How Is Your Conscience?

Romans 2:12-16
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, September 12, 1999
Copyright © 1999, P. G. Mathew

How is your conscience? I recently spoke with a mother who was telling me about the sensitive conscience of her son. I don’t remember her exact words, but she said something to this effect: “His problem is that his conscience is too sensitive.”

Let me tell you, a sensitive conscience is a good thing. We want to have a conscience that is sensitive, functioning, and doing its job. In today’s world, many psychiatrists and psychologists will counsel you to forget about your conscience and do what you want–sin all the more, you know–but that is not God’s counsel. God has given us a conscience for a reason. In this study we will find out, first, what the purpose of conscience is; second, what a defiled conscience is; third, what a good conscience is, and , fourth, how to have a good conscience.

What the Bible Says about Conscience

First, let us look at what the Bible says concerning the conscience. The Bible tells us that every man knows God from two sources: God’s creation and man’s conscience. Creation is the witness outside of ourselves, while conscience is the witness within.

Every man’s conscience, then, is an irrefutable witness to the existence of God. Conscience means “knowing together with.” It is as though someone is within us witnessing to us about the requirements of God’s law written in our hearts by our Creator. I have heard this witness, and I am sure every one of us has heard it as well.

Through a man’s conscience God bears witness to himself to that man from within that man. Professor John Murray says that a man’s conscience is the evidence of our indestructible moral nature and proof of the fact that God bears witness to himself in our hearts. In fact, the existence of conscience proves that there cannot be any atheists or agnostics in the world, in the true sense of the term. A person may live like there is no God, but inside he knows something about God.

The Bible also tells us that God will judge all men, both Gentiles and the Jews, according to their knowledge of him. While the Jews will be judged by the law given to them on Mount Sinai, the Gentiles will be judged, not by means of the law, but by the requirements of the law written in the heart of every human being. Their consciences will bear witness to them concerning the transcendent standard of God as revealed to them in their hearts.

So, then, all have received a revelation of what is good and right, and that revelation is sufficient to make every person morally responsible before God. We see this reflected in the laws of every culture. Pagans who do not have the Bible have always produced laws for governing their societies. Where do these laws come from? From the pagans themselves, from what God has written on their hearts. For instance, if you see two pagans quarreling, you will notice what they are trying to do is to establish what is right and wrong, and which of them is the in the right and which is in the wrong. They will do this even though they probably have never read the Bible. Every man is a moral creature who can and must answer to God, as we read in Romans 2:14-15. This built-in knowledge of good, this built-in knowledge of a standard to which the conscience bears witness to oneself, is an aspect of our being created in the image and likeness of God.

Because of this built-in knowledge of what is good and bad, and because of the ongoing functioning of conscience, every man, woman, and child who has ever lived will stand without excuse before God at the final judgment. They know the transcendent standard. Every person who has ever lived knows God, who put his standard in man, and knows that he or she is responsible and accountable to God for meeting that standard. Yet the Bible says that natural man suppresses this knowledge and lives as a fool, as though there is no God, no standard, and no accountability for his behavior.

What else does man know? That he is going to be judged and that he is worthy of death. In Romans 1:32 we read, “Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”

In Romans 2:12 Paul writes, “All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.” So every man truly knows God’s law, for even the Gentiles have the requirements of that law written on their hearts.

God gives knowledge to every man; thus, every man is responsible and accountable before God and will be judged by God. But because every man is a sinner, no man is able to live in accordance with the knowledge he has, whether he is a Jew or a Gentile. All must perish, unless they are saved by Jesus Christ.

What Is Conscience?

What, then, is meant by the word conscience? It is the faculty, the power of the mind, by which we distinguish between right and wrong. It is the faculty within us that testifies to us concerning the standards of God, the requirements of the law written in our hearts. Conscience is an independent witness within us. It is a gift of God and it is indestructible.

Is conscience the product of the environment or habit or race or training or education? No. Though all these factors can influence conscience, they do not cause it.

Conscience functions like a judge within us. It is as though we have a court inside of us. It is innate and it is universal. Kant called it “the categorical imperative.” It is the faculty which functions within the moral sphere. It is our ethical sense organ.

Functions of Conscience

Conscience has a threefold function in our lives. First, it points us to what we ought to do. It is an interior sense of oughtness, which points us to our obligations, urges us to do what is right and tries to restrain us from doing what is wrong. In other words, it has a prophetic ministry. I am sure all of you have heard your conscience functioning in this way. I have heard it so many times, both when I was growing up and even to this day. When no one else is with us, we hear this thundering voice within us, this interior sense of oughtness.

