God gave you and me a Conscience, why?
God wants every human being to enter and live forever in His kingdom. However His kingdom is one of righteousness meaning there is no sin there, that is, there is never any disobedience to God there. Because Adam and Eve chose to believe Satan’s words instead of God’s words, a sin nature, the inclination to disobey God, entered the human race and has infected us all. The primary purpose of Jesus Christ, the righteous Son of God, becoming a member of the human race was and is to free each of us, if we will allow Him to, from both sin’s penalty, and the power over us of our sin nature.
In order for this to happen we each must come to know God personally by believing the revealed words of the gospel that He brings to us by His Spirit. First, to receive His forgiveness of our actual sins, if we repent of them, because Christ bore those and was judged for them on the cross. Second, to receive His deliverance from the control of our sin nature or flesh, because Christ died to that sin nature on our behalf on the cross. By these two principal parts of salvation, conversion and sanctification, our hearts or spirits are made and kept sin free and we can live in God’s kingdom of righteousness, a spiritual place that exists in our hearts, now in this life and forever.
When we human beings don’t know God, we live entirely in the natural realm by our senses and reason, knowing nothing about this sin free place in the spirit called the kingdom of God. This is where God’s presence is. But God in His wisdom, love and goodness to us has made it possible for everyone of us, without exception, to come to know Him, by giving us two irrefutable evidences of His existence, that even the natural human part of us can understand. The first of these is the evidence of nature itself, the wonder of His amazing creation all around us and in the skies above. The second is the evidence of an inner voice or conscience that instinctively knows the difference between right and wrong, a moral compass, that none of the rest of His creation has.
These two evidences are more than sufficient to motivate us to open the door of our hearts to allow God to reveal Himself, and for us to actually know Him, by believing the gospel. If, despite the evidence of creation and our conscience, we choose not to let God save us from our sins, we are then without excuse and will be judged for our sins.
Rom 1:20 From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God. NLT
Rom 2:12-15 God will punish the Gentiles when they sin, even though they never
had God's written law. And he will punish the Jews when they sin, for they do have the law...Even when Gentiles, who do not have God's written law, instinctively follow what the law says, they show that in their hearts they know right from wrong. They demonstrate that God's law is written within them, for their own consciences either accuse them or tell them they are doing what is right. NLT
What exactly is my conscience?
The word “conscience” occurs 30 times in the Bible, all in the New Testament. According to Strong’s concordance the root Greek word means “To see completely, to understand, to become aware, to be conscious of and to be secretly informed of”.
I Tim 1:5 ...Love from a pure heart, from a good conscience and of sincere faith:
Heb. 10:22 Let us draw near...having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience
Rom 9:1 I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience, enlightened and prompted by the Holy Spirit, bearing witness with me. AMP
Rom 8:16 The Holy Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirits…
From these scriptures it is clear that when my heart is pure I have a good conscience. And that the Holy Spirit speaks to my conscience as He does to my spirit, and that my conscience, knowing right from wrong, then speaks to my will or soul and to my brain or human nature. My conscience therefore is the voice of my spirit or my heart.
Where is my conscience located?
If I know where my spirit or my heart is then I’ll know where my conscience, its voice, is.
Prov. 20:27 The spirit of a man, that part of a man that proceeds immediately from God, is the lamp of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly.
John 7:38-39 (Jesus) He who believes on me (with the heart one believes-Rom 10:10)
…out of his belly (the place where he has believed) shall flow rivers of living water (speaking My words made alive by My Spirit for others to drink)
My conscience is the voice of my heart. When God refers to the heart He is not talking about the physical organ in my chest but of my spirit that He is the Father of. And my spirit, my heart, with its voice of my conscience, is located in the region of my belly.
Does everyone have a conscience – even the unsaved? Yes of course:
John 8:7-9 (To the Scribes and Pharisees who tried to corner Jesus with the law – in this case on adultery, Jesus said this) “He who is without sin among you let him cast the first stone”…And those who heard it, being convicted by their own conscience (but yet unsaved), went out one by one, ….
People who are not yet converted to Christ know very little about their own conscience. Often they will just refer to it as “gut feeling” or “woman’s intuition”. But they should, for it is one of the two universal evidences that there is a God and that they must come to know this One who gave them a spirit, so as to be saved from sin and inherit eternity.
