Search
Scripture Reading: Acts 24:16; 1 Tim. 1:5, 19; 3:9; 4:2; 2 Tim. 1:3; Rom. 9:1; 2 Cor. 1:12; Heb. 13:18; Eph. 4:19
In the previous chapter we saw a full sketch concerning the heart. The heart is a composition of four things: the mind, the emotion, the will, and the conscience. In order for the heart to be proper, the mind must be clear, enlightened, and transformed; it must be as crystal, transparent and not opaque. Then the emotion must be loving and caring toward the Lord. In addition, the will must not be weak but strong, yet not stubborn but soft and pliable. Then the conscience must be right; it must be a good and pure conscience, a conscience without any offense. With these four together we have a proper heart. If the mind is transparent, the emotion loving toward the Lord, the will pliable, and the conscience good, pure, and without offense, then the heart is proper. Now we must see something more concerning the conscience. There are many things spoken in the Scriptures concerning the conscience, which is very important, not only to the heart but also to the spirit.
It is hard to find a verse that tells us what the source of the conscience is, where it came from, and how it came into function. Before the fall of Adam, man was innocent. To be innocent means that there was no need for the function of the conscience. If there were the function of the conscience, it would mean that man was not innocent. However, we do not dare say that there was no conscience, because the conscience is a part of the created human being. In God’s creation the conscience was there already, but its function was not there; before the fall of man its function was not yet developed. We may compare this to certain functions of our body. The medical doctors can tell us that when we were born of our parents, we had everything in our body, but certain functions still needed to be developed.
Bible students agree that the first of the so-called seven dispensations was the dispensation of innocence, the dispensation without sin. The second dispensation was the dispensation of the conscience. This is because before the fall man had no sin, so there was no need for the function of the conscience, but after the fall man was in sin. From that time, therefore, man began to need his conscience. This dispensation was the period of man living under the government of the conscience. The conscience was created by God, but the function of the conscience was developed after the fall of man.
In order to know the position of the conscience, we need to know the whole human being. A person is of three parts—spirit, soul, and body. The three parts of the soul are the mind, the emotion, and the will, and the spirit has the three functions of the conscience, the fellowship, and the intuition. Then as we have seen, the heart comprises all three parts of the soul and one function of the spirit, the conscience. By this we can see the position of the conscience. The conscience is the very means to control the spirit and the heart. It is the most important part of the spirit as well as of the heart. When our conscience is wrong, our heart is wrong, and our spirit is also wrong. Both our heart and our spirit depend on the conscience.
Psalm 51:17 speaks of a contrite heart, and Isaiah 57:15 and 66:2 speak of a contrite spirit. In what inner part are we contrite? To be contrite is to exercise our conscience. Both the contrite heart and the contrite spirit are related to the conscience. When we exercise our conscience to confess our sins, our heart is contrite and our spirit is also contrite. As we have seen, repentance is something in the mind; in Greek repentance means “a change of mind.” We have to have a change in mind and turn our mind to the Lord. Then after we repent, our confession follows. Whereas repentance is in our mind, confession is a matter of our conscience. Therefore, when we confess, we have both a contrite heart and a contrite spirit, because the conscience is a part both of the heart and of the spirit.
According to the Scriptures, the Lord comes into our spirit, but our spirit is enclosed within our heart. The heart is the gateway—the entrance and exit—of the spirit. Our heart must be open to the Lord in order for Him to come into our spirit. How can we open our heart? We must repent and continue to repent in order to exercise our conscience. Not only did we need to repent at the time we heard the gospel, but even after we are saved, we have to repent continually. In the seven epistles in Revelation 2 and 3 the Lord demands that we repent (2:5, 16; 3:3, 19). To repent is to turn our mind, which is one door of the gateway of our heart. When we turn our mind and our mind is open, our confession follows. This is the exercise and opening of the conscience. Then when we have true repentance and real confession, our emotion and will follow to make a decision for the Lord. In this way the whole heart is exercised and open, and the Lord comes in through our heart into our spirit.
However, many times after we are saved, we close our heart again and imprison the Lord in our spirit. Therefore, we must repent again. We must exercise to turn our mind even more and then follow to exercise our conscience by confessing. Then our emotion will be for the Lord, and our will follows to make a decision for the Lord. In this way the entire heart opens, and the way is paved for the Spirit to come in to fill us in our spirit. This shows us that the conscience is a very central matter, having very much to do with the heart and the spirit.
