ROMANS 2
… the law written on their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness
(Rom. 2:15).
Paul often exhorts Christians to live by their own conscience and to be sensitive to the consciences of others. He recognizes the God-given authority of the conscience over the soul, exhorting his readers to obey the conscience even when it is wrongly informed. We are to live by our consciences even when our consciences tell us that something which is lawful is wrong. This is a profound teaching and impacts every Christian in an intimate and life-changing way. How many people even think about their consciences long enough to live by them? Yet, Paul instructs us in these passages to listen to our conscience. Because the conscience is so important, we will examine this subject throughout the following week, learning to bring it into submission to the will of God.
The conscience plays a vital role in guiding each of us according to specific principles that God has established in nature as well as in His Word. The rule book of our conscience is the law that is written into our nature, the law Paul refers to in Romans 2. These laws revealed by God in nature and the Word are identical. God not only revealed his law at Sinai, but He wrote it into our souls that we might be held responsible on the day of judgment. No man, even those who have never heard the Ten Commandments or the message of the Gospel, will be excused for disobeying God’s law because that law has been revealed by nature, it has been written into the very fabric of our beings, and is brought to bear in our lives by our consciences. Have you ever wondered why unbelievers do not carry out every evil desire of their hearts? Ultimately, it is because God restrains them. But how does He restrain them? Often it is through the conscience. When they want to do evil, their conscience flares within them, keeping their evil intentions at bay. Of course, the role of the conscience in proclaiming the law and bringing it to bear on the mind and will of the individual is not enough to save them. It is a weak guardian of the heart. It can be wrongly informed, manipulated, ignored, even silenced altogether. It does not have the power to redeem, but it does have the power to hold mankind accountable to the law of God as He has revealed it from the foundation of the world.
CORAM DEO
2 Chronicles 21–23
John 19:25–42
WEEKEND
2 Chronicles 24–30
John 20
Think about your pre-Christian life. Did you act on every sinful impulse? How did your conscience restrain you? What other things kept you from sinning? (for example, fear of the law, tear of losing something, etc.) Read through Romans 2. How does the law written on our hearts function in our lives?
For further study: Matt. 7:1–6 • 1 Cor. 11:17–34 • 2 Cor. 13
WEEKEND