Clear Conscience
John said, If you walk in the light as he is in the light, we will have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The cleansing is in walking in the light of Christ. The blood of the lamb cleanses us from the sin of the world.
Jeremiah 17:9 says the heart is deceitful above all things. Who can understand it? Our hearts often deceive us into thinking according to the world’s standards. However the light of Christ dispels the darkness and deception of this world. The world says that we should condemn ourselves when we sin.
However, Romans says, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.
According to 1 John 4, If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things. Even if our heart condemn us, God does not condemn us if we have been born again of his spirit. For Jesus Christ who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.
The heart is the Greek word Kardia. The heart biblically speaking is the heart of our physical being. It is the seat of our soul-life where our thoughts and emotions reside. Soul life is our biological life. However in our soul, we cannot do what God has called us to do. We need both soul and spirit to do God’s will. The spirit is the nature of God himself that we received when we were born of God’s spirit, not of corruptible seed that we inherited from Adam, but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever.
The church is the called-out of God’s people… those whom God has called to gather together as a body of like minded born again believers. When we assemble together in the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, called according to the spirit of God we can fellowship together, worship together, edify and encourage one another as individual fittings within church, the body of Christ.
Jesus said, if you continue in my word then shall you be my disciples indeed. And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Jesus Christ came to set the captives free from the bondage of sin and iniquity of this world. As disciplined followers of Jesus Christ, we are witnesses of the Holy Spirit…we manifest God’s nature of mercy, grace, love and compassion in a world of darkness.
Jesus said, if the son has set you free you shall be free indeed. Not only are we freed from the bondage of sin, but we are freed to do the will of the Lord. How do we use the freedom we have in Christ? The answer is in Galatians 5: Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Only use not liberty as an occasion to sin, but in love serve one another. True freedom is in serving the Lord by serving one another in the church which is the body of Christ.
1 Peter says, keep a clear conscience so that those who do evil against you will be reproved. It’s better to suffer for doing good than to do evil. In the last beatitude Jesus said, blessed are they when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake, for great is your reward in heaven. Romans 12 says recompense to no man evil for evil… provide things honest in the sight of God and men. It’s not the wrath of God but the goodness of God that calls a man to repentance. Too reconcile others to Christ, we do not bring them a declaration of war, but instead we offer them a peace treaty from the prince of peace. John 3 says, Jesus came not into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
The greatest victory is the greatest surrender. In order to defeat the enemy, we must surrender to God… Therefore make me a captive Lord, and then I shall be free. Force me to render up my sword and I shall conquered be. I sink in life’s alarms if by myself I stand. Imprison me within thine arms, and free shall be my stand.
Without God, men have their conscience “seared with a hot iron.” Conscience means “with knowledge.” A healthy conscience operates “with knowledge” of the word of God. God will guide us and direct us according to the knowledge of His word. Wisdom is acting upon God’s revelation he reveals to us in his Word.
There is such thing as healthy guilt that acknowledges and mourns over wrongs done. This type of a guilty conscience leads to repentance… to turn away from sin that separates our heart from God’s heart and to return back into the presence of the Lord. According to 1 John 1:9, if we confess our sins (of having broken fellowship with God) then he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Then when we return our hearts to the Lord, we can walk in the light and the blood of Jesus Christ will (continue to) cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Blessed are they that mourn for Godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, not to be repented of. When God opens the eyes of our spiritual understanding so that we can see the contrast between the sin nature we inherited from Adam, and the spiritual nature that we received when we were born again of God’s spirit, then we can change our minds and follow our Lord and master, Jesus Christ… Then we’re no longer a slave to sin.. We become bond-slaves, servants of Jesus Christ to serve him from a heart of love.
It’s important to keep a clear conscience, free of the condemnation of guilt, worry, and fear that separates our heart from God’s heart. This is the theme of Romans chapter 8. Instead of condemnation, we have been made the righteousness of Christ. Romans 8 concludes: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
… That we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