According to the New Testament, a Christian’s conscience is very important. The apostle Paul said that he exercised himself to always have a conscience without offense toward God and men (Acts 24:16). He lived in a good conscience before God all the time (23:1). He also said that the Christian life is a life of love out of a pure heart and out of a good conscience and out of unfeigned faith (1 Tim. 1:5). Both love and faith depend on a pure conscience. Without a pure conscience it is hard to have love and faith. Moreover, he said that if we thrust away a good conscience, we will become shipwrecked regarding the faith (v. 19). By this we can see how important the conscience is.
Before the fall man lived in the presence of God and was directly under the government of God, so there was no need for the conscience. After the fall, however, man fell out of the presence of God into himself, and in losing the presence of God, he lost the government of God Himself. Therefore, man began to need his conscience as a government, a control. This is why the conscience came into function so manifestly after the fall. By the fall the conscience was developed very much, and it stepped in to govern human beings. This is why Bible students say that after the fall the second dispensation, the dispensation of the conscience, began. After the fall man was under the control, the government, the rule, of the conscience. This was a self-government.
This, however, was not the end of the fall of man. Following this was a second step, in which man fell from self-government. Genesis 9:6 says, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, / By man shall his blood be shed.” This indicates that since man was lawless, God put man under human government. After the second fall humans needed to be governed by others. Consider today’s Los Angeles; if we were to take the police and courts away, what kind of city would this be? The entire fallen race of man is under human government. In school and at home there is a human government. I am ashamed to say that many in the church today still need a kind of human government. This is because man has fallen again and again.
After the third dispensation, the dispensation of human government, came the dispensation of promise. God promised to come in to deliver people back. At that time, however, men could not understand what God meant by His promise, so He gave them the law. Therefore, this was the dispensation of the law, which proved to man how much he needed God’s salvation. After this came the dispensation of grace. Grace came to fulfill the promise.
If we are fallen under human government, still needing others to govern us at school, at home, and in our city, we are fallen to the uttermost. God’s salvation comes to deliver us from human government to self-government. A genuine Christian should not need this kind of human government. If a student still needs the government of the school, he is either not saved or not saved properly and adequately. If one has been saved adequately, there is no need for this kind of human government, because he has been saved back to his conscience. From the West Coast to the East Coast everyone is afraid of getting a ticket from the police. Do we Christians need to be patrolled by the police? We should not, because we have been delivered from human government back to the conscience. There should be no need for human government to rule us, because we are under the government of the conscience.
I believe that now you can see the importance of the conscience. However, we must realize that the conscience is not the ultimate goal. The conscience is only a bridge to the ultimate goal, which is the presence of God. We need to get on the bridge and pass through to reach the other side. We cannot believe that a brother who does not have a proper conscience can be governed by the Lord directly. If we are not pure in our conscience, if our conscience is not void of offense, it is very hard to live in the presence of God. If we have an offense on our conscience, a certain kind of accusation, how can we be in the presence of God? If this is our case, we must get back into the presence of God through our conscience. To be in the presence of God we must be right in our conscience. Our conscience must be pure, good, and without offense.
If, for example, I habitually lie, there will be an offense, a certain accusation, in my conscience. With such an offense, can I be in the presence of the Lord? No, I have to pass through the conscience. The conscience has to approve. I tell you again, the conscience is the bridge. We must pass the bridge to reach the other side.
God’s salvation is to bring us back from human government to the conscience and then through the conscience into His presence. This is why the apostle Paul told us that we must have a good conscience. If we lose a good conscience, we lose the presence of God. It is through the conscience that we are brought back into the presence of God.
The function of the conscience is threefold: to know what is right and wrong, to justify or to accuse, and to govern for God. Just as the police govern people for society, the conscience within us constantly governs us for God. After the fall, God governs us through the conscience so that man may know what is right and wrong. Man has such an organ to justify him or to accuse and condemn him.
The conscience has a consciousness, a feeling, or a sense. The function of the conscience depends on this consciousness. Ephesians 4:19 says, “Who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness in greediness.” In Darby’s New Translation, this verse says, “Having cast off all feeling.” The unbelieving sinners cast off their feeling. Feeling here mostly refers to the feeling of the conscience.
