A Template
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
With the knowledge of good and evil man came into the possession of
conscience. A sense of blameworthiness smote him when he committed, or
even contemplated committing, evil. This has been so ever since. The
Bible tells us that even the most ungodly and benighted heathen “show
the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also
bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else
excusing one another” (Rom.2:15).
It is true that man’s conscience can be violated so often that it
becomes calloused or, as St. Paul puts it: “seared with a hot iron”
(ITim.4:2), but events or incidents can take place which suddenly
awaken the conscience and make it sensitive again. Many a person has
indulged in “the pleasures of sin” more and more freely until,
suddenly, his sin has found him out and his conscience has caught up
with him to condemn him day and night and make life itself unbearable.
The Bible teaches that all men outside of Christ are, to some degree,
troubled by guilty consciences and certainly most are “through fear of
death… all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:15). But it also
teaches that “Christ died for our sins” so that our penalty having been
paid, we might be delivered from a guilty conscience.
The works and ceremonies of the Mosaic Law could never accomplish
this, but sincere and intelligent believers in Christ, having been
“once purged”, have “no more conscience of sins” (Heb. 9:14; 10:1,2).
They are, to be sure, conscious of their sins, but they are no longer
tortured by a forever-condemning conscience, for they know that the
penalty for all their sins, from the cradle to the coffin, was fully
met by Christ at Calvary.
This is not to imply that even a sincere believer may not be troubled
about offending the One who paid for his sins, but he knows that the
judgment for these sins is past. Thus he earnestly seeks, like Paul,
“to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man”
(Acts 24:16).
i Kow Whom I Have Believed
The Preserved and Living Word of God
Posted By Cecil and Connie Spivey
https://www.facebook.com/
https://www.facebook.com/
E-mail this BIBLE STUDY to all your friends
No comments:
Post a Comment