Personal Hygiene

How important is personal hygiene to you? For children it’s not very important, but for most adults it’s very important. Adults build habits into our daily routines for staying clean and healthy.

Adults incorporate showers, trimming nails, combing hair, and brushing teeth into our routines. We like to look and smell good. We try to teach these things to our kids by making it fun.

And how does the Bible frame personal hygiene? How did the apostles describe it? According to the next verse, having bodies washed with water is important. When the author of Hebrews spoke about ‘confidence to enter the Most Holy Place’ (Hebrews 10:19) and how to approach God with our petitions, he said:

Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:22; NASB).

Spiritual Hygiene

Obviously, the author of Hebrews is not talking about personal hygiene. He was talking about spiritual hygiene--the cleansing of our souls. He's not referring to a bath with soap and shampoo when he mentions 'bodies washed with pure water.' He’s talking about baptism.

He's talking about cleansing the conscience, not only the cleansing of the body. In baptism your body does in fact get cleansed, but that's just the outward manifestation of an internal catharsis. The body wash is not the goal, it's the means.

Remember: The apostle is instructing us on how to approach God. He's showing how our prayers might be better heard. To approach the Father in prayer, we first need to get our conscience renewed, and that happens through baptism. Baptism has a transformational effect on a person's conscience.

Baptism and Your Conscience

After describing Noah’s historic journey through globe-inundating waters in a wooden vessel, an ark which saved eight people, Peter says:

And corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience (1 Peter 3:21; NASB). 

So, Peter notes that baptism saves you--but from what? From an evil conscience! In fact, baptism is your petition to God for a good conscience.

It's not any old action; it's a living prayer in action. Baptism is what a man or woman does to invoke God's mercy. Through baptism you cry out to God for his pardon.

In baptism, you ask God to make Jesus' death count for you, so it’s a big part of spiritual hygiene--in fact it's the biggest part. Just like taking a bath is a bigger part of your daily routine of personal hygiene than clipping your toenails, baptism is big.

Baptism is the washing away of our sins. It's freedom from guilt. It makes our hearts pure while our bodies are washed in clean water.

Note that Hebrews says something very similar to Peter. While Peter points out that baptism is the means to obtain a good conscience, Hebrews tells us that baptism is the means to rid yourself of an evil conscience. Those are actually the same thing. In baptism you destroy what is evil while you establish what is good.

Water and Blood

But what exactly happens in baptism on a spiritual level? First, Hebrews tells us, our hearts are sprinkled clean. But, the word sprinkled does not refer to sprinkling with water. Baptism is never performed by sprinkling.

If someone sprinkles water, it's technically not baptism. The very definition of the Greek word baptizo is to dunk or submerge. Baptism means immersion.

The Bible verse we're studying demonstrates that water is for the body. And if water is for the body, then what is for our heart? With what is our heart sprinkled in baptism? That's the question.

...having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:22; NASB).

We're sprinkled not with water in baptism, but with blood--Christ's blood. During the sacred act of baptism, our bodies are immersed in water, but our hearts are sprinkled with the blood of Christ! The sprinkling is invisible to the naked eye. It's only visible to the spiritual eye.

Jesus Sprinkles Our Spirits

The term hearts here (as in 'our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience') is synonymous with the human spirit. Your heart is the deepest part of your being, your spirit. So Jesus sprinkles our spirits with his blood at baptism.

To understand what the sprinkling of our spirits means, we have to compare this New Testament phenomenon of the application of Jesus' blood to our spirits to the application of blood to the Israelites in the Old Testament.

Do you remember when Moses sprinkled the Israelites with blood? Here's the Scriptures' testimony:

… [Moses] sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to Yahweh. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the Altar.

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, ‘We will do everything Yahweh has said; we will obey.’

Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, ‘This is the blood of the Covenant that Yahweh has made with you in accordance with all these words’ (Exodus 24:5-8).

Frankly, this sounds rather gross, doesn't it? Have you ever seen a man sprinkle blood on a group of people? It doesn't sound hygienic and it doesn't sound pleasant either--does it? No, not to the untrained ear, it sounds creepy.

Not Gross

But the blood of God's covenant is not gross and it's not creepy. Whoever calls Jesus' blood gross has no idea of how valuable it is. Jesus sprinkles his blood on our hearts, and his blood-based ministry to us functions the same way Moses' sprinkling of blood worked on the Jews. Through the sprinkling, they committed themselves to God through a covenant agreement.

In both situations (under Moses and under Jesus), the blood is sprinkled to set people apart. The blood marks believers as a people in covenant with God. It sanctifies us from the rest of the World who have no commitment to God.

But why is blood the seal of the Covenant and not some other substance? Why not use oil or milk? Why not used sand? Why not use perfume? Here's the central reason:

... without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22).

Covenant Agreement

Like the Old Testament Jews, you and I have heard God’s Word and we have agreed to keep it. Once you agree to fulfill God's commandments, you're ready for a covenant. Good for you! God has prepared one. It's called the New Covenant.