The experience of all spiritual persons proves that the conscience is like the window to a building. A window itself does not give light; the light comes from the sunshine. Similarly, the conscience derives its consciousness through other factors. First, the conscience functions through the mind. When the mind is darkened, the conscience is also darkened. It is hard for the conscience to have a sense when the mind is darkened. This is why we must preach the gospel to the unbelievers. The gospel enlightens their darkened mind. Through the enlightened mind the light will shine upon the conscience. Then there will be the consciousness and feeling, and the conscience will function.
In the same way, the conscience has much to do with the emotions. A person full of love has a tender conscience, but a person full of hatred has a hardened conscience. The feeling of the conscience has much to do with the tenderness of the emotions. If there is tenderness in our emotion, our conscience will also be tender.
Likewise, if our will is stubborn and hardened, the conscience will also be hardened. The conscience of some people does not function because their will is hardened. If our will is pliable and soft before God, the conscience will function in a proper way.
Moreover, if we have fellowship with the Lord, our conscience will be even more enlightened. Then the more our conscience is enlightened, the more it will function, and the deeper the feeling in our conscience is, the deeper the fellowship we will have with the Lord. In addition, the conscience has something to do with the intuition, and it also relates to the Holy Spirit and the divine life, because in any kind of life there is a sense, or feeling.
The conscience of proper Christians is much more tender than that of the unbelievers. Their mind is darkened, but our mind is enlightened. Their emotion is not proper, but our emotion must be proper. Their will is stubborn and hardened, but ours must be pliable. Their fellowship is killed and their intuition is deadened, but our fellowship and intuition have been made alive. Moreover, they do not have the Holy Spirit and the divine life, but we do. All these things added together give us a deeper, even the deepest, feeling in our conscience.
The function and degree of the consciousness of the conscience depend on two more matters. The first is the growth in life. The more we grow in the divine life, the more feeling we have in our conscience. Perhaps two years ago our conscience did not have a feeling about certain things, but today our conscience does have a feeling about them, because we have grown a little in these two years. When the growth of life increases, the feeling of the conscience also increases.
The last item is the increase of spiritual knowledge. The conscience functions according to the degree of our spiritual knowledge. The more spiritual knowledge we have, the more feeling our conscience will have. With certain things, however, there is no need for education. Even if we train children to steal, for example, they eventually will feel that stealing is wrong.
In summary, the nine factors related to the function of the conscience are the mind, the emotion, the will, the fellowship, the intuition, the Holy Spirit, the divine life, the growth of life, and our spiritual knowledge. Our intention in knowing about our conscience is this: If we do not have a pure and good conscience, if there is an offense in our conscience, our Christian life is bankrupt, we cannot go on, and we are shipwrecked.
The feeling of the conscience can be classified into three categories. The first is the consciousness of sins. When we commit a sin, there is a feeling about it in our conscience. Second, there is the consciousness of worldliness. If we love something worldly, our conscience feels an accusation from the Lord. Our conscience senses the worldliness in our life. Third, there are times that we have neither sins nor worldliness, but our conscience still tells us something. We still have some feeling that we are wrong before God. To be under the government of the conscience is mostly to be governed to know what is right and wrong. To be governed by the presence of the Lord, however, is to be governed not according to right and wrong but according to something deeper. If we tell a lie, for example, the conscience will govern us. This is to be under the government of the conscience, but to be under the government of God Himself is different. We may speak something that is true, but the Lord may govern us by saying, “Don’t say that. You have said enough.” This proves that we are not only under the government of the conscience but under the government of the Lord Himself. However, we still have to pass through the conscience to get into the Lord’s presence.
The feeling concerning matters other than sin and worldliness is the government in the presence of the Lord. As we are speaking, the government of the Lord’s presence may tell us not to speak, but we may still speak. This is a kind of disobedience, but it is different from sins and worldliness. This can even include matters of our character. We are those who are learning to live in the presence of the Lord by building up a proper character. Therefore, for us to throw our coat down is neither sin nor worldliness; it relates to our character. If we do not learn to deal with our conscience, we will not care, but if we do learn the lesson to deal with our conscience, it will give us the feeling to be more careful. Then we will pick up the coat and either put it on or hang it up. To throw down a coat is not sinful or worldly, but the conscience will give us a feeling about it.
The conscience is a great matter and a great subject. We will say more about it in the next message. If we intend to know the inner life and we mean business to live in the inner life, we must know the conscience. If we note how many times the apostle Paul stressed this in his writings, we will see its importance.
