A GUILTY conscience is a dreadful thing; and, unless purged by the blood of Christ, it will drive a man to despair.
The conscience and the heart are closely allied. What affects the one affects the other; and in Scripture they are sometimes identified. “If our heart condemn us,” we read in 1 John 3:20,20For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. (1 John 3:20) “God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things.” God searches the heart; and conscience, always on God’s side, though possibly dulled or seared, acts upon the heart, and, when guilty, renders it miserable.
Now, a conscience of this kind, acting on the affections, may lead a man to the commission of any conceivable crime. Driven by despair he may commit suicide, or goaded by passion he may become a murderer like Cain of old. Affection is over-mastered by an evil conscience, and relief is sought by means which are desperate, from a burden so heavy as to make its bearer well-nigh mad. But is relief thus to be found? Never! the load of guilt cannot be removed by that which only adds to it.
How, then, can the case be met, and the heavy load removed? Is there a way whereby the guilty conscience can be purged, so that a sinful man can look God in the face without fear, and in the knowledge of the settlement of the whole cause of trouble?
Yes, thank God, there is. It is a way of His own gracious providing, and must therefore satisfy fully all that He demands, and place, at the same time, the conscience of the recipient on divine and righteous ground. That ground lies in the blood of His Son.
That ever-precious blood meets all the claims of the throne on high, and “cleanses us from all sin.” Glorious provision! Now, please to notice this statement of Scripture— “Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience” (Heb. 10:2222Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:22)). Observe the close connection between heart and conscience, the latter reacting on the former and, when evil, necessarily causing misery; but see also that the heart is sprinkled from such a conscience, and is therefore delivered from its terrible load.
But whose heart? That of him who by nature and practice had acquired an evil conscience as the result, first of Adam’s sin, and then of his personal guilt, but who has also availed himself of God’s blessed provision, one who is, in short, a true believer in our Lord Jesus Christ. His conscience is purged before God; and such is the Marvelous efficacy of that provision—that sacrifice—he has no longer the conscience of sins! Hence we read—“Because that the worshippers once purged should have no more conscience of sins!” (Heb. 10:22For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. (Hebrews 10:2)).
Ponder these inspired words, they are intended to carry absolute relief to the sin-troubled heart. One purgation by the blood of Christ purifies the conscience for evermore!
The happy worshipper can look in the face the God whom he had offended by his sins; he is purged; his sins and iniquities are remembered no more; by One offering he is perfected forever; he is sprinkled as to his heart from an evil conscience; it is purged from dead works so that he can now serve the living God!
How infinite the difference! Yet sin dwells in him! To deny that positive fact is but to deceive oneself. There is the consciousness, and the experience, too, of indwelling sin; but, withal, the conscience is purged because the guilt is pardoned. There is favor instead of fear.
When the prodigal was sitting peacefully at his father’s table his conscience had assuredly perfect right to rejoice even though he himself had the consciousness of having wandered so far. Still, at the very least, his conscience was at rest and his heart delivered from its heavy load.
This is the first part of God’s great deliverance. The heart which was deceived by sin is now delivered by redemption, in order that, in freedom from the upbraidings of an evil conscience, it may yield itself frankly to serve and worship the living God. By so doing the conscience, once purged, is maintained pure; for there is the needed “exercise to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and man.”
That is surely a “good conscience” than which there is no greater source of moral power or spiritual vigor. Having that you are bold as a lion; without it, even though purged, you will flee when no man pursueth. Thus a “good conscience” one sustained in faithfulness—and a delivered and joyful heart go together. There can be no true liberty of heart if the conscience has ground of accusation; and, conversely, a good conscience and a happy heart secure constant victory.
J. W. S.