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A GUILTY OR PURE CONSCIENCE

We must also understand that there is a direct link between the inward state of our conscience and our external behavior (Heb. 9:14). If our conscience is evil, we will naturally operate in dead works. If our conscience is pure and perfect, it will enable us to approach God without fear so that we may receive mercy in our time of need (Heb. 9 and 10). As John Calvin said, “The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul.”

For this reason, those with the guiltiest of consciences go one of two ways. Either they deny the existence of God because they cannot bear the constant shame and angst of not measuring up, or they end up thrusting themselves into Christian service and activities, trying to appease their conscience through works. Either path results in a constant sense of anguish and shame for not “measuring up.” Choosing the “moral” way will lead you to a legalistic life of striving in spiritual activity plagued with a guilty conscience. In vain, we cannot hope that the more “work” we do for God, the cleaner our conscience will become. Sadly, pulpits and pews are filled with such souls who have never known or experienced the ecstasy of having their conscience cleansed by the blood and liberated from an awareness of internal sin. The end of this path leads to being burned out or depressed because, no matter how sincerely and genuinely you try to cleanse your conscience through Christian activity, you will fail. The only remedy is to believe that the blood of Jesus truly cleanses you and intends to take away any consciousness you have of sin in your inmost being.

The other extreme path leads to atheism or the denial of God’s existence. Their conscience being unable to bear up under the daily belief that they are failing the standard and approval of a God in heaven, they convince themselves there is no god. This is why it is not uncommon for someone to grow up in the church but end up as an atheist. Being exposed to the supposed conditional love and acceptance of God expressed through good behavior, church attendance, and a pious life, they come to believe in and eventually reject a “god” who has been made in the image of these religious institutions. This is one of the many woes of the Church abandoning the simplicity and purity of the gospel. But by God’s grace, we are coming back to the gospel, learning and believing that His blood does speak a better word and has the power to cleanse us in our inmost being from all consciousness of sin.