Second, conscience has a judicial function. It passes judgment on our thoughts, plans, actions, conduct, and attitudes. It is the indicator that measures the degree of agreement between our conduct and God’s standard. Although it is blurred and imperfect due to man’s fall, when conscience speaks to us in this way, it is as though a person detached from us is speaking, accusing us when we do wrong and acquitting us when doing what is morally right. That is the judicial function of conscience.

Third, conscience has an executive function. We have all experienced this aspect of conscience as well. When we violate the dictates of our conscience, we experience certain punishment automatically: anxiety, fear, guilt, estrangement, internal conflict, shame, inward disquietude, lack of joy, feeling that we are being torn apart within, depression, and so on.

Examples of the Functions of Conscience

We find many illustrations of the executive function of the conscience in the Scriptures. The word “conscience” does not appear in the Old Testament but the idea is certainly there.

In Genesis 3 we read about the sin of Adam and Eve. In verse 7 we read, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” In verse 8 we read, “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden, in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.'” The shame, fear, and estrangement Adam and Eve experienced was the response of their consciences to their sin against God.

In Genesis 42 we read of the meeting between Joseph and his brothers. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, but later Joseph became the prime minister of Egypt. When the brothers came to Egypt to get food during a famine, they stood before Joseph without recognizing him. Acting in his official capacity, Joseph seemed to be treating the brothers harshly, and the brothers’ consciences began looking for the reason why. In verse 21 they said to each other, “Surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.” You see, their consciences were being aroused about what they had done to their brother Joseph, and they realized that not only could they be judged for their actions, but also that the judgment would be deserved, for they had seen their brother’s distress but did not listen. This conviction was the result of their consciences working.

In 2 Samuel 24 we read that David ordered an unauthorized census be taken of Israel. Joab, the commander of David’s army, told David not to do it, but David overruled Joab and had the fighting men counted. But in verse 10 we read, “David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, ‘I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.'”

In Psalm 32, verses 3-4 we read of David’s misery when he concealed his sin: “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.” That is the punishment meted out by conscience. But in verse 5 we read, “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’–and you forgave the guilt of my sin.”

In Psalm 51:7-8 we read David’s prayer after his sin with Bathsheba was exposed: “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.” And in verse 12 we read, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.”

All of these are examples of the executive function of conscience. It is an automatic procedure: When we sin, we become miserable, wretched, sad, estranged, shamefaced, tormented, and crazy. We may run to psychiatrists and psychologists, looking for a band-aid to put on our misery, but there is only one problem: these people cannot help us. Only God can give us a good conscience.

A Defiled, Evil, Dead Conscience

The Bible speaks about defiled consciences, evil consciences, dead consciences. When a man violates the dictates of his conscience and does what his conscience considers wrong, he will then have a defiled, dirty, stained conscience–a guilty conscience, in other words. Whenever that happens, the last thing such a person wants to do is to come and have fellowship with the pastor or with his mother and father. And not only does such a person not want to see the pastor or his mother or father, but he also does not want to go to God. Why? He knows he is dirty. He doesn’t want to go to God, he doesn’t want to pick up the Bible, he doesn’t want to pray and he doesn’t want to go to church. This is all the result of having a defiled conscience.

If a person persists in violating the dictates of his conscience again and again, making such violations part of his lifestyle, his conscience will become seared, or cauterized, as with a hot iron, as we read in 1 Timothy 4:2. When this happens, his conscience will quickly lose its signaling capacity and will fail to function as a warning system.

Nothing bothers people whose consciences have been seared. If you look at them, you see that they are unaffected by anything and everything. Despite their obvious moral shortcomings, they continue to function in their jobs and society with great confidence. Our modern culture labels this behavior as being able to “compartmentalize.” We see this type of behavior exhibited all the time, especially in the lives of politicians and other public figures.

Such people appear to have no problems at all. But what they really have is a false peace. I personally prefer the peacelessness, the restlessness, the anxiety, and the misery of an active conscience to this kind of peace. These people can touch a hot stove, in a moral sense, and nothing will happen, because their nerve endings are all burned up because of their continuous transgressions.

What happens in a society in which the leaders have seared consciences? All of a sudden, good is considered evil and evil is good. That is where we are in this country now. Good is despised, abhorred, and detested; evil is praised and adored.

The prophet Balaam and King Saul of Israel are illustrations of people with seared consciences. In modern times we find, not only politicians, but also many preachers who have seared consciences. They act in a way not pleasing to God, boldly and with supposed impunity. These are obvious examples of people with bad consciences.

