A Clear Conscience
by Pastor Bill Pevlor
Someone once said "Conscience is what makes a boy tell his mother
before his sister does."
There are some people who continually struggle with a guilty conscience.
And others seem to have no conscience at all. They appear able to involve
themselves in every manner of wrongdoing without the slightest twinge of remorse
or regret. Somewhere between the guilt ridden and the unconscionable is a Godly
balance.
Contrary to the musings of modern psychology, guilt is a good thing. It
is a flashing, red indicator light on the dashboard of life. It’s warning you
to pull over, identify and correct the problem before something more serious
results. The sensor designed to
activate your guilt is called the conscience.
Billy Graham once said "To have a guilty conscience is a feeling.
Psychologists may define it as a guilt complex, and may seek to rationalize away
the sense of guilt, but once it has been awakened through the application of the
law of God, no explanation will quiet the insistent voice of conscience."
The conscience is influenced by the Holy Spirit. God, in the form of the Holy
Spirit, is continually giving you direction. Whether or not you follow the Holy
Spirit's leading is your choice. If you follow the Spirit's prompting you will
have a clear conscience. If you ignore the Spirit's prompting, you will
experience feelings of guilt. Our conscience is clear, free from guilt, only
when it is in harmony with God.
There is very little harmony with God in today's society.
As a whole, society has taken a position of ignoring or justifying most
guilt. Have you noticed the growing
trend to eliminate the distinction between right and wrong? They claim there are
no moral absolutes. We’ve become so “advanced” as a society we no longer
need something as archaic as a conscience. The late General Omar Bradley once
said "The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world
of nuclear giants and ethical infants."
An increasing segment of society (including many people who claim to be
Christians) has lost touch with its God-given conscience. We’ve begun to allow
the government, activist groups and mainstream media to act as our consciences.
If the government says it’s all right to abort inconvenient children then you
have nothing to feel guilty about; abort at will.
If gay activists say their “alternative” lifestyles are morally
sound, everyone should feel liberated to live the alternative of their choice;
free from guilt. It’s not that society has eliminated guilt; they’ve just
redirected it. Guilt is now heaped
on those who insist on upholding the Word of God, the Holy Bible, as the
timeless standard of morality.
Although it seems as though many people don't have one, God has given
each person a conscience; that is, an awareness of right and wrong. (Romans
2:15) Reacting quickly to the flashing guilt indicator our conscience sends can
save us a great deal of misfortune and heartache. No one likes to see the red
light flashing on the dashboard, but only a foolish person would ignore it and
keep driving.
If we are sensitive and respond to the warning signals, our conscience
will be a strong standard-bearer of morality in our lives. If we ignore the
guilt and neglect to correct the behavior that produced it, you will lose your
sensitivity to right and wrong. In time, things that once were abhorrent and
inconceivable to you will become acceptable. And still, try as you might to mask
or ignore it, there is the “incessant voice of conscience” on the inside.
Those who are struggling with guilt will not find relief by justifying
their actions. A clean conscience comes from the only one who can truly clean
it. Hebrews, chapter 9, verse
14 says "How much more 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."
A clean conscience comes from giving all the guilt to Jesus and
accepting, in return, His guiltlessness.
Once the conscience has been cleansed, keeping it clean is accomplished
by quickly responding to its warning signal; guilt.
The proper response to guilt is repentance.
To “repent” literally means to change your direction; to turn around
and go the other way. In other
words, quit doing what is wrong and start doing what is right.
Without the cleansing that only the blood of Christ can provide the conscience
will always be defiled. No amount of human activity can make it spotlessly
clean. A guilty conscience is merely the result of violating the directives God
has given us in the Bible. When we receive the forgiveness Jesus offers and
change our behavior to conform with God's standard our conscience will remain
clear.
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