Can I defile my own conscience – even sear or de-sensitize it totally – how?
Titus 1:15 To the pure in heart and conscience all things are pure: but to those that are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their
understanding and conscience is defiled.
I Tim 4:2 (Concerning those who turn away from growing in the knowledge of God and listen to false teachings that religious spirits teach) Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their own conscience seared with a hot iron (now cauterized through frequent abuse and no longer sensitive to the truth);
When we were born again God gave us a new and perfect heart or spirit, with a brand new conscience, highly sensitive to right and wrong. It is such a beautiful and tender thing, it hears from God and will keep us out of all kinds of trouble. But if we continually overrule the little voice of conscience deep down inside us with our will, because we reason, or cave to our flesh, or the influence of others, including Satan, our conscience will eventually lose its capacity to know right from wrong. How ruinous is that for us?
Rom 14:22 ...Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.
1 Jo 3:21 If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.
Isa 32:17 ...The result of righteousness (the absence of sin, when conscience is
AMP obeyed) will be quietness and confident trust (toward God) forever.
Can I harm another person’s “scruples” of conscience – what have I then done?
I Corin. 8:6-7 For us there is only one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and
we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him. However not all believers possess this knowledge. But some, ...thinking of idols as real and living, still consider the food offered to an idol as that sacrificed to an actual god; and their weak consciences become defiled and injured if they eat it. AMP
I Corin. 8:8-10 But food doesn’t commend us to God: for neither, if we eat, are we
the better; nor, if we do not eat, are we the worse. But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to those that are weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge (maturity in spiritual things) eating in an idol's temple, will not the conscience of the weak one be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols;
I Corin. 8:11-12 So through your knowledge the weak brother is ruined, a brother
for whom Christ died? But when you sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you actually sin against Christ.
This may be about food offered to idols, but can I think of some other things that I might do that could damage another Christian’s conscience. It raises the question, are there things that as far as my relationship with God is concerned are perfectly OK for me to do but for another Christian, depending on their conscience, may not be OK for them to do? What are the implications of this for me when I’m around such Christians?
The real Christian life –always keeping a good conscience toward God and men
Acts 24:16 I always endeavor to have a clear conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.
I Tim 1:19 Keeping fast hold on faith and a good clear conscience; which some having rejected and thrust away from them (their consciences) have made shipwreck of their faith:
I Tim 3:9 Holding the mystery of the faith, Christian truth hidden from ungodly men, in a pure conscience. AMP
When, with a good conscience, we speak by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, our words are living seeds. They seek the spiritual soil of a person’s heart where they can germinate, grow and reveal God. So our words are directed to a person’s heart, to their conscience, that has the capacity to understand God’s truth, and not to their heads which are part of their flesh and being corrupted with sin cannot understand our words.
II Corin. 4:2 But we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking
in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by stating the truth openly and candidly, we commend ourselves, in the sight and presence of God, to every man's conscience
When we were born again God created a perfect new heart or spirit within us, with its voice of a perfect conscience, and sensitive to Him. If we stay in Christ our hearts, with its conscience, remain perfect toward God, and God shows Himself strong toward us:
2 Cor 5:17-18 if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed
away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God.
2 Chron 16:9 For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth,
to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward Him...
Is your conscience clean right now? If not, it can be instantly cleansed – how?
If there is confusion and we aren’t sure if we have a clean conscience, we can pray this:
Ps 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my
thoughts; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting (If there is, God offers us these ways to be cleansed:)
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us (in heart or spirit) from all unrighteousness (from all sin).
John 15:3 You are clean through the word which I have spoken to you. KJV
Prov 8:8 AMP (For) All the words of my mouth are righteous (and cleanse from sin)
Heb 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ (The Holy Spirit)… purge (cleanse) your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
God intends for our hearts, which were made perfect at the new birth, to remain perfect toward Him. If they become un-clean due to sin, that is, disobedience or un-belief, they can be instantly cleansed as we believe one of His righteous, sin cleansing, words and as we submit to the control of His righteous Holy Spirit – for now we are back “in Christ”.
