Blood Come Before Any Obedience?
by Terry Wane Benton
Hebrews 9:14 says that He “offered Himself without spot to God,” and this was to “purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” Does Jesus purge our conscience before we hear the gospel, believe it, repent of sins, and are baptized in His name “for remission of sins” (Acts 2:37-41)? Jesus said you first baptize the person into discipleship (Matthew 28:19f) after which you “teach them to observe all things I have commanded.” Baptism is involved in the purging process. The 3000 on Pentecost did not have “remission of sins” (which is a purged conscience by Jesus’ blood) until after they “repented and were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for remission of sins” (Acts 2:37-41). Baptism was not after they received remission of sins, a purged conscience by means of Jesus’ blood, but was involved in the process of obtaining that salvation from dead works.
It was argued that you cannot obey any command of God until after the blood of Jesus cleanses you. That is not true. God commanded the sinner to “Hear Him” (hear Jesus). Do you first have to have a clear conscience before obeying that command? No! There are some things that you have to obey to get the conscience-cleaning blood applied to you. Hearing the gospel comes before obtaining the cleansing of the conscience.
There is the command to “believe on Him.” Must we have our conscience cleared by the blood of Jesus before we can obey the command to believe on Him? No! Believing is part of the process to get us to the conscience-clearing blood of Jesus. Thus, there are things to obey to have the blood applied to our account.
There is also the command to “repent” (Luke 13:3; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 17:30-31), and obeying the command to repent comes before the conscience-clearing blood gives us “remission of sins.”
Baptism is burying the old sinful self, uniting with Christ, and rising to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3-6). You don’t bury a living person who is saved and has a clear conscience. You bury the sinner, the one who has dead works, and you want that person “united together with Jesus” in His death, coming together with His blood to cleanse the conscience and rise up from that grave “to walk in newness of life.” New life begins in baptism, not before baptism. Thus, the process of having a clear conscience in the blood of Jesus is this: we die to sin, bury that old person with Christ in baptism, unite there, and then rise up to walk in the newness of life. God told us precisely when He operates to remove our sins (Colossians 2:12-13). It is not before baptism. It is in baptism.
So, again, there are acts of obedience that get us to the blood of Jesus applied. Since God told us that repentance and baptism in the name of Jesus come before remission of sins, we do not believe Him at all if we say otherwise. Do you believe God enough to do what He says to get your conscience purged by the precious blood of Christ?
