What Is A Clear Conscience

 As I was reading the other day, I came upon 1 Timothy 1:20 where he shares with us that Hymeneus and Alexander put away their clear conscience; then they shipwrecked their faith and were then handed over to satan. It got me thinking about how important a clear conscience is. What is a clear conscience exactly and how does one put it away? A clear conscience is a state of having no guilt from wrongdoing. Putting away our good conscience means to defile our conscience by acts that lead to death. The conscience of those who have put their faith in Christ Jesus is cleared through the blood of Jesus. Our sin was dealt with on the cross. The blood of Jesus says we are forgiven. The penalty for sin has been paid. Jesus says in John 16:8-9, That when the Holy Spirit comes He will prove the world wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgement: about sin because people do not believe in Jesus; about righteousness because Jesus goes to be with the Father where we will see Him no longer; about judgement because the prince of this world NOW stands condemned. Jesus says, " I have much more to tell you, more than you can now bear. But when He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you in all Truth. He will not speak on His own, He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me what he will make know to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why the Spirit will receive from me what He will make known to you." It is important that we don't twist this Scripture and preach what it's not saying. Regardless what anyone says, this Scripture right here shows us that The Holy Spirit does not convict us of sin. The Holy Spirit proves us wrong about sin, because we do not believe in Jesus. Sin was dealt with on the cross for all who receive salvation that comes only through Jesus Christ. To convict is to find someone guilty. The law convicts us of sin. The law is what showed us we are guilty of sin. A conviction is a final declaration of guilt. We were guilty of sin under the law, that was the final declaration- GUILTY! 

Jeremiah 2:22, Although you wash yourself with soap and use an abundance of cleansing powder, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Sovereign LORD. 

1 John 1:17, But if we walk in the Light as He is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.

Hebrews 9:13-14, For the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so their bodies are clean, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, purify our conscience from works of death, that we may serve the living God.

To have a clear conscience is to believe in the works that Jesus did. His finished work saves us and purifies us from all unrighteousness. The blood of Christ purifies our conscience from works of death in order for us to serve the living God. The blood of Jesus clears us from ALL sin. It is the blood of Jesus that cleanses us.  When Jesus is with the Father, our Advocate the Holy Holy Spirit comes and reminds of us TRUTH. What is truth? That the blood of Jesus cleansed us from sin. We are no longer sinners. We are adopted as sons into the Kingdom of God. We are born again through the Spirit. We are not born again into sin where death is our master. We are saved from sin and the penalty of sin in order to serve the living God. 

1 John 5:18, We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one CANNOT harm them. We know that we (who are in Christ) are children of God, and the whole world (those apart from Christ) is under the control of the evil one. We also know the Son of God has come and given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true by being in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 

We are born again into the Spirit, into a new life through Christ Jesus. When the Holy Spirit comes, He proves us wrong about sin, it is because we do not believe in Jesus. Sin is a product of unbelief in the finished work of the cross. He proves us wrong about righteousness because He goes to be with the Father where we will see Him no longer. He proves us wrong about judgement because the prince of this world NOW stands condemned. We who are in Christ do not belong to the one who is condemned. We are not descendants of the slave woman but we are the children of promise. Children from the Seed of Abraham. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God and everyone who loves the Father loves the child as well; this is how we know we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. In fact, this is love for God to keep His commands. And His commands are not burdensome.

I encourage you to read Matthew 23 and 24.

Many will turn away from the faith, That is exactly what Hymeneus and Alexander did when they were handed over to satan. They put away good conscience and shipwrecked their faith. If we don't receive forgiveness for our sin through Jesus- our conscience will remain guilty and we will still be focused on ourselves and what we are doing- our focus will be on our obedience. Obedience is not a requirement for salvation. Obedience is a product of salvation. When obedience is a product of salvation it is because we have been born of God and obedience is not burdensome. It is a new way of life, it is a new nature given to us by God through Jesus. Our desire is to walk in obedience to God, not because of fear, but because of love. Fear has to do with punishment. Fearing the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. There is always order in Gods commands. Always!  God loved us so much He gave us His Son. He did not give us His Son to condemn us but to save us through Him. His perfect love casts out all fear. We love God because He first loved us. And He proved His love to us through His Son. It is through His Son that we are made new and through the Holy Spirit that we are reminded who we are in Christ. We are reminded who we belong to, whose we are and what we have been saved form. We don't shrink back. We boldly go into the throne room of grace. Grace empowers us to live as Sons who have been made righteous through Christ Jesus. Our focus is not on ourself but on Him who saved us from death. Our eyes are no longer on self. When we deny self, pick up our cross to follow Jesus, we become followers of Christ. Then we are baptized into His death, burial and resurrection. We become purified by His blood and released from the power of sin in order to live in the finished work of Jesus Christ as sons of God. When God looks at us, He doesn't see our record of wrongs, He sees His Son who lives in us. If we think this now means we can live according to the desires of our flesh, we have not yet received the forgiveness that comes through Jesus Christ. When we receive forgiveness through Jesus the last thing we want to do is go sin. If our desire is still for sin then we are still under the law. The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. When we are forgiven from sin, we are transferred from the custody of the law and put under grace. When we are released from the power of sin (forgiven), we are released from the law and put under grace. Grace is not a license to continue on in sin. And like I said, if your desire is still for sin, you are still under the law and need to receive forgiveness through Jesus Christ. 

There is an order to Gods commands. If we do not keep His commands it is because we don't love Him. If we don't love Him it is because we don't have a revelation of how much He loves us. We love because He first loved us. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might LIVE through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

If we keep the commands it means we do not throw them out. Gods commands are the order of our steps. Repentance is to accept and acknowledge the Word of God as Truth and to allow the truth to set us free. The only ones who will be deceived are those who refuse to love truth and be saved. If  we are self-seeking and if we reject truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil; first for the Jew, then for the Gentile, but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew and then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism. There is so much right here. Maybe I will go into this further in another text. But please understand that there is an order to every command and everything God designed. They must be kept in order, first for the Jew and then for the Gentile. I wish I had time to go into this right now. I will just leave Genesis 8:22 here real quick, As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.

 Look back at Matthew 24:12. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love for most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm until the end will be saved. And this gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. What does it mean stand firm? Stand firm means to let nothing move you. Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor is not in vain. To stand firm is to stand in the finished work of Jesus. We give ourself fully to His work, the work He accomplished and everything we now do flows from His finished work and will not be in vain. We see that Abraham faced the fact that he was as good as dead but he did not waver in his faith. The promise still came to him and Sara, not according to their works~ their works led to Ishmael. But their unwavering faith brought them the promised~ Isaac. Keep fighting the good fight of faith. Trust that He who began a good work in you will finish what He started. He has equipped you with everything you need to do the will of God. Don’t give up. Don’t lose hope. Keep Gods commands. Let your steps be ordered by Him who is faithful. He will finish what He started.