Full Assurance of Faith
Excerpt
“Let us draw near” (προσερχώμεθα) is a liturgical phrase, denoting the approach of the people, after ceremonial atonement, to the earthly sanctuary (cf. ver. 1, τοὺς προσερχομένους). We may now draw near to the very heavenly mercy-seat, without any sense of a bar to our doing so on the ground of consciousness of sin. In Christ, we are to see accomplished all that is needed for atonement. But there are conditions also required in ourselves, expressed first by the “true heart”, and the “fullness of faith”, and then by the clauses that follow. These clauses, like προσερχώμεθα, have a liturgical basis—that of the blood sprinkling (e.g. of the people with the blood of the covenant under Mount Sinai, ch. 9:19, and of the priests on their consecration, Lev. 8:23) and of the ablutions before sacrificial service (Lev.8:6; 16:4, 24; Exod. 30:39). Hence, these two participial clauses are not to be separated from each other and seem best to be both taken in connection with the preceding προσερχώμεθα. “Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience” means our having the inward consciousness of debarring sin removed through the blood of Christ; the “full assurance of faith” in the completed atonement, and the “true heart”, being presupposed.
Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. Hebrews. London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909. Print. The Pulpit Commentary.
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