John 16:8-9 “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: (9) of sin, because they do not believe in Me.”
There is one other far more important aspect that the conscience plays in the life of the unbeliever in this current dispensation, which is the role the conscience plays in their response to the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we have already seen, the conscience will always convict a person to choose to do that which is good and reject evil. Believing in the Lord Jesus is the ultimate act of good that unbelievers can do. And so the unbeliever’s conscience will always convict them to respond to the gospel by accepting Jesus as Lord. Not only this, but as our Lord Jesus taught us in the passage of scripture quoted above, the Holy Spirit also witnesses with the sinner’s conscience that they need to accept Jesus as Lord.
Acts 2:37 “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
The context of the above quoted passage of scripture is that Peter had preached the gospel to the multitudes in the temple on the Day of Pentecost. And so we see in this passage that when Peter preached, that those who heard the gospel were cut to the heart. In other words they came under strong conviction from both their conscience and the Holy Spirit that they needed to be saved. When the gospel is preached and the sinner is convicted by their conscience that they need to repent, the spirit of the sinner is still dead at that point in time. The sinner is then faced with a choice to either follow the conviction of their conscience and accept Jesus as Lord, or rebel against the conviction of their conscience and reject the gospel message. This decision is an act of the will of the sinner, which is the free agent that all of God’s creations have. It is only once the sinner decides as an act of their will, to follow the conviction of their conscience and accept Jesus as Lord that their spirits are then instantly born-again, which if you read the full account, is what transpired on this occasion.
Acts 7:54-58 “When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. (55) But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, (56) and said, "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" (57) Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; (58) and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.”
But not all sinners obey the conviction of their conscience when they hear the gospel preached. The context of the above quoted passage of scripture is that Stephen had preached the gospel to the Jewish council and as this passage declares, the Jews who heard Stephen preach were also cut to the heart from what they heard. In other words they were convicted by their consciences. But on this occasion the hearers chose to rebel against the conviction of their consciences, and responded to the gospel message by stoning Stephen.
Michael E.B. Maher
Comments