How Important is Your Conscience?

(The Conscience, Part 2)

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, 
  whose sin is covered. 
Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, 
  and in whose spirit there is no deceit. 
For 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 dried up as by the heat of summer. 
I acknowledged my sin to you, 
  and I did not cover my iniquity; 
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” 
  and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. 
—Psalm 32:1–5 (ESV)

King David had sinned and his conscience had convicted him of sin and caused guilt feelings. That is very thing the conscience is supposed to do; our built-in judge and jury of morality.

Vitally Important
The conscience is a vitally important aspect of our humanity. The presence of the conscience is one way in which man is distinguished from animals and all other things on the earth.

Animals operate solely by their instinctive nature. Dogs, for example, behave in a way that is unique to dogs. Trainers and breeders depend on the consistency of the nature of dogs in general, but also the uniqueness of the different breeds of dogs. They capitalize on the fact that dogs cannot choose to change their nature.

Because animals operate solely by instinct, we do not accuse them of sin. So, if a dog digs up your tulip bulbs, you might become angry and even discipline the dog, but the dog feels no guilt and you do not read scripture to the dog to point out his moral obligation.

So it is with all other kinds of animals. The simple reason is that animals do not possess a conscience and are not subject to a moral standard. Unlike mankind, they were not made in the image of God and are not expected to operate beyond their instinctive nature.

In great contrast, mankind was created in God’s image and can actually choose to rise above his instinctive fleshly nature to embrace the nature of God, or godliness (i.e. God-like-ness).

Powerful
The human conscience is also a powerful aspect of our humanity. King David’s guilty conscience caused physical and emotional misery. Yet, He found relief when he confessed his sin to God. Guilt is meant to drive us to God.

God designed man this way so that he would choose to embrace the nature of God. After all, good and evil are defined by the nature of God.

Now, there are three ways to find peace from the misery of a guilty conscience.

First, the conscience can be seared. The way people sear their conscience is to play the hypocrite. In other words, simply continue to do wrong in spite of the guilt feelings produced by the conscience. Over time, the conscience loses its moral sensitivity and no longer identify right as right and wrong as wrong. The Apostle Paul described the seared conscience in 1 Timothy 4.

Second, the guilty conscience can be justified. The person knows that his action was morally wrong, but he believes that he had good reason to do the wrong. He ‘justifies’ his action making it seem right. The end result is a clear conscience which is basically indifferent to right and wrong.

King David dealt with his guilty conscience the right way by confessing his sin to God. Even though he had violated his conscience, the powerful guilt feelings led him to confess his sin. The result was a cleansing of his conscience beginning with God’s forgiveness.

A seared conscience will sin again.
A clear conscience is morally indifferent and will sin again.
A clean/pure conscience possesses true peace and will guard you against sin.

Mark Stinnett
October 20, 2019