| Vol. 18, No. 2, Mar. - Apr. 1989 |
A GOOD CONSCIENCE
Poul Madsen
HOW could God condemn the heathen nations for their iniquity when He had not given them His laws and His ordinances? Because He had given them, as He has given to all men, a conscience. The prophet Amos condemned Edom and Moab because he assumed that they had a conscience which forbade their actions and his assumption was correct. There is no-one without a personal responsibility, for the work of the law is written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts, one with another, are accusing or else excusing them (Romans 2:15).
Conscience is a man's hallmark which separates him from the animals. However if he ignores it, its voice will grow increasingly weak. If he rejects it and insists on doing what it forbids, its voice will be reduced to a whisper and perhaps to complete silence. The result of a hardened heart is a silent conscience. When that point is reached, a man can only be rescued by devastating blows. These may well be God's final efforts to get a person to acknowledge that what his conscience has been telling or used to tell him was correct.
Even as he persecuted the Church, Saul of Tarsus felt that he had a good conscience (Acts 23:1). According to the righteousness of the law he felt blameless; nothing pricked his conscience. But conscience is a part of fallen man and cannot be trusted. A religious man, like Saul, can develop into a self-righteous being who suffers from a misinformed conscience. Later Paul understood that his conscience could not justify him before God (1 Corinthians 4:4). In other words, conscience is not necessarily good in the case of one who is self-righteous.
When the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of Truth, glorifies Jesus to someone and by doing so exposes his sin, then his conscience becomes troubled. It is as though he were surrounded by accusing eyes which had been watching him all through his days, noting all his misdeeds. In this way the pangs of conscience can become quite unendurable.
On the Day of Pentecost, three thousand people experienced this, being pricked in their hearts as though a sword had pierced them. They cried out, asking what they should do, for they were at their wits' end, feeling as though the pit were opening under them. They saw no way of escape, no hiding place, as they knew themselves condemned in the sight of a holy God. [33/34]
The awakened conscience experiences the vileness of sin and has nothing to say in its defence. Thoughts may excuse, but more often they accuse, and even the excuses break down. At Pentecost Peter was able to point the enquirers to the saving power of Jesus Christ and so they passed from the outer court of judgment and perdition to the heavenly feast of salvation. Blessed is everyone who has experienced something of this and has learned truly to fear God. Such a one will never regard redemption as something to be taken for granted, but will know it to be the most wonderful miracle of grace.
The awakened conscience presents its indispensable demands which must be met if its owner is to find rest and be satisfied. The demand is that sin must be atoned for so completely that the Judge will not bring it into remembrance when the person is called to account before Him. Unless this is the case, the awakened conscience will never find peace. He cannot atone for his own sin and pay this debt. He can indeed and ought to make good whatever harm has come to others through him, but this will not be sufficient to take away his guilt in the matter. If the sinner tries to satisfy his conscience with one kind of sacrifice or another, he will only experience with increasing despair the realisation that this is impossible. Such actions would only be dead works which can never bring rest to his conscience.
The conscience requires that God be satisfied, otherwise it cannot itself find satisfaction. If God can no longer point to the sin, then, and only then, can the conscience find rest. Is this at all possible? Can God, who is righteous and holy, deliberately not bring to mind a person's sins? Can sin really be taken away so that it disappears and ceases to be, passing like the early morning mist before the radiant sun?
Yes, indeed. That which seemed impossible to the awakened conscience, has now been accomplished by Jesus Christ when He gave Himself as a sacrifice for the sin of the world. By this one sacrifice of the cross, sin has been taken away once for all and the sinner can have a cleansed conscience as he becomes a true believer. By the cross and resurrection, the sinner is brought to perfection, that is, to a condition where he does not have to do anything at all to atone for his sin, because the work of atonement is completely accomplished. This, and this alone, brings rest and joy to a troubled conscience. By it he is deeply humbled, but at the same time deeply reassured. For him there can be no self-satisfaction and no self-righteousness, and therefore no self-glory. Gratitude fills his heart. The word "grace" becomes full of divine content.
When a conscience has thus been cleansed and liberated, an entirely new situation has arisen. However this does not mean that the transition from darkness to light and from death to life has left the believer without problems of conscience. The cleansed conscience is even more tender and ready to tremble before the holy God. Self-confidence is no indication of spiritual life but rather the contrary. The Scriptures and experience do not so much testify to the certainty of salvation as to the assurance of salvation, which is something quite different. Self-confidence would mean self-certainty. It is faith that brings assurance.
Faith, however, is still fighting and still developing, so the assurance of salvation may undergo many different phases. No awakened soul who knows a little of its own weakness and God's perfection will escape without strong attacks on its faith. The accuser of the brethren is not idle; he will not passively watch a believer grow in the knowledge of God's ways and thoughts.
Professor Karl Heim speaks of a barrage which our great adversary puts down all the way, and right to the very gates of heaven. No-one can come through this by his own power, and no-one can reduce it. This barrage consists of all the sin which lies behind us, but which now the Devil calls back to mind with a flood of strong accusations, reproaches and condemning voices. He can spread out all our past, showing it like a video. Even what we have long ago forgotten and what we are ashamed of is brought to our remembrance. We blush at the sights which are depicted in our minds in great detail. Then he [34/35] reminds us that one day we must give some account of our past, and he seeks with all his devilish cunning to drive us to despair. Who then can help us? How shall we get through this terrible and fatal barrage?
Thank God that when our big words and professions fall to the ground, there remains, by grace, the assurance of salvation. The barrage of accusations avails nothing against our Lord and Saviour. He walks upright through it all. And it is He who is the Lord our Righteousness, so that, together with Him, we may walk upright through it all, even though our souls tremble at the noise of the enemy's artillery.
An attitude of cocksureness and "no problem" is not a characteristic of the cleansed and liberated conscience. It is perhaps salutary that our consciences should always be tender. But they must never succumb to Satan's accusations, but rather continue in a spirit of trembling gratitude marvelling at God's incomprehensible mercy and rejoicing with the boldness of faith which knows that we will survive the judgment, because we rest our whole life and future in time and in eternity, on the solid rock of Christ our Righteousness.
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