The terms of the New Covenant are:

1) We acknowledge our sin.

2) We acknowledge that we deserve death for what we have done.

3) We believe that Jesus sacrificed his life for our life at Calvary.

4) We believe that God accepted Christ’s body as the propitiation for our sins. Why? Because God resurrected Jesus, demonstrating his approval of Jesus.

5) We esteem Christ’s blood as his life. Therefore, Jesus' blood is the grounds for our forgiveness.

You don’t have to guess what the right interpretation of Exodus 24 is. Do you remember what we read?

Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, ‘This is the blood of the Covenant that Yahweh has made with you in accordance with all these words’ (Exodus 24:7-8).

The correct interpretation of Exodus is in the New Testament. There it tells us that immediately after Moses explained the terms of the Old Covenant, God put the Covenant into effect, activating that covenant through blood!

… a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. This is why even the First Covenant was not put into effect without blood.

When Moses had proclaimed every command of the Law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool, and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, ‘This is the blood of the Covenant, which God has commanded you to keep’ (Hebrews 9:17-20).

Our covenant with God works the same way. It is put into effect the instant Christ’s blood is applied to our life.

When the Blood is Applied

Ask any theologian, pastor, or Bible teacher this question: “At what instant is Christ’s blood applied to me?” and you’ll likely hear a broad variety of answers. You may even here some uncertainty, but the Bible is clear that the application of Jesus’ blood happens by faith—a faith a new believer can only exercise in baptism.

The author of Hebrews sums it up nicely:

… our hearts sprinkled clean [with Christ’s blood] from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:22).

Nobody will obtain forgiveness of sins, nor will they enter the Kingdom of God without a covenant—and our covenant, the New Covenant, is established in baptism!

When Moses sprinkled the blood on the scroll and the people, he was establishing the Old Covenant. The people and God were parties to the agreement, so Moses sprinkled the scroll and the people with blood. Why the scroll? The scroll contained God’s Word, so it represented him.

An Incomplete Covenant

The Old Covenant was good, but it was incomplete. It’s hard to notice in Exodus 24, but the author of Hebrews points out that something was missing from the Exodus 24 Covenant at the time God established it through Moses.

Read the next passage and focus on the contrast of the copies of the Heavenly Temple furniture and utensils with the Heavenly Temple furniture and utensils themselves. See if you can tell the difference between the two.

In the same way, he [Moses] sprinkled with the blood both the Tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the Law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

It was necessary, then, for the copies of the Heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the Heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the True one; he entered Heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s Presence (Hebrews 9:21-24).

Do you follow the interpretation? It's not easy, so you'll have to focus.

The author of Hebrews signals that purification with blood was required for the Earthly Tabernacle. Once you comprehend that, you are supposed to conclude that the True Tabernacle in Heaven had to be purified too. Do you get it?

If you can follow that logic, it will bring you to the main point of the chapter (Hebrews 9): that the Heavenly Tabernacle needed to be cleansed with a greater sacrifice. That sacrifice was the blood of Jesus!

Jesus’ Priestly Work

Moses sprinkled the blood on the worship space of the Tabernacle. He sprinkled the blood on all the Tabernacle’s accessories, and thus Moses established the Old Covenant. Impressive. Can you imagine seeing him do that? Sprinkling blood all over a room and its furnishings is not easy work!

But the Tabernacle Moses built was only temporary. The utensils Aaron used were mere copies of the true utensils which our High Priest Jesus uses in God’s Presence in Heaven today. Yes, Jesus literally uses utensils such as pans, bowls, and incense burners to minister in a real space in a real body! He does God’s things God’s way.

This is all real. It’s not metaphorical. It’s not symbolic. It’s so real that we call it spiritual. Spiritual things can also be physical and tangible. If you were to visit Heaven you would witness it all and see that it’s physical.

Therefore, the Old Testament Tabernacle and its utensils, being made with human hands, constituted a temporary covenant. It would only stay in effect until the Eternal High Priest entered the True Temple. Since Christ’s Ascension to Heaven, the Temple in Heaven has become operational and the Temple of Jerusalem has become defunct.

Jesus enacted the New Covenant around the years 27-28 AD right after his ascension. That means that in 2027-28 the New Covenant will have been active for 2000 years. Jesus has been busy with his High Priestly work for two millennia. Aren’t you glad he’s there interceding for you now?

A New and Living Way

Now the Old Covenant is obsolete. The Old Covenant Temple ministry only gave the Jews and all who visited Jerusalem a picture of the New Covenant Temple ministry. In other words, the Old Testament Temple had a merely temporary purpose. Its purpose lasted up to the moment the Temple veil was rent in two--right at Christ’s death.

Now God wants all people to come to him through Jesus Christ.

Will you come to God now through Jesus?

Even if the Temple were to be rebuilt, don’t try to get to God through the Old Testament system. It doesn’t work anymore. Jesus is the new and living way. Go to God through Jesus. Be baptized in his name!

… we have confidence to enter the Holy Place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, through his flesh…

...let’s approach God … having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:19-22; NASB).