Origin of the Conscience
- Michael E.B. Maher
- 3 days ago
- 10 min read
Genesis 2:7 “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”
And so of the four parts of our inner man, in this series we want to discuss the conscience of man. So what is our conscience? In order to answer that question we need to see exactly where man’s conscience originates, which means that we need to go back to the beginning when God created man, to see how the conscience of man came to be. As quoted in the above passage of scripture we see that God formed the body of man i.e. the outward man, from the dust of the ground. We also see that God, who is Spirit (John 4:24) and the Father of spirits (Hebrews 12:9), breathed man’s spirit into existence through His breath of life. And so as man’s spirit entered his body, the body of man came alive. This is the moment that man’s heart began to beat for the first time, his blood began to flow through his veins, and his lungs began to breathe air for the first time. And for the first time man’s mind began to reason and experience emotions, for God was able to converse with Adam from the moment He created him (Genesis 2:15-16). We also know that the will of man also came into being at that time, for God had given Adam the command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17), and initially Adam obeyed the command of God as an act of his free will. And so we see that when man became a living being, that there were four parts functioning, i.e. his body, his spirit, his mind, and his will.
Genesis 1:31 “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So, the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
And so when we look at the account of God’s creation of man we see no mention of man’s conscience and we also see no evidence of its existence. So why is that? The reason there is no reference to the conscience of man when he was created is because, as we will see in the next section, God created the conscience for man to be able to discern between good and evil. However, the above quoted passage of scripture reveals to us that when God created Adam and Eve that everything was good and that there was no evil present. And so because there was no evil present at man’s creation he had no need of a conscience. It was God’s perfect will for man that he would never need to know the difference between good and evil. God’s perfect will for man was that he should only ever know that which is good, for God is good, and all that He ever creates is good.
Genesis 2:17 “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
There came a day however, when Satan came into the garden and deceived Eve into desiring to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve in turn persuaded Adam to eat of the fruit that he knew God had explicitly said that they must not eat. They both ate of the fruit, and so man sinned for the first time by disobeying God’s only command (Genesis 3:1-6). Two things happened when Adam and Eve sinned. Firstly they both died spiritually, for as quoted in the above passage of scripture God had warned Adam that he would die in the day that he ate of the fruit. And so from that moment mankind became separated from the life of God, which is why we must be born-again.
Genesis 3:6-7 “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. (7) Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.”
Something else happened on the day Adam and Eve sinned, for the above quoted passage of scripture says that when they sinned that their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked. And so the question we must ask ourselves is which of mankind’s eyes were opened on that day, for in scripture we see that mankind has more than one set of eyes. For example we all know that man has physical eyes which we use to see in this physical world. It could not have been their physical eyes that were opened on that day however, because they were seeing with their physical eyes all the time, and this passage declares that the tree in question was pleasant to their eyes.
2 Kings 6:17 “And Elisha prayed, and said, "Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”
Nevertheless mankind also has spiritual eyes, which allows them to see into the spirit realm. God does open man’s spiritual eyes from time to time as He wills, thus allowing man to see into the realm of the spirit. In the above quoted passage of scripture, we see that when God opened the spiritual eyes of the young man who walked with Elisha the prophet that he saw into the spirit realm. Notice that what he saw in the spirit realm had been there all the time, even though he could not see it with his physical eyes. Nevertheless this account in scripture reveals to us that men do have spiritual eyes, although in this life men seldom if ever see with the eyes of their spirits, for they can only do so if God allows them to.
Colossians 1:13 “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.”
So did Adam and Eve’s spiritual eyes open on the day they ate the forbidden fruit? The answer to that question is no. We do not know if their spiritual eyes were open before they sinned, for the scriptures make no mention of that. Nevertheless if their spiritual eyes were open before they sinned their eyes became blinded after they sinned, for it was at that point that both Adam and Eve stepped into spiritual darkness for the first time. For Satan is the ruler of the darkness of this world (Ephesians 6:12), and by listening to Satan they had stepped out of God’s kingdom of light into Satan’s kingdom of darkness. That is the reason why the above quoted passage of scripture declares that when we are born-again, that God takes us out of the kingdom of darkness and conveys us back into His kingdom of light. And so that truth coupled with the fact that God only allows individuals to see with their spiritual eyes as he wills, confirms to us that it was not Adam and Eve’s spiritual eyes that were opened when they ate the forbidden fruit.
