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Writer's pictureMichael E.B. Maher

The conscience is activated at thirteen

Deuteronomy 1:39 “Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.”


Everyone born into the earth has a region in their brain where the conscience resides. That part of the brain remains dormant for all of our childhood however, and it is only activated for the first time when the child reaches puberty, which normally begins at twelve and ends at fourteen years of age. There is a period of transition that takes place in the body and brain of the child due to the onset of puberty. During this period there are chemical changes that take place in the brain of the adolescent, as new connections in the brain are formed, resulting in mood swings, etc taking place. One of the new connections that take place at the age of thirteen is the opening of a neural pathway between the conscience and other parts of the brain. In other words the eyes of their conscience is opened and the young adult now has knowledge of good and evil for the first time. Prior to the age of thirteen however, the conscience remains dormant and the child has no knowledge of good and evil. God confirms that truth to us Himself in the above quoted passage of scripture. And so because children have no knowledge of good and evil, God does not hold them accountable for sin. That does not mean that children do not sin, for they clearly do. All it means is that because God deems them to have no knowledge of good and evil, He does not hold them accountable for the sins they commit.


Romans 7:9 “I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.”


So why is it important that God does not hold children accountable for sin? The bible teaches us that everyone born into the earth is born under the law, which is why the Lord Jesus was born under law so that He could redeem us from the law (Galatians 4:4-5). A consequence of being under law however, is that when the law is transgressed sin is committed, and when sin is committed the direct result is that spiritual death occurs (Romans 5:12). That is exactly what happened to Adam and Eve, for they were created under law, for God had given them a command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told them that in the day they ate of the forbidden fruit that they would die, and that is exactly what happened, for they both sinned against God by eating the fruit and they both died spiritually. And so just as Adam and Eve were created spiritually alive to God and then died spiritually though sin, so it is that all men are born into the earth spiritually alive to God, for God is the Father of spirits (Hebrews 12:9), and then they commit sin and thus die spiritually. In the passage of scripture quoted above the apostle Paul explains to us that when he was a child that his spirit was alive because he was not subject to the law. The reason that he was without law, was because the eyes of his conscience were not yet opened to convict him of transgressing God’s laws. But notice that there came the day when the eyes of Paul’s conscience were opened and the commandment came. In other words for the first time Paul now had knowledge of right and wrong, good and evil. And so the moment Paul sinned after the eyes of his conscience were opened God held him accountable for his sin and his spirit died, for Paul had been born under law. That same principle applies to everyone on the earth because all men are held accountable for sin at the age of thirteen, and because all men sin all men die spiritually and thus all men need to be born-again.


Luke 2:42-43 “And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. (43) When they had finished the days, as they returned, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem. And Joseph and His mother did not know it.”


So why do we say that the conscience is activated at age thirteen? The answer to that question is given to us in the life of the Lord Jesus, for in the above quoted passage of scripture we see that God the Father referred to His Son as a boy at the age of twelve, thus indicating to us that God had not yet opened the eyes of Jesus’ conscience to know good and evil. We know that Jesus experienced the same process that all men do, for He was made in all things as we are, which would have included the Lord’s body transitioning through puberty (Hebrews 2:17). And so at age thirteen the eyes of Jesus’ conscience were opened for the first time, for God speaks of His Son learning to know to refuse the evil and choose the good (Isaiah 7:14-15).


Michael E.B. Maher



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