Written by: April J. Buchanan
A man’s conscience is a troubling thing, one from which he cannot separate himself and in which he may find no rest. How may he silence it? How may he end its torments? How may he flee from it? When will it cease to torment him so?
Men may uphold an image before other men, exhausting themselves in every effort to drown out, silence, suppress, and defeat their own conscience.
But is it not enough that the conscience within is met with the truth without and awakened again? Can they not escape that which torments them?
Worse still, he thinks, is that his conscience plagues him. Yet he knows not that worse still is when it falls silent.
The truth testifies against them. Their own conscience testifies against them. They may manage to fool other men, and even deceive themselves, but the truth will never yield or change for any man.
Men find refuge in the company of other men with seared consciences. Men find refuge in solitude, justifying themselves day and night against the testimony of conscience. Men busy themselves in good deeds, others in hard work, and some in cultivating the most wonderful and upstanding appearances before men, inspiring others to want to emulate them. They cannot be that bad after all, can they?
Many a man will sleep his last upon the pillow of those who have found him justified in their eyes, only to awake before such holiness as will be a far greater terror, for his conscience could not warn him well enough.
Men will seek religion and whatever may appease their conscience or satisfy whatever gods they are told must be satisfied through good works, asceticism, or positive or negative deeds. Some abuse their own bodies; others do good works for the sake of others. And yet conscience may give them no lasting rest. For as soon as these deeds are done, they once again reveal their true nature, though conscience may not always testify against them as it ought.
Men have devised all manner of ways not only to please the flesh but also to promise themselves that they may silence or satisfy their conscience. All these ways are foolish, born of that sinful nature that is deceived by its father’s lies.
But truth stands firm. In the midst of all their fleeing, it remains. In the midst of their hiding, it remains. Few find its power and that efficacious work of the Spirit whereby men’s nature is changed through hearing the Gospel of Christ. By this Gospel, men dead in sin are born again, receiving a new nature and finding grace and mercy. Truth was never the enemy. It was where they might find life, hope, and peace with God.
Yet many men will never find it, for they do not seek it, desire it, or have God for their God and Christ as their Lord. No man has ever sought Him in saving faith apart from His drawing. All who come must come by faith in Christ alone.
The conscience of the believer, now instructed and increasingly conformed to the truth, no longer testifies merely to his condemnation but also bears witness to Christ and His power at work in him. It calls him to repentance and to live according to that powerful and gracious work of God within him, which enables him to do so.
Such men who come to hear soothing words for their conscience may inquire of the saints how they may have such peace, but such seekers desire a superficial peace. It is the work of God, through the faithful messenger of the Gospel, to reveal their greater need and draw His own to Himself, where they will find true peace with God.
There, upon being justified, as they walk, they may find their conscience bearing false witness, while the truth reveals Christ and they find peace in Him. When conscience, informed by truth, bears witness against them, it is no longer a matter of condemnation but a call to look to Christ and repent. When conscience bears false witness, they find peace in the Word of God, which reveals Christ. They seek not to silence conscience, but to inform it by the truth, and they stand with the truth.
The saint may truly go in peace, having the Spirit and the Word testify that he belongs to God.
Conscience is that inward, imperfect judge of every man, bearing witness to the perfect law of God. The Gospel reveals Christ, who He is, what He has done, the sovereign God, and His unfolding redemptive plan. Many will seek to silence both conscience and the messengers of the Gospel. Others will convince themselves that they are right with God, looking little to Christ and much to their own good deeds, while conscience continues to bear its fallible yet persistent witness, whether or not they heed its testimony. Then there are those He has purchased, whom He is drawing and changing, not merely outwardly, but by giving them a new nature, for they now belong to Him.
Oh, dear soul, what is your true nature? Have you been born again? Do you call Him Lord, and are you right that He is Lord, yet you do not obey Him as Lord? Have you come to Him merely for comfort and to escape hell, but you will have no part in Him? Do you not love Him or His own? Do you add your good works to His perfect work in order to justify yourself? Are there fruits of salvation revealed in good works, bearing witness that, having been justified by faith in Christ alone, you are likewise being sanctified, growing, and becoming more like Him?
As John Bunyan wrote in I Will Pray with the Spirit and with the Understanding Also:
“And dost thou indeed say, ‘Hallowed be thy name’ with thy heart? Dost thou study, by all honest and lawful ways, to advance the name, holiness, and majesty of God? Doth thy heart and conversation agree with this passage? Dost thou strive to imitate Christ in all the works of righteousness, which God doth command of thee, and prompt thee forward to?”
A man seeking ease of life and conscience may be said to be seeking God. But God says that no one seeks Him. Who, then, is right? The man who has devised evangelism and the church for the seekers, or God, who says none seek Him in saving faith apart from His grace and yet commands all to come to Him?
How may a man’s conscience be eased and his life made better? The Gospel promises peace with God and new life in Christ, but it does not promise that his life here will necessarily be better in the way men mean. It will be better in the way God means. Those who have truly come to know Him would not trade what they have in Him for all the earthly comforts and a silenced conscience, even when they struggle with the temptation to seek such comforts, for only an enemy of God could consider those things better than Christ.
He is the true treasure. In Him there is life and peace. The conscience bears witness likewise, though it must ever be instructed by the truth.
“Go in peace” can only truly be known by the man for whom peace is not something he must find in this world or in himself. Peace is found in a Person. It is Christ. Through Him, a man may know real peace with God, even when he does not always feel at peace within himself, and in Him he must walk.
To the saint, it may well be said, go in peace.
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