Ephesians 1:15-18 “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, (16) do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: (17) that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, (18) the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”
The mind of man also has eyes, so to speak. In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul prays and asks the Father that the eyes of our understanding (our mind) would be enlightened. In other words he is asking God to open the eyes of our mind to see the truths in God’s word. This prayer sounds similar to the one prayed by Elisha for the young man’s spiritual eyes to be opened. So why does Paul pray this prayer? He prays this prayer because when we come into the kingdom of God we still have carnal mindsets and we need to see spiritual truths in God’s word so that we can start to become spiritually minded.
2 Corinthians 4:4 “whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
So did Adam and Eve’s eyes of their understanding open on the day they ate the forbidden fruit? The answer to that question is also no, for in the above quoted passage of scripture we see that Satan blinds the minds of unbelievers. Satan does that because he knows that if they were to see and understand the truth of the gospel that they would believe and be saved. And so the moment Adam and Eve sinned they stepped out of light into darkness, and Satan blinded their minds from understanding the truths in God’s word from that time on. And so that truth coupled with the fact that as believers we have to pray to ask God to open the eyes of our understanding, confirms to us that it was not Adam and Eve’s eyes of their understanding that were opened when they ate the forbidden fruit.
Genesis 2:8-9 “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. (9) And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
And so in order for us to more clearly understand which of their eyes were opened when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, we need to relook at the passage of scripture that refers to their eyes being opened. From this passage of scripture it is clear that eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is what caused their eyes to be opened (Genesis 3:6-7). So let us now examine the fruit of this tree that had such a profound impact upon the lives of mankind. Firstly we know that God is the one who planted this tree in the Garden of Eden, for that truth is revealed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture. And secondly we know that because God planted this tree, that the tree and its fruit was in fact good, for the scripture teaches us that God made all things good (Genesis 1:31).
Genesis 3:22-23 “Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"-- (23) therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.”
We also know that when Adam and Eve ate the fruit that their spirits died. Many in the church have erroneously referred to the fruit that Adam and Eve ate as poisonous fruit, which is why they died spiritually when they ate it. But the fruit itself did not kill them, for the fruit was actually good and not poisonous, for God had made all things good. And so the fruit was not poisonous, it was just forbidden. Therefore it was the act of eating the fruit that killed them, for their action was an act of disobedience to God’s command, and disobedience to God’s law is sin. In other words it was their sin that caused their spirits to die, for death entered through their sin (Romans 5:12). We also know that before Adam and Eve ate this particular fruit that they had no knowledge of good and evil, for as revealed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture, it was only after Adam and Eve ate of the fruit that they became aware of good and evil for the first time. There is another truth that we learn from this passage of scripture, which is that the fruit that Adam and Eve ate on that day impacted their physical bodies and more specifically their brains, for they now had knowledge that they did not have before. So how do we know that? We know that because God tells us that if they had eaten the fruit of the tree of life it would have impacted their physical bodies by making their bodies’ immortal, which is why God removed Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, thus ensuring that the bodies of mankind remained mortal. Therefore just as the fruit of the tree of life would have impacted their physical bodies, so the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil impacted their physical bodies and more specifically their brains, for the region of their brain where their conscience was located was activated for the first time when they ate that fruit.
Genesis 3:8-10 “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (9) Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" (10) So, he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
And so what the fruit did was to make Adam and Eve conscious of the sin that they had already committed. As we will see in the following sections, the conscience of man is given to us to distinguish between good and evil. And so we see that it was in fact the eyes of their conscience that was opened for the first time, for the moment they sinned their conscience revealed to them good and evil for the first time, and it convicted them of the sin that they had just committed. We know this to be true, because as the above quoted passage of scripture declares, when God came to commune with Adam in the cool of that day they hid themselves from Him because they knew that they had sinned.
Michael E.B. Maher
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