The Role of Conscience in Sanctification

by | Posted April 24th at 3:24pm

Here is an introduction to our study on the role of the conscience.

The Hebrew term translated into the English as “conscience” occurs in the Old Testament, but very sparsely. However in the New Testament, there seems to be a fuller awareness of the importance of the function of conscience in the Christian life. The Greek word for conscience appears in the New Testament thirty-one times, and it seems to have a two-fold dimension, as the medieval scholars argued. It involves the idea of accusing as well as the idea of excusing. When we sin, the conscience is troubled. It accuses us. The conscience is the tool that God the Holy Spirit uses to convict us, bring us to repentance, and to receive the healing of forgiveness that flows from the gospel. 2

By the correct use of our conscience we can aim for absolute purity in Christ by the power of His Holy Spirt. The holiness nearing divine character, follows absolute surrender to the Holy Spirit every day every hour. “Conscience” (συνείδησις, syneidēsis) appears six times in the Pastoral Letters, always combined with an attributive adjective (1 Tim 1:5, 19; 3:9; 4:2; 2 Tim 1:3; Titus 1:15). Overall, the Pastoral Letters emphasize the importance of “having faith and a good conscience” (1 Tim 1:19). First Timothy 1:5 states that “the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience”

Such a life, not manipulated by the world’s allurements, yields one’s entire being up to God for His sole use. Being careful to think, say, do only what is right — and in truth represent what is right in the eyes of  God — as a witness to others — evidencing a solid biblically balanced character guided by the Holy Spirit. (1 Tim. 4:12; Rom. 8:14)

But the power of sin can erode the conscience to the point where it becomes a faint voice in the deepest recesses of your soul. By this, our consciences become hardened and callous, condemning what is right and excusing what is wrong. 3 We become a culture in trouble when we begin to call evil good and good evil. To do that, we must distort the conscience, and, in essence, make man the final authority in life. All one has to do is to adjust his conscience to suit his ethic. Then we can live life with peace of mind, thinking that we are living in a state of righteousness. 4

Our conscience testifies to our reasoning mind: that we have not aligned with the wisdom of this world but in accord with God’s grace and truth. A holy conscience renders a tranquil mind — peace with God, and with others, as we mirror the Righteousness of our Lord Jesus, who imputes his holiness via the Spirit. He gives us strength to stand firm to resist the devil who flees before such character — when one holds fast to the Word of Life, defined by the doctrinal Truth as revealed by the Spirit of Jesus (John 16:13; 2 Cor. 1:12; James 4:7) Our conscience must testify to the truthful witness of the Spirit as to how we live in mind, body and soul in accord with the truth of scripture. Why? Jesus Himself as he walked on this earth was the incarnate Word, wherefrom truth issues, now by His Spirit within us, in unity as His church wherein His kingdom is manifest in a fallen world. (John 14:6 Eph. 4:15) In fact Jesus said that his Spirit will guide us into all truth, directly from the heavenly courts. (John 8:31-32, 17.17) 

It is not just the imputed righteousness that we receive when we believe in Jesus Christ. We are also to participate in his righteousness through obedience to His Word. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, 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! (Hebrews 9:14 NIV)

Such righteousness of Christ indwelling the godly one displays necessary integrity that guards a man or woman when tempted and brings our Lord’s bestowed favour & honour — withholding no good thing from those whose walk is blameless (Psalm 84:11) 

Be obedient to the entire word of God, in body, mind and soul ready to adhere to only His will. This will enable you to do and to be a holy representative to His glory’s loving goodness. The faculty of the conscience, is designed to operate well, only when the mind is established in the Word of God, through regular prayer and study.

In the world, we will be tested; in a sense, we are under probation — with our conscience either condemning or confirming our conduct — which begins in our mind, with reason weighing each circumstance for or against Christ’s Covenant of Grace. Regard the following text as a warning, that our mindset can be fixed on purity and holiness with the Holy Spirt empowering our obedience to the Word of God; or conversely, we fall prey to the alluring desires of Satan that the world presents, in sin:

To the pure all things are pure: but to them that are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.  (Titus 1:15-16 NAS) Further in Hebrews, we find that a pure conscience aligns us with Christ’s work of redemption: The One who makes people holy and the people he makes holy belong to the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. (Hebrews 2:11 NIrV)

When open to accept the Spirit of God’s directives, He reveals God’s truth. Only then can God’s truth renew our conscience. 

By regular exposure to the Word of our Lord, the Spirit educates the believer’s conscience with the will of God. Thereby our biblical standard formed by the conscience begins to align with the standard of revealed truth. The prayer of David expresses his concern for God to show any unknown infringement against God’s will: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.” (Psalm 139:24)

Apostle Paul wrote of the danger of “the searing of the conscience“.

Paul clearly understood the damaging effects of sin on the human heart. He spoke insightfully of those who were “seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron” (1 Timothy 4:2), and those who “because of the hardness of their heart (have) become callous.” (Ephesians 4:18-19) Both metaphors—the seared conscience and the hardened, calloused heart—describe the same condition. Further, he describes this process as the “wandering away from” a “good conscience,” (I Timothy 1:5-6) and the corrupting of the conscience (Titus 1:15). Both describe the same process of inner moral backsliding that occurs when a person allows sin to re-establish itself within their mind. Continuance in this course lessens our resistance to corruption, desensitizing our conscience to the evil nature of sin. In such cases, their conscience undergoes a constant searing — the inability to sense any guilt regarding sin, which defies the Word — a process that will eventually lead to the death of conscience. 

Adam Clarke described a soul in this depraved state as “one cauterized by repeated applications of sin, and resistings of the Holy Ghost…”

 By disregarding the conscience and remaining in sin long enough, it is terrifying to understand that there can become a point where a person is no longer influenced by the Holy Spirit. 

There is hope only in Christ to retrieve such a one—by repentance, acknowledging guilt and taking steps to put change aright—the hardened heart begins to soften, and the soul gradually begins to feel the conviction of sin once again. In this way, Christ positions the believer back where God can reach him or her and help the believer to overcome. As the writer of Hebrews exclaimed: “how much more will the blood of Christ… cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:14)

Stand guard as a man or woman called unto holiness, reject erroneous  ways — with cleansed hands, eye and mind, checked ongoingly by conscience as residing in the Spirit — abiding in the vine of Christ’s Sovereign Power — shielding us from every dart, every lustful allurement and whispering argument of satan — to live for the Christ’s Kingdom true (Rom. 8:14; Gal. 5:25)

Truth as it proceeds from Christ’s Word will protect you from the many wiles of the devil’s deceits. (1 John 4:1; 2 Thess. 2:9; Gal. 1:6-7; Heb 13:9; James 1:26, 4:3; Titus 1:14; 1 Tim. 6:20) In this way the Light of Truth as revealed in Christ’s scriptural Word will protect your soul from deceit, and erroneous interpretations and temptations which might allure, while guiding your conscience into a sound foundation, and a holy unified walk as a Christian amidst the church, honouring the Lord. (John 8:32, 36; Lk. 11:36; Eph 5:8; John 12:35)

1 Companion Bible Commentary.

2 R. C. Sproul, How Can I Develop a Christian Conscience?, First edition., The Crucial Questions Series (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2013), 6.

3 Ibid

4 Ibid

 

Article posted by Glen R. Jackman, founder of GraceProclaimed.org

Glen has optimized his eldership role to teach the full scope of the New Covenant of Jesus Christ without boundaries.
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