"For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward."-2 Cor. 1:1212For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward. (2 Corinthians 1:12)
By conscience it is plain that the apostle here refers to that inward principle or power of the soul which takes notice of our motives and springs of action, and pronounces its secret judgment upon them. In this respect he declares himself to be perfectly free and clear, both as regards the world at large and the saints also, with whom he had a more intimate association.
There is, of course, another aspect of conscience, and which is of vast moment in the question of the soul's acceptance before God. This the apostle speaks of, when declaring the inadequacy of the Jewish sacrifices and ordinances. He says, " They could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience." (Heb. 9:99Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; (Hebrews 9:9).) In relation to its cognizance of sin he shows that the claims of conscience can only be met by that which, in this respect, meets the judgment of God. The effect of Christ's work, therefore, on the conscience, in giving it peace before God, is necessarily based on the accomplishment of redemption. The two are presented in connection in Heb. 9:12-1412Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:12‑14). But redemption comes first. " By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." This as meeting the holy requirements of God in regard to sin. Then follows the effect on the conscience of him who believes. " How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." Here the voice of conscience is met by the value of the blood of Christ, as before it was presented as meeting the judgment of God; and the blessed result is that the soul is put into recognized relationship and intercourse with God.
This is an immense privilege, and under the law an inconceivable blessing, that the conscience of the worshipper and the claims of God's holiness should be brought into perfect harmony. It is this harmony between conscience in us and the claims of God's holiness that is the wonderful thing in the gospel. But the ground of it is plain. It is thus energetically expressed in the language of this epistle; " In those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year." It is plain that there can be no rest for conscience here. But that which faith rests upon is this: " Now once in the end of the world (or the ages) Christ bath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." This work He has accomplished; and on the ground of this it is argued, that "the worshipper once purged should have no more conscience of sins." The desert of sin having been met in God's presence in the sacrifice of Christ for sin, of which the sacrifices of the law were but dim and indistinct shadows, the blessed effect upon the conscience in us through faith, is correspondent to the efficacy of the work accomplished before God. That is, the worshipper is brought to see, through the testimony of the Spirit to the work of Christ, that sin has been so entirely judged in God's presence-where, of necessity, it must be judged, if judged at all-that there is nothing left for his faith but entire acceptance in the grace of God, who in infinite love gave His only-begotten Son for the express purpose of the accomplishment of this work. It is the difference between the sense of responsibility under the holy requirements of God, which is only the more oppressive and confounding the more the sensibilities of conscience are alive, and the liberty of grace, which points to an accomplished righteousness and an eternal redemption wrought by the death of the Lord Jesus, that Lamb of God's providing! " Thanks be unto God for this unspeakable gift."
The Apostle Peter, too, speaks of "the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." It is the same thing in effect with that which has been already considered, i.e., that the conscience meets what is needed for its peace in the expiation of Christ's death, of which His resurrection was the grand pledge and proof. Conscience gets its answer by seeing Christ going down to death bearing our sins; and then seeing Him not only raised again from the dead, but " gone into heaven, and on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him."
But, in the place we are considering, conscience is presented in a very different aspect. It is not here conscience having its claims once and forever met by the redemption which is by Jesus Christ, but conscience holding its daily court to try the correspondence between the testimony of the gospel believed or proclaimed, and the inward feelings and aims of him by whom it is believed or proclaimed. In this view it is essential that conscience should be kept bright and unsullied by our constantly walking in the light as God is in the light, and having our daily course tested by the divine word and by the living example of the Lord Jesus. The apostle tells us it was his rejoicing, or boast, to have such a conscience; and it is exceedingly important for us to mark the force of this principle, and how entirely it is through God's grace our responsibility to maintain. Other things, as the apostle shows, in his service might be denied him, and may be denied to us, such as the measure of success he desired in the ministry of the gospel, or the satisfaction he could not but covet in the conduct or walk of those amongst whom his word had been received; but a good conscience, through grace, he could maintain, and thus find a rest to his spirit amidst all his sorrows and disappointments. And how serious a business this was with him is shown in his address to king Agrippa, where he says, " Herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men." It was a thing that did not come to him without his care; nor will it so come to us. But it was what he cultivated with earnest diligence. He says he " exercised himself (i. e., practiced himself in a sort of gymnasium) in order to main-tam this, of which he might otherwise have been despoiled by the subtlety of the enemy, using to this end the circumstances and trials and temptations by which he was surrounded. Everything that we meet with is, or may be, an occasion for the exercise of conscience either toward God or toward men. On the other hand, he shows, in his address to Timothy, the danger in other things to which it exposes us if we fail to maintain a good conscience. " Holding faith and a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck." The practical power of faith cannot be maintained in the soul where a good conscience is nut maintained. " If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things; if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God." Hence we see the secret spring of all apostasy or departure from the Lord. The man who does not " add to his faith virtue," &c., will soon become blind, and not able to see afar off; i.e., beyond the horizon of this world. His faith will go, and he will " forget that he was purged from his old sins." His confidence toward God will give way, his faith will suffer shipwreck.
