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Acts 24:14-16 – Paul says that he goes to great lengths to keep a clear conscience before God and his brothers and sisters.
Romans 2:14 – The conscience is a gift from God! Paul says that the law is written in our hearts. Even with the infection of sin in the garden, man still has an innate sense of justice, and right and wrong.
Romans 9:1 – The conscience isn’t the same as the Holy Spirit. Even a very wicked and sinful person has a conscience. The Spirit uses the conscience.
The conscience can change, it isn’t something that is set once and never changes. Think about David before he was king and then after he became king. His conscience had been dulled, and something was out of balance. It wasn’t gone, he was quick to recognize his sin and repent when he was confronted about his sin with Bathsheba.
In the Old Testament Israel had the sacrificial system. It was symbolic of what was to come, but in Hebrews 9 it says that those gifts and sacrifices could not make the person perfect in regard to the conscience. It couldn’t solve the conscience problem, there was still guilt and condemnation.
Jesus said that when the Spirit of Truth comes, he would guide them (the disciples and early church) in all truth.
Hebrews 5:13-14 – The skilled in the Word are reading the Bible and praying and learning, their conscience is being sharpened and developed as they study scripture.
Hebrews 3:12-13 – People together exhorting one another, this is the goal and the purpose of a local body of believers.
Hebrews 10:24-25 – Being around good people is an inspiration and an encouragement. It can help us a lot in developing and maintaining our own conscience.
1 Corinthians 3 – Christian fellowship is important, it is something that God intended for us to participate in and benefit from.
We have a guidance system, our conscience, we want it to be sensitive and healthy. We don’t want to be making choices that grieve the Holy Spirit but don’t grieve us. We want to be sensitive enough to be grieved when the Holy Spirit is grieved.