But politicians and preachers are not the only ones with bad consciences today. The truth is, we all have sinned and failed to live up to the knowledge we have. Thus, every human being has a defiled and evil conscience. Being estranged from a holy God, we all are running from God like Adam and Eve. We cannot have access to God and fellowship with him because of our dirty consciences.

How to Have a Good Conscience

How, then, can we have our dirty consciences cleansed? How can we have them purified and made good? According to the Bible, there is only one way to have a good conscience, a clean conscience, a pure conscience.

The first step in having a good conscience is regeneration. God must effectually call us and regenerate us, making us alive toward him. When that happens, we will be given an enlightened conscience which will begin to plague us, convict us, and drive us to repentance.

Whenever there is authentic regeneration, there will be serious repentance. Just like the consciences of Joseph’s brothers were aroused, our enlightened consciences will begin to function correctly. What will they say? “You have sinned, you have sinned, you have sinned. Fifty-eight years ago you sinned.” (PGM) When your conscience is functioning correctly, you will begin to understand, from God’s point of view, all the things you have done, and how you have violated his perfect law.

Not only does God grant the gift of an enlightened, aroused conscience, but he also grants the gift of repentance toward him. A repentant person will confess openly and clearly, as we read in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Such a person exhibits true contrition and godly sorrow. We read about that in 2 Corinthians 7:10, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” Such a person will hate his sin and will be driven to the only way to have a good conscience, which is to have faith in Jesus Christ.

Son, daughter, brother, sister, do you want a clean conscience? Do you think you will get it by getting out of the church and by going somewhere else to do your own thing? Do you think you can get it by studying philosophy and following Aristotle and Plato and everyone else? No! There is no other way to have a clean conscience outside of placing your faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. Why? It is only through the blood of Christ that a defiled conscience can be cleansed.

We read about this several times in the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews 9:14 we read, “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ,” referring to Christ’s atoning work on the cross, “who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” In Hebrews 9:22 we read, “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Only the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse our stained consciences from sin and guilt. There is no other way.

In Hebrews 10:1 we read, “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming–not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect,” meaning cleanse the consciences of, “those who draw near to worship.” Their bodies may be clean, but not their consciences. You see, they will not be able to forget their sin. They may have made the proper sacrifices, but then they remember their sin again and again and again.

The writer continues, “If it could, would they not stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible”–that is the important word there–impossible! “for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.”

In Hebrews 10:19 we read of those whose consciences have been cleansed by the blood of Christ: “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus . . . .” How did we gain access to fellowship with God? By the blood of Jesus. The writer continues, “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience.”

Do you understand that? Regeneration gives you an enlightened conscience which plagues you and convicts you so that you experience true repentance and contrition. Then you confess your sins and place your faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ that he will cleanse your heart, meaning your conscience, to remove all guilt once and for all! You will be justified, in other words–the gift of Christ’s righteousness is given to you. “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God,” we read in Romans 5:1. Then you will have access to God and be able to stand in God’s grace with a good conscience, a clear conscience, and a cleansed conscience. Then a great confidence will rise within you, and you will say, as Paul wrote in Romans 8:1, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” The blood of Christ will have satisfied your conscience, cleansing it and taking away all its stains.

This is the only way to have a good conscience. You cannot get it from psychiatrists or psychologists, or medical doctors, or from your mother or father or professor or anyone else. A good conscience is a conscience cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ once and for all. When we trust in Jesus Christ, all your guilt is taken away–past and present and future. That is what justification is. Isn’t that wonderful?

How to Maintain a Good Conscience

How do you maintain a good conscience? First, you must obtain a good conscience to start with. If you have not trusted in Jesus Christ, you should do so. If you are not converted, be converted.

How do those who are already Christians maintain a good conscience? They should live in conformity with God’s word by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. They should listen to their conscience, which should be informed by the Scripture, and do what it is telling them to do.

If your conscience has been enlightened and it is highly informed by the regular feeding of the Holy Scriptures, you must be careful to obey it. Why? Because it is a strong conscience. A weak conscience is one that is inadequately informed by the Scripture. It is the conscience of a lazy Christian who refuses to study and listen to the word of God. But a strong conscience is one which is highly educated in the word of God. You must obey such a conscience.

