Sin Wounds and Sears the Conscience
Romans 2:15 “who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them.”
Another consequence of sin is that we wound our conscience. We have seen earlier in this teaching that our conscience is given to us by God to guide us to choose good and reject evil. And so we see that our conscience convicted us of sin before we were saved, and our conscience continues to convict us of sin after we are saved. To have a clearer understanding of the believer’s conscience refer to my series “The Conscience of Man”. Before we were saved it was only our conscience that convicted us of sin however. But under the New Covenant God has written His laws in our hearts and minds (Hebrews 10:16), and so it is now both our hearts and our consciences together that convicts us of sin. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit confirms this truth to us, for He says that between themselves i.e. our spirits and our conscience, they together either accuse us of sinful actions we may take, or else they excuse our actions when we act righteously.
1 Corinthians 8:12 “But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.”
As we said earlier, because of grace, when we commit sin our spirits remain unaffected by that sin. Sadly however, this is not the same with regards to our conscience, for after we are saved every time we knowingly commit sin our conscience becomes a little more wounded or a little more seared. In the passage of scripture quoted above the apostle Paul talks about the conscience of believers being wounded by sin that they commit. And so because of this wounding, our conscience becomes weaker and starts to lose its influence over our actions, thus making it that much easier for the believer to continue in sin.
1 Timothy 4:1-2 “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, (2) speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit reveals to us the condition of certain believers that had continued in sin and ignored their consciences. In this example the Holy Spirit revealed to us that these believers had ignored their consciences to such an extent that their consciences had become completely seared. He describes their consciences as being seared with a hot iron. Something that has been seared in that manner no longer has any feeling to it, for it has become completely hardened and scarred. And so in this example their consciences had become completely ineffective in convicting them of sin. When a believer’s conscience reaches that state, then those believers will also commit the sin to death. In the example given to us by the Holy Spirit these believers had also since committed the sin to death, for they had departed from the faith. And so their spirits had died once again, and they were destined for eternal punishment in the lake of fire and brimstone. It is for this reason that the apostle Jude, in referring to such individuals, refers to them as being twice dead (Jude 1:12).
Michael E.B. Maher
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