| 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.
