Page 73 - Christ and Culture Textbook

Study Section 13: Obedience and Conscience

13.1 Connect

Think about reality of sin in your life, about the ideals that you had as a child. Consider the
pangs of conscience that may have intruded into your life when you first experimented with
certain things that you knew were wrong. Undoubtedly you were overwhelmed and
traumatized. Perhaps you even became guilty. But the power of sin was able erode the
conscience to the point where it became a faint voice in the deepest recesses of your heart.
Your consciences become hardened and callous, condemning what is right and excusing
what is wrong. It’s fascinating that we can always find someone who will give an articulate and
persuasive defense for the ethical legitimacy of some of the activities that God has judged to be an
outrage to Him. Self-awareness that judges whether or not an act one has carried out or plans to carry
out is in harmony with God’s moral standards is lost. Is the “conscience” enough to help us obey and
live for God? Do all human beings have the power of moral Judgment?

13.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to discuss the topic of “conscience” and obedience.

2. The student should be able to establish ways keeping our conscience clean.

3. The student should be able to preach the message of repentance and obedience to God.

13.3 What is the conscience?

Historically and classically, the conscience was seen to be our link to the transcendent ethic that
resides in God. It is vitally important for us to consider the issue of conscience. The moral
revolution of our culture, a different approach to conscience has emerged, and this is what is
called the relativistic view. This is indeed the age of relativism, where values and principles are
considered to be mere expressions of the desires and interests of a given group of people at a
given time in history. We repeatedly hear that there are no absolutes in our world today. As a
result, we are not ashamed to call evil good and good evil. How do we know which behavior is correct?
The conscience is a person’s sense of whether a behavior is right or wrong. This feeling of conviction
about personal actions, or an inward reflection on behavior, is a vital part of biblical morality in both the
OT and NT. Thus, we define conscience as the faculty whereby man knows morality. It is the instrument
given to us by God to know right from wrong. Sometimes conscience is called, "the voice of God in the
human soul. Both the English word “conscience” and the Greek word translated as “conscience” in the
31
NT literally mean “to know together.” The Greek word for conscience appears in the New Testament
thirty-one times, and it seems to have a two-fold dimension, as the medieval scholars argued. It involves
the idea of accusing as well as the idea of excusing. When we sin, the conscience is troubled. It accuses

NT New Testament

31 Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, “Conscience,” Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Book House, 1988), 510.

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