Do You Have a Chrisitan Conscience?

The human conscience is an incredible invention of Divine wisdom. Simply explained, the conscience is the habit of self-judgment resident within each person's nature at birth. When we do or say things that we understand to be wrong, conscience imparts a sense of guilt and impurity. This sense of guilt is the spiritual equivalent of the sensation of pain produced by the nervous system when we burn our hand or close the door on our finger. In the physical realm the pain means "danger, flee" and the feelings of guilt in the moral or spiritual realm mean much the same. Ignoring the pain is likely to result in serious injury. Ignoring the guilt of conscience leads to moral and spiritual ruin, even the ruin of what the Bible refers to as hardening of the heart and searing of the conscience.

Personal ruin is not the only consequence of ignoring the warnings of conscience. Societal ruin is another consequence. When societies have an abundance of people who no longer feel the pain of wrongdoing, the result is mayhem. Only strong force will prevail to restrain the evil. Instead of peace and safety, there will be strife and fear.

But, what if the forces entrusted with the maintaining of righteous order become corrupt in conscience? Modern history has witnessed the results of this horrible circumstance in Nazi Germany. Innocent defenseless people were herded off and massacred because legal authority lost its collective conscience. Or, to be more accurate, legal authority became utterly misguided as to right and wrong. Could this kind of wickedness occur in our society?

Another salient fact regarding conscience relates to its fallibility. Romans chapter two indicates that the conscience is naturally inscribed with basic instincts formed according to the moral law of God. There is an inborn tendency toward reverence for God and natural deference toward parents and respect for life and truth. Children intuitively reflect the guilt they feel over having disobeyed their parents or having spoken untruths. These reactions are not socially learned or acquired, they are spontaneous and natural. However, these intuitive responses of conscience are capable of being replaced by erroneous, repetitive training. For instance, if children are repeatedly told to lie either by example or verbal instruction, the conscience's aversion against lying may be substantially dulled. The result would be a child who could coolly speak a lie without pain of heart. The same could happen with regard to respect for authority or for life or for God. Conscience is not infallible. It can be deceived by misinformation. It can be cauterized by repeated violations. In either case the results are horrendous, both for the individual and for those most closely connected to that individual.

Are we not witnessing the horrors of cauterized consciences with alarming frequency? People kill themselves and innocent citizens, even little children, in the name of a noble cause, even a religious cause. We are horrified. People within their own culture are horrified. How could they do that? Whatever else is involved, it is the result of a skewed conscience! Husbands kill their pregnant wives for an adulterous affair or for insurance money. How could they do that? Adults sexually abuse children. How could they do that? The examples being acted out before our eyes are too numerous and depressing to mention. How could they do that? All of it reflects the terrible consequences of consciences bludgeoned into silence or deceived by moral lies.

One of the cultural benefits of Biblical Christianity is the proper instruction and reinforcement of the conscience. A well instructed, healthy conscience will not make a sinful person righteous. The heart is still deceitful and desperately wicked. However, a conscience properly instructed in the law and Gospel of God will exert a restraint upon the actions of the sinner. When society is conditioned by God's truth there will be more moral clarity, less tolerance of evil, and therefore greater peace and liberty.

Has your conscience been preserved or corrupted by false standards of morality or by your own insistence on doing what you know to be wrong? Does violence still shock you or do you feel little remorse over violent words from your own mouth, even violent acts toward those around you? Did you lie without pain on your income tax returns? Have you become unfeeling toward the murder of children within and without their mothers' wombs?

Distorted consciences are a problem not just in foreign countries or big cities. Weakened, corrupted consciences that no longer function as they were intended to function are a problem everywhere, even here in Mebane. What about you?