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Paul says
to Titus about those who don’t believe: “Even their mind and conscience are
defiled” (Titus 1:15
– NKJV). It is evident that a man feels this contamination because when
conscience is contaminated, it rebukes him. When the Scribes and Pharisees
brought to Jesus that woman caught in adultery and they asked Him if they had
to stone her as the law of Moses commanded to do, and Jesus said to them: “He
who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first” (John 8:7 –
NKJV), the Scripture says that “those who heard it, being convicted by their
conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last”
(John 8:9 – NKJV). Why were they convicted by their conscience? Evidently
because they themselves, who were ready to condemn a person, deserved to be
condemned for their sins, which lay heavy on their conscience. However, although
men’s conscience is contaminated by sin, it continues to bear them witness that
they must do certain right things, which are written in the law. For Paul
says to the saints of Rome: “Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law,
do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even
though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the
law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and
their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them” (Romans 2:14-15 – NIV).
A contaminated conscience can be purified only by the blood of Christ, for
the author of the epistle to the Hebrews says: “For if the blood of bulls and
of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to
the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:13-14). The
atoning sacrifices prescribed by the law cannot cleanse a man’s conscience
from sin, for the Scripture says about the first tabernacle that “was a
figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and
sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as
pertaining to the conscience; Which stood only in meats and drinks, and
divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of
reformation” (Hebrews 9:9-10). Therefore, it is not possible that the blood
of bulls and goats could take away sins from man’s conscience. But what that
blood cannot do can be done by the precious blood of Christ, the Lamb of God
who was foreordained before the foundation of the world to offer Himself in
order to take away our sins.
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Once a man
has obtained the purification of his conscience through the blood of Christ,
he must be diligent to keep a clear conscience. For Peter exhorts us to have
a good conscience (1 Peter 3:16).
This is confirmed also by Paul when he says to Timothy: “Now the end of the
commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of
faith unfeigned” (1 Timothy 1:5), and again: “This charge I commit unto thee,
son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou
by them mightest war a good warfare; Holding faith, and a good conscience;
which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck” (1 Timothy
1:18-19). Obviously we can keep a good (or clear) conscience only by living a
holy and blameless life. When, by the grace of God, we conduct ourselves
honestly toward men, our conscience does not rebuke us for Paul says to the
Corinthians: “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court;
indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear” (1 Corinthians 4:3-4
– NIV), but it bears us witness that we are conducting ourselves rightly and
we can boast about the testimony of our conscience as the apostles did, as it
is written: “For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that
we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not
with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you”
(2 Corinthians 1:12 – NKJV). How important it is to have such a testimony of
our conscience! How beautiful and gratifying it is to be able to say: “We are
confident that we have a good conscience, in all things desiring to live
honorably” (Hebrews 13:18
– NKJV) and again: “I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my
forefathers did” (2 Timothy 1:3 – NKJV).
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If a
believer rejects a good conscience, his decision will have baleful effects on
him because he will suffer shipwreck concerning the faith, for Paul says to
Timothy: “This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the
prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good
warfare; Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning
faith have made shipwreck: Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have
delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme” (1 Timothy
1:18-20). Let no one deceive himself, for all those whose conscience have
become corrupted have suffered shipwreck concerning the faith.
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In the
light of what the Bible says, therefore, sin defiles conscience (both the
conscience of unbelievers and believers), and the so called ‘scruples of
conscience’ are nothing but those fears that assail our mind when we are
tempted to do evil things and also when we are tempted to do something which
grieves our brother (even though it is not evil in itself), and thus if we
did it, we would put a stumbling block or obstacle in our brother’s way. For
instance, eating pork before a brother who considers this kind of meat to be
unclean, or drinking wine before a brother who abstains from drinking wine.
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