However, even Christians with strong consciences can sin. Christians can violate their consciences and disobey the Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures. But whenever you do that, we will be smitten, distressed, fearful, anxious, sad, and miserable. You cannot expect to be happy, strong, confident, and joyful again until you repent and turn to Jesus Christ. You must repent and confess your sins. First John 1:9 tells us that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we do not do this, we will go on being withdrawn, miserable, lonely, depressed, and filled with shame.

So I warn you, if you are a Christian, you must pay attention to the word of God and listen to your conscience. And if you have sinned, you must immediately repent, confess, and trust in the blood of Christ to cleanse you, that your fellowship with God and man may be restored.

The Importance of a Good Conscience

Why do we need to have a good conscience? Let me assure you, a good conscience is necessary for having vital fellowship with God and serving him in this world effectively.

We can illustrate this from the life of the apostle Paul. In 1 Timothy 1:5 we read, “The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” Here we are told the purpose of Christianity, the goal of Christianity, the goal of the gospel. What is it? To keep God’s commandments. And what are those commandments? To love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. That is the sum of all the commandments, according to Jesus Christ himself.

So Paul writes, “The goal of this command,” meaning the goal of Christianity, the goal of the gospel, the goal of the work of Christ in our hearts, “is love,” meaning love toward God and love toward one another. But what does this love rise out of? “a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

Do you see the connection? A good heart, a good conscience, and authentic faith are all linked together. We cannot have a good conscience without listening to God’s word, believing it, and doing it.

Paul received a good conscience when he was converted, and he maintained it throughout his life. In Romans 9:1 he wrote, “I speak the truth in Christ. . . .” Then he further emphasizes the veracity of his statement: “I am not lying. . . .” Then he says, “My conscience confirms it. . . .” or “bears me witness. . . .” Then he concludes, “in the Holy Spirit.”

Paul had a good conscience, informed by the revelation of Scripture and helped by the Holy Spirit. We must have all these components: a good heart, the Holy Spirit, the word of God, and a good conscience. So if you want a good conscience, I counsel you to love God, worship God, listen to the word of God and obey it, be led by the Spirit of God, obey your parents, and so on.

In 2 Corinthians 1:12 Paul wrote, “Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies. . . .” Here again Paul was speaking about a good conscience, one that was informed by the Scriptures and led by the Holy Spirit. In other words, Paul was not torn apart within himself. He had a good conscience because he was living a consistent life. So he writes, “Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you in the holiness and sincerity that are from God.” Paul had the testimony of a good conscience!

I am sure we all know what it means to live torn within ourselves with our conscience testifying against us. But here is there is no such war. Paul was living a consistent life in both word and practice.

In Acts 24 Paul gives us an idea of how to maintain a good conscience. He had been dragged before Felix and accused of all kinds of crimes. How did he answer Felix? In essence, he said, “No, I have not done any of these things. I am totally innocent.” And in verse 16 he said, “So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.”

Paul told Felix he was totally innocent of the charges leveled against him. What was Paul’s confidence? He lived daily a life of good conscience before God and men.

When Martin Luther was dragged before his superiors, he told them, “My conscience is captive to the word of God.” How do we acquire a good conscience? Get under the word. Don’t run away from it. Listen to the word that comes from your mother or father or preacher and do it. Listen to the word of God, do the word of God, believe the word of God, conduct yourself in accordance with the word of God, and you will have a good conscience, confidence, and joy in tribulations.

Luther said, “My conscience is captive to the word of God. To go against conscience is neither right nor safe.” In other words, he told his accusers, “You can kill me. You can do anything to me that you want, but I will not violate my conscience.”

How Is Your Conscience?

In this study we have learned that every man knows God and, thus, every man is responsible and accountable to God. Every man is going to be without excuse on the last day because God saw to it to write upon the hearts of every human being the requirements of his law that we might be without excuse.

Have you ever considered that if God’s built-in conscience convicts us here, how much more will the author of conscience and the law be able to convict us on that day when we stand before him? Someone said that in hell the indestructible consciences of men will produce the chief torment for lost souls. In other words, you don’t need worm or fire. Your own conscience will bring to your mind everything you thought and did, and it will torment you.

Are you restless? Are you ashamed? Are you fearful? Are you torn within? Are you distressed? Are you depressed? Are you guilty? The problem is not your mother, or father, or pastor. Your own sin is your downfall. I counsel you to come to Jesus Christ because only the blood of Christ can cleanse your conscience. Only the blood of Christ can make your conscience clean so that you can come to God and have fellowship with him and serve him.

May God help us to pay attention to the counsel he has given us about this topic. May God help us to live a life in this world that is a godly, confident, fearless life, and, above all, pleasing to God. Amen.