Tomorrow I must to carry out one of the sadly all too frequent and disturbing tasks that come with the position of serving as an elder in Jesus' church .... that of confronting a man who's life is culminating the end-stage fruit of a long path of resistance to the Holy Spirit's nudging of his conscience. Yet, his life also serves as an excellent launching point to consider just what great treasures our consciences actually are. Certainly, it is one of the kindest gifts God has given to every man even though I can't begin to count how many times I wished mine would just leave me alone. Nevertheless, I can clearly see that to vanquish my conscience would truly be the most disastrous of victories.
So what exactly is the human conscience? The Greek word for conscience, suneidesis, literally means to possess "co-knowledge of something resulting in one's sense of guiltiness before God." Thus it would seem that we were created with a unique and intrinsic faculty to give us a kind of third-person perspective on the rightness and also the wrongness of our actions. According to A. W. Tozer, the foundation of the human conscience is "the secret presence of Christ in the world." To support this conclusion, he points to John 1:9, "There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man." This inward moral awareness is simply the "secret inner voice" of the Lord "accusing or else excusing him." I personally think Tozer is on to something here.
In the physical realm, the conscience is comparable to the human nervous system. When a person is wounded, he feels pain -- it is the body's inherent means of alerting him that something has gone wrong. Likewise in the spiritual realm, when a person sins, the human soul has a warning system that sounds an alarm because the person's actions have wounded him spiritually. The soul-alarm cries out "Mayday! Mayday! Something is wrong!" He senses that his actions are not only wrong but will also result in destructive consequences.
A person with a tender conscience is keenly aware of every infraction against the Lord [my wife Janna is a good living example of this]. He or she recognizes sin for the ugly thing that it is. Immoral deeds, though seemingly insignificant to others, are viewed in this context as monstrous crimes against a holy God. Their importance, while not exaggerated, is internally magnified so that their true, insidious nature may be clearly seen. The person with a soft heart also remains consistently open to the Holy Spirit's conviction. He or she is not looking to push the limits of sin -- to see how much he or she can get away with -- but to avoid it altogether. Sin, to him or her, is a cancer which must be eradicated at any cost. The prayer of David expresses the unseen attitude of such a person: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way" [Psalm 139:24].
Most people who have experienced a true conversion begin their new life with this kind of spiritual sensitivity. The eyes of their hearts have been opened to the wonders of Jesus Christ and His kingdom. Unfortunately, it is often only a matter of time until their "first love" for Jesus dwindles into religious form. As new believers begin to learn the ropes of Christianity, a slight hardening of the heart takes place. The deep sense of helplessness that once created such a humble dependence upon the Lord is gradually replaced with spiritual pride. Bright and innocent faith is slowly and progressively supplanted with cynicism. Eventually, the world's attractions begin to regain their carnal luster, old idols are re-erected within the heart, and once-forsaken sins begin to resurface.
The Scriptures describe this process as the "wandering away from a good conscience," [ 1 Timothy 1:5-6] and the corrupting of the conscience [Titus 1:15]. Both describe the same process of inner moral decay that occurs when a person allows sin to re-establish itself within his heart. If that person continues along this course he will soon lose the sense of evil that is inherent in sin. The person who habitually gives himself over to sin also loses the ability to feel the spiritual "pain" of that sin [see Romans 1:21-32 and Psalm 81:11-12 among other passages]. So what actually happens to people who lose this sense? Consider the leper who experiences a similar thing physically in his body. Having lost sensation in his extremities and his face, he is becomes terribly and sometimes fatally injured because he is unaware of the traumas that he has suffered. In the spiritual realm, this an excellent living picture of the hardening of the soul that occurs inside the person who remains in unrepentant sin. As his heart becomes slowly calloused, the spiritual system God constructed within him slowly loses its ability to detect the damage being done to it. It is little wonder that "Christian" men in habitual sexual sin can sit in church week after week, singing songs of worship to a God they continue to defy. "Hardened by the deceitfulness of sin," [Hebrews 3:13] their entire beings are riddled with a leprosy of evil which they can no longer even detect!
