​Simple Faith and Matters of Conscience.

The statement “Always let your conscience be your guide,” is a profound one if you are a singing cricket with a top hat! Ultimately, if it becomes one of your core beliefs, it will only produce depression, anxiety, and a trip to the loony bin.  These are the kinds of beliefs that will lead you off coarse in your simple and restful walk of faith.

The Bible has a much different view on the matter. It tells us that while your conscience may be a good helper, it is also a harsh master. Whenever there are negative connotations associated with conscience in the Bible and when words like sinful, evil, defiled or seared are used in conjunction with conscience, it always pertains to the self-effort of one who is striving to appease their conscience apart from the finished work of the Cross. The only way sinful man can have a perfect conscience is by having it covered with the blood of Christ. When we look at The Book of Hebrews in the Bible, any other conscience is a ‘sinful” conscience and it always results in “dead works.” When one engages in works to appease their conscience, those works become tainted and not pure in motivation. They are a direct result of compensating for sin or failures and thus become self-serving at their very foundation. Simply put, this kind of conscience and core belief is nothing more than a mission of self-righteousness because it doesn’t come form a pure conscience.
 
Just a few examples and statements of a self-righteous conscience (See more in Galatians 5):

• I’ll do better this week!
• I’ll show them!
• If that’s how they feel then I’ll just write that person off!
• So and so, said this, about them, and I believe it!
• This sermon doesn’t apply to me!
• The I can’t believe it’s “Just Jesus” or, “There is nothing I can do” statement tics you off!
• You think Grace is earned in some way.
• Trying to prove yourself to others exhausts you!
• You think constantly about how you are perceived and what others think about you.
• You can’t forgive or except that His blood has changed someone else on the inside.
• You rely on outward signs in others and not the inward work that the Blood does before you will accept them.
• It gets worse! (Galatians 5).

​What the Bible does refer to, as a pure conscience is one that is absent of ulterior motives and hidden agenda’s. That can only stem from a “perfect” conscience. Simply put. It is resting in the Finished Work of the Cross-that our conscience finally finds perfection and rest and we are freed from the mind numbing guilt, depression, and self-righteous spirit that will drive us straight to the mental ward.
 
Be free, keep your faith simple, and walk in forgiveness with a clean, perfect conscience, through the Shed Blood of Jesus Christ today!

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