Thank God For Your Conscience
Josh July 25th, 2007
Folks, forgive the current absence of any blog entries that could remotely be considered substantial insofar as spiritual edification goes. I’ve had no time to indulge in such, but I do wish I could. It will probably be at least another semester before I can spend any consistent time developing mini-articles to post.
Thank God For Your Conscience
Have you ever considered the importance of your redeemed conscience? By way of the Holy Spirit our consciences are pricked when He so graciously convicts us of the ways in which we’ve transgressed God’s Law or in how we’ve failed to conform to the standard found therein. Some think, “Well WHO wants to feel guilty about their inadequacies?,” but such an attitude misses the point entirely! God, in His graciousness and sovereign power alone to save, breaks our hearts of stone, makes them hearts of flesh, all by regenerating us and crushing our consciences to the utmost point of desperation. Why? So that we will be emptied of ourselves, lose any vain hope that we can save ourselves, and be to such a point of destitution that our only hope is that of Christ’s mercy. Surely such a condition renders man’s boasting of personal merit null and void. Then, just as soil is most ready to receive seeds for effective growth when it is scattered and tilled, so are our hearts ready for the Gospel when the conscience (by power of the Spirit) has proven them guilty beyond any hope other than the saving mercy and pleasure of God Almighty.
These thoughts are not new, original, or unknown by most Christians. But this exhortation for Christians to thank God for the conscience has been precipitated by recent goings-on in my life. I’m taking a class called “The Psychology of Intimate Relationships” and, oh is it ever testing to my Christian patience. The thoughts spouted in this class are a perfect illustration of Paul’s words in Romans 1 (and elsewhere, no doubt) when he speaks of men suppressing the Truth in unrighteousness. There’s an environmental, evolutionary, and psycho-bablic explanation (excuse) for all of man’s sinful behaviors. You see, all men without exception, and by virtue of the Creator’s design, have God’s moral law written on their hearts. Thus, regenerate or not, we all have an inate sense of Right & Wrong. This is, of course, heavily tied to the concept of conscience. The differences, however, between the redeemed conscience and that of the lost man are many. For the sake of brevity, though, we’ll just touch on a few.
First, the regenerate and unregenerate consciences differ in purpose. For the lost man, or the apostate, the conscience is a source of final condemnation. For the believer, its purpose is for reproof and the spurring on to sanctification. Secondly, the believer is more attuned to his conscience because he understands that it exists for his betterment. The lost man, however, avoids his conscience and by ignoring it or drowning it out over time it recedes into oblivion, forever ceared to any sensitivity. Why does the unregenerate man do this? Well, as noted all men have the Law of God written on their hearts. Therefore, all men KNOW there is a God/Supreme Being/Creator/HigherPower, etc. Now they may deny such, but it’s because they’re “suppressing the truth in unrighteousness.” So again the question centeres around “why” he does this. Because the natural man likes the pipe dream known as autonomy. He likes to think he’s in control over his own destiny (even if his destiny is the product of having origins of accidental “causes” and “chance,” having personhood which arose from a single cell amoeba, then monkey, then a Geico caveman!). Also, he wants to be accountable to no one, especially the Thrice-Holy God of the Scriptures.
This affords him, after accomplishing complete callousness to the Law written on his heart, peace and comfort doing whatever wickedness in which he likes to indulge. No longer does that pestering thing called morality loom over his head when he engages in evil, because he has convinced himself that said morality is merely a figment of culture and society’s imagination. He’s absolutely convinced that there are absolutely no absolute standards and measurements of law and morality. This very sentiment, though, militates against and contradicts his categories of some things as “wrong,” such as murder, rape, or child molestation. I mean, if “there are no absolutes” (an absolute statement), then on what basis does this man call something right or wrong? Who knows.
So the lost man suppresses his conscience to the point where he’s assured of his own autonomy and ability to preserve himself. Practically speaking, he emasculates his conscience. The Christian, though he may be callous at times, however, patterns his life according to his conscience (as informed by the Holy Spirit through Scripture alone). Thus, fellow Christians, let us thank God for His sweet Holy Spirit and the conscience through which he constantly tills our hearts, breaking up that remaining residue of indwelling sin. I praise the Most High that He didn’t leave me to myself. Blessed be His Name!
- General , Theology General
- Comments(0)