At this point I want to harken back to a blog entry I wrote on December 17, 2009 regarding the searing of King Herod Antipas' conscience. Herod had seduced his sister-in-law, Herodias, and then persuaded her to leave her husband, Herod Philip, to marry him. Of course this was completely forbidden under Jewish law. John the Baptist had told Herod [Mark 6:18] that "it was not lawful for you to have your brother's wife" and so for very personal reasons, "Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him" [v. 19]. But she was not able to do so because Herod feared John and protected him [despite having thrown him into a dungeon prison under his palace] because he considered "him to be a righteous and holy man." When Herod would hear John, he would become "greatly puzzled" and yet he still "liked to listen to him." One has to wonder WHY? John must have been a breath of fresh air amidst the debauchery of Herod's court. Perhaps Herod's spirit would feel inexplicably elevated in John's presence. Perhaps there were even some failed attempts at self-reformation. Nonetheless, Herod's discomforting fear of John was evidence that his conscience was at least stirred by John's words.
But in a trying and drunken moment following the seductive dance of Herodias' daughter, Salome, he unwisely promised to give her anything up to half his kingdom and with that, Herodias' trap was perfectly set. Salome demanded John's head on a platter ... and for a few moments the room went silent and Herod's soul teetered in the balance ... the Scriptures use a word for an anguish of the soul that was only used one other time in the entire New Testament and that was of Jesus' anguish the night before his crucifixion as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. For just a few moments Herod was having a crisis of conscience! There was at last a least a flickering of life. For just an instant, anything was possible, including his repentance.
But ultimately, fearing more what both his friends and even what Rome would think than the price his soul would pay, he ordered John's beheading. What a heartbreaking turn of events! Herod's conscience had begun to speak one last time, but he silenced it because he feared loss of reputation, he feared his "honor" would be besmirched, he feared what others might think and even that he might lose his position. Sadly, now only a deep and gaping darkness awaited Herod.
Fast forward to Jesus' trial before Herod. When Pilate transferred Jesus' case to Herod, he was thrilled ... but for all the wrong reasons. He had no spiritual interest in seeing Jesus as he had John in the past. Now it was all about SHOWTIME! He wanted to see a miracle [Luke 23:8]. He no longer had any spiritual fear or trepidation. His murder of John had produced an incapacity to see anything in Jesus. And Jesus gave Herod no response whatsoever, despite a very lengthy interrogation [Luke 23:9]. In contrast, Jesus was willing to reason with the scandalous high priest Caiaphas and even to prophesy to him [Luke 22:69, 70]. He conversed with Pilate and gave him very substantive answers to ponder [Luke 23:3; John 18:33-38]. He grieved over Judas in the Upper Room as he reached out for his very soul. But before Herod, he maintained a dreadful silence. Herod's days of grace were long since over. His conscience had long since been seared and could no longer respond! But beyond even lacking enough life in his soul to respond to the grace of almighty God standing right in front of him, he went even further and openly mocked Christ effectively holding the God of the universe in contempt.
What does it mean to have one's conscience seared? There have been many answers to this question over the centuries. Adam Clarke described it as "One cauterized by repeated applications of sin, and resistings of the Holy Ghost ..." The Fausett Bible Dictionary explains it as "... a harded determination to resist every spiritual impression ..." The Pulpit Commentary said it is "the gradual deterioration of sensibility produced by habitual sin." I especially like John Wesley's rendering as a "drunkenness of soul, a fatal numbness of spirit ... " Clearly it would seem that if one remains in sin long enough, he can reach a point of no return. A point where he is no longer influenced by the Holy Spirit. This is what the Bible terms apostacy.
How can a man know if he has gone too far? The very concern over such a possibility reveals the fact that there remains hope for him. Apostates, having lost all sense of morality, have no concern over such matters. And when a man in habitual sin repents, his hardened heart begins again to soften and he will gradually begin to feel the conviction of sin once again. Finally, he returns to the place where God can reach him and help him overcome. As the writer of Hebrews proclaimed, "How much more will the blood of Christ ... cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" [Hebrews 9:14]
The silence of Jesus before Herod is both a shocking and dramatic example not to trifle with holy things and not to suppress the nudgings of the Holy Spirit in our souls. We never know, on this side of eternity, when will be the last time our spirits will hear His call. "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts..." [Psalm 95:7, 8]. May we always have ears to hear.
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