This then is what we see so strikingly exemplified in the apostle's course. I do not now allude to his earnest zeal and patient labors, and entire devotedness to the one cause he had espoused. These are manifest. I speak of this, that whatever might be the result of his labors, or whatever might be the estimate of men concerning them or him, he always maintained the consciousness of the most entire integrity and simplicity in his own bosom to fall back upon. As he appeals to the Thessalonians, " ye are witnesses and God also, how holily and justly and unblamably we behaved ourselves among you that believe." There it is not the testimony of his conscience only, but that which is the result of a good conscience, the collateral testimony to the truth itself, which is found in the consistency of those who present it.
It was not, however, that he did not recognize a higher standard, in the truth itself, to which conscience was to be conformed; or that he did not appeal to a deeper judgment of himself than conscience would reach. This he plainly shows where he says, " I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself [I am conscious of nothing, i. e., of no fault]; yet am I not hereby justified; but he that judgeth me is the Lord." That is as to faithfulness or unfaithfulness and the ultimate awards of Christ to His servants (for this is the point of his argument), it is not a matter of• human judgment at all, but of the final judgment of the Lord. And he adds, " Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God." It will not be human approval at all, nor appointed by human judgment, but praise to each one, who will then be the subject of praise, will be from God. Still, as he owns, he could not look on to this judgment if lie had not been clear in his conscience now.
It is remarkable the place which the apostle gives to the possession of a good conscience, in a practical sense, in his request to the Hebrews for their prayers on his behalf. He says, " Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly." (Heb. 13:1818Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly. (Hebrews 13:18).) This seems very bumble ground to take; too humble for the spirit of fanaticism, but not for the quiet, healthful spirit of the gospel. In truth there is everything in it. Given that the gospel is true, and that its revelations are directly from heaven, what is there left for those by whom it is ministered or professed, but the maintenance of that simplicity of purpose and inward conformity of feeling in relation to it which makes its appeal to the scrutiny of Him who is light, and who has called us to walk in the light? Success is not at our bidding. Circumstances are not under our control, but under the control of God. The sphere of His service is not in our own choice, but in His appointment. But, in all these conditions, the one thing to be maintained-and it is all that rightly can be done is the possession of a good conscience. Even an apostle could do no more. Hence, Peter exhorts Christians generally as to their conduct in the world, and amidst persecutions and suffering and calumnies of enemies, thus, " Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evil-doers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ." (1 Peter 3:15,1615But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: 16Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. (1 Peter 3:15‑16).)
In writing to Timothy, the apostle says, " Now the end of the commandment [or, charge, for he is referring to the words of verse 3, "that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine," &c.] is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned." Love was to be the spring and the issue of all his service. But we cannot fail to see how this love is guarded, and by what holy and conservative principles its integrity is to be maintained. It is love indeed. But it is " love out of a pure heart"-a heart that, in the exercise of love, connects itself with the truth; that remembers the declaration that God is light as well as love. It is love out of a good conscience too. Love that must be controlled, not by the softness of natural feeling, but by uprightness of heart as subject at all times and in all things to the will of God. It is love also " with faith unfeigned"-that is, a faith that honestly looks to God's word and Spirit for its foundation and its guide. He adds, " from which some having swerved, have turned aside unto vain jangling," &c. In a word, the apostle shows that if right moral feelings be absent froth our walk and service, no amount of knowledge or zeal will keep us from being turned aside from the right path.
So far conscience: but what was this inward testimony of conscience to? To this, " that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God," the apostle had his conversation in the world, and more abundantly toward those who believed. His whole course in the world, in connection with the gospel, exhibited these characteristics, simplicity and singleness of aim. He was sincere as a persecutor, but that is not our point. Genuine and unmixed, as examined in the light of God, was the purport of his heart; and there was nothing covert or tortuous in his ways. There was a wisdom, a practical wisdom, I mean, which strongly marked his course in many instances.
But it was not the politic wisdom of men which seeks to bend the minds of others to its purpose by acting on their natural feelings, and which is ready to seize upon their weaknesses and prejudices, even, in order to carry its point. The wisdom of the apostle was the re. verse of this. It was not " fleshly wisdom," but the grace of God which marked and controlled his path. I know but of one seeming exception to this, when he said before the council, " I am a Pharisee, and the son of a Pharisee." But this did not turn to very good account. What he sought was not a place for himself in the estimation of others-not even amongst those who were most his debtors in the truth. In all his labors prosecuted with all his zeal and ardency of affection, he desired only a place for Christ, and for the power of the truth with which he was entrusted. This is abundantly seen in his appeal to the Corinthians. " I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved." (2 Cor. 12:1515And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. (2 Corinthians 12:15).)
The apostle's conscience was not occupied with the foolish punctilios which marked the Church of a later age, but took its character from the fullness of the grace which he proclaimed, and was the reflex of his association with Christ and God. It was a heavenly conscience, though dealing with his path on earth; and this is the kind of conscience which the perfect revelation of the Christian's place and portion in Christ demands. Hence nothing can be more important than to realize the place in which divine grace has set us, because our walk here in the world and our conscience in all its exercises is to accord with our relationship to God, and the full and perfect disclosure which He has made to us of His counsels and will. May we learn more and more what it is to be " blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life." (Phil. 2:15,1615That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; 16Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. (Philippians 2:15‑16)..)