Hebrews 10:21,22 - A True Heart Full of Faith

Having a great priest over God’s house, let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and having our body washed with pure water. -- Hebrews 10:21,22, World English.

LET us remember that He who has begun the good work changes never, and that if our hearts are still in harmony with Him, if our faith is still clear and firm in the great atonement, if our consecration is still full and complete, so that we seek not our own wills but His will to be done in our affairs, then we may indeed have the full assurance of faith, because knowing that God is unchangeable, and knowing that we are still in line with His promises and arrangements, we know that all of His gracious providences are still being exercised on our behalf. This is full assurance of faith-full confidence in Jehovah. - Z. '00-170 R2643:1, with the Holy Name presented as "Jehovah", rather than as "the Lord".

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Comments from R. Day:

The great priest we have is our Lord Jesus, who now sits at the right hand of Jehovah in heaven. Jesus could not be this great priest while on earth. (Hebrews 8:4) It was only after he ascended into heaven that he completed the offering of his body with its blood on behalf of the sins of the whole world. It is only by our complete faith in that sacrifice that our evil consciences become cleansed.

God's house consists of those who belong to Christ through faith (Galatians 3:1-7), whose names are written in heaven. (Luke 10:20; Hebrews 12:23) This house is not represented by any of men's sects, denominations, movements, organizations, etc., here on earth. Rather, this house consists of all, irrespective of such earthly ties, who truly belong to Christ by faith in their hearts in Jesus' sacrifice. -- Romans 10:9.

We know that under the Law dispensation, Israel was given a great high priest. The Christian, under the present dispensation of faith, although not under Law, also has a great High Priest. The apostle had demonstrated this extensively in the earlier section of the letter to the Hebrews. In a far higher sense, indeed, we can now approach God through our greater and more wonderful High Priest, just as it was considered a privilege under the previous dispensation for God's people to have access to the mercy seat through the High Priest.

It is our faith that clears our consciences, not our works in the flesh. It is our faith that is being tested in this age (1  Peter 1:7), with the goal of bringing it to perfection. (1 Thessalonians 3:10) We cannot perfect all works in the flesh, but our faith will influence our works, and our works will lead to perfecting our faith. (James 2:22) Others may not discern our faith, but they can discern, to some degree, our works based on faith. Our fleshly consciences are evil, bad, due to the condemnation in Adam. (Romans 5:12-19) They are cleansed only by the sacrificial offering of Jesus. Nevertheless, our consciences would condemn us if we do not maintain the fullness of faith with a true heart that is loyal to God. Such calls for a constant vigilance of daily perseverance in faith from our hearts.