The Blessing of a Clear Conscience

Is there anything so impossible to get past as a guilty conscience? Why is it so much easier to forgive others than ourselves?



I believe with all my heart that our consciences are God-given--part of the unique way He created us to know the difference between right and wrong--that inner voice that urges us to head in the right direction and for believers His Spirit residing within us (Isaiah 30:21; Romans 2:15; 1 John 2:27). The Bible also confirms that men are capable of denying and disobeying that inner voice to the point that they are no longer able to discern their conscience (1 Timothy 4:1-2).



But, as is usually the case, Satan who wants to steal from, kill, and destroy us, attempts to turn something as good as our conscience against us. He wants to keep us in a place of guilt and shame. Why? Because if he can make us stay focused on that, we stand to focus more on ourselves than what Christ wants us focused on--Him and His purpose. Satan wants in a place of no hope. He wants us to believe that we're too far gone for rescue, deliverance and salvation.



Praise God, there is help and hope! Just look at all the promises of God concerning our consciences:


Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our
hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed
with pure water. ~Hebrews 10:22 (ESV)
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ~1 John 1:9 (ESV)
The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. ~1 Timothy 1:5 (ESV)
We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. ~1 John 3:19-22 (NASB) 
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? ~Hebrews 9:11-14 (NASB)  

Dearly beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, how blessed we are! Through what Jesus did on the cross we can have a clear conscience. What blessed benediction that brings to guilt-laden hearts!



Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! Lord God Most High, how we praise You for blessing after blessing that we receive from knowing You. Thank You for providing a way for us to not only be in close and right relationship to You--as if that weren't enough--but for also providing the means for us to live guilt- and shame-free lives. Through Your grace and mercy and salvation, You enable us to trust You and confess our sin, claiming the all-powerful blood of Christ as our justification and sanctification. How blessed we are! Thank You, Jesus! Amen.