“... let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of
faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water.”
— Hebrews 10:22 (NRSV)
The true Christian experience is
one of having put away the guilt of condemnation for past deeds. For present
deeds where we fall short we have repentance. Repentance is a completely adequate
transaction before God in emending the missing of the mark.
Still, as transformed individuals,
having been cleansed of many forms of vile unrighteousness—and the power in
Christ, manifest in the Spirit, does this, once for all time, as we constantly
obey God’s leading—a fervent commitment to the truth, disregarding any sensual
cost—we have powers above most sins that previously plagued us. This is so long
as we continue to hold this ‘true heart’ reality in the full assurance of
faith.
One of the central keys to living
the Christ-powered life is a well-bounded freedom from an evil conscience. In
humility, the servant of God knows from whence their cleansing came. And they
never forget!
To Christ they owe everything. Yet
with grace, life is a gift!
Conscience – for One Reason & for
One Role Only
Oh the powers of death and life
that are irrefutable... powers to condemn us in guilt and powers to lift us out
of the boggy mire of condemnation.
The conscience is key to both
these.
The world uses the conscience
either to flout it and the purposes of God, or to be condemned by it. Either we
are nonchalantly free of the conscience or we are prisoners to it. The
Christian has the middle ground. Only in the middle ground is there
righteousness from God and wisdom for every good way—through humility enough to
repent.
The Christian deciphers the
conscience well. They have nurtured their conscience through the sponsorship of
the Spirit. They know full well that the conscience is the vehicle propelling
them toward repentance. The conscience impels them toward justice—especially/mostly
for the other—as it pertains to their relational world.
The conscience is for one reason
and for one role only.
The conscience quickens us to
righteousness, justice, and fairness—in the tradition of early Proverbs wisdom
(chapters 1 and 2). Having alerted us to the right sense, we are disposed so as
to act in faithfulness to the conscience; in repentance—by simply turning back
to God.
We can approach God in full
consciousness of faith when we have dealt with what our consciences have
reported to us. And we live neither death: of living free of the conscience or
being onerously bound by it.
The conscience is the tool of God
through which the Spirit operates.
***
The victory in Christ enables us
to live the guilt-free life. The conscience plays a big part. When our
consciences are connected to God, and there is freedom and vivacity in our
repentance, our true hearts, delivered in faith, are testament that our
consciences have been cleansed.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
No comments:
Post a Comment