Rev. denHartog is pastor of the Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Redlands, California.

What is called our “conscience” is a subject worthy of our consideration. This subject is not only of great theoretical interest but also of significant practical importance. Paul charges Timothy in I Timothy 1:19 to hold faith and a good conscience. This ‘exhortation is certainly applicable to every Christian. The Bible mentions the matter of our conscience in a number of places. Sometimes this subject is mentioned with direct use of the word “conscience.” At other times the subject itself is dealt with using other words.

It is my intention to deal with this subject in some detail. Much has been written about this subject over the years and there is much difference of opinion. I am indebted in this study to a series of articles written in the Standard Bearer a number of years ago by Rev. Herman Hoeksema.

According to the testimony of scripture every man has a conscience. Both the child of God and the ungodly man have a conscience. The conscience of the ungodly man is part of the “remnants of natural light” which he retained after the fall. The child of God has a sanctified conscience. This aspect of our nature was also changed through the wonderful transformation of regeneration.

The Bible speaks of a good conscience and an evil or defiled conscience. According to the writer of Hebrews, the child of God has his heart sprinkled from an evil conscience. The apostle Paul on a number of occasions spoke of living in good conscience before God. This was part of the testimony that he gave in defending himself against his accusers. The apostle speaks of commending himself to the conscience of the saints. According to the Word of God, holding a good conscience is absolutely necessary for our walk of faith and sanctification. We are to love out of a good conscience. We are to serve God with a pure conscience.

Since scripture speaks of our conscience in so many connections, it is good to know something about what really our conscience is. It is a mistake, as some have done, to make the conscience a separate faculty in man. Rather our conscience is a function of our mind and heart. The conscience of man is the inner knowledge and sense he has of right and wrong, good and evil. The conscience is the testimony within a man that condemns him when he does evil and absolves him when he does the right. It accuses and excuses him. Sometimes the conscience has been described as the voice of God in the heart of man. There is some truth to this description in that our conscience is created in us by God. But our conscience is also the testimony of our own heart and mind.

The literal meaning of the biblical word translated as conscience is instructive for a proper understanding of what conscience is and how it functions. Literally the word means “to know together with” or “to know along with.” The immediate question that arises is, to know together with or along with whom or what? Some translate the word to mean to know along with oneself, to know within oneself. We cannot agree with this interpretation. Rather, the correct interpretation of this word is to know along with God. The conscience judges according to Gods testimony in the heart of every man.

Romans 2:15 is probably the most instructive passage of all scripture on the idea of conscience. “Which show the works of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.” In this passage Paul is showing how the Gentiles, who did not have the law of God as a written code as the Jews did, will nevertheless also be condemned in the day of judgment. There are those today who teach that only people who have rejected the gospel of Christ will be condemned in the day of judgment. The heathen who never had a “chance” to hear the gospel will not be condemned. Those who teach this contradict the clear teaching of Paul in Romans 1 and 2. The Gentiles who never had the law preached to them as Israel did nevertheless have the works of the law written in their hearts. This is not the same as saying that they have the law in their hearts if the ungodly Gentiles had the law of God in their hearts they would love God and live in obedience to Him. This they do not do. They however have the “works of the law in their hearts.” The “works of the law” are those things which the law does for and in man, namely that it shows to man what is good and what is evil and commands man to do what is good and to reject that which is evil. It condemns that which is evil and promises rewards to those who do good. God Himself has written the works of the law in the heart of every man. God writes the works of the law in the heart of every man through the revelation of His Word in nature and through the general operation of His Spirit in their heart. Through the works of the law that have been written in his heart the natural man is able to discern between good and evil, right and wrong. He knows that which is good and that he must do that which is good. When he does evil he does it knowing that it is wrong, and he is therefore left without excuse. By the testimony of Gold written in his heart man is condemned when he does evil.

According to Romans 2 the conscience is distinguished from the works of the law which God has written in the heart of man. Conscience in man finds its basis in the works of the law that God has written in man’s heart. If it were not for the works of the law written in man’s heart he would have no conscience. The conscience of the ungodly man is the inner judgment of his mind and heart based on the works of the law which God has written in his heart that condemns him whenever he does evil. The ungodly man cannot escape that judgment. He must agree with it though he acts contrary to it.

The conscience of the ungodly man inflicts the pain of judgment. It often torments him. This was the case with Cain and with King Saul in the Old Testament and King Herod in the New Testament. This was vividly manifested in Judas when in remorse over having betrayed Jesus he went out and hanged himself. Such torment is not to be identified with genuine, godly sorrow over sin. Such torment is the judgment of God in the heart of the ungodly man. The judgment of man’s conscience is predictive of the final judgment that shall come in the great day of the righteous judgment of God.

One thing that is certain from the scriptural presentation of the conscience of man is that this too is a creation of God in man. Man’s conscience did not come about through a process of evolution in which man evolved above the amoral beast of the field and became a moral creature. Neither is the conscience of man something that has come purely as a result of man’s environment and the so-called social mores of the society in which man grew up. This latter is a favorite “explanation” of the conscience of man given by the modern-day psychologists; According to this teaching, man’s conscience can and must be changed according to the age and society in which he lives. When a man is psychologically disturbed he must undergo psycho-therapy. Very definitely God created in man a conscience. This conscience is based on the unchangeable law of God written in the heart of man.

The ungodly man tries everything to escape the condemning voice of his conscience. He will make himself so busy that he never has to be alone with his thoughts. He will do everything to silence the voice of his conscience. Much of what he does, he does at least in part for this reason. The alcohol and drugs he takes, the loud music he listens to, the worldly philosophy with which he seeks to fill his mind, and many more things are in part an attempt to escape the judgment of his conscience. The ungodly man will devise all sorts of humanistic philosophy by which he seeks to justify the evil that he does and to convince himself that there is nothing wrong with his wicked ungodliness.

Through his many efforts he will sometimes to a measure silence the voice of his conscience. In fact in our modern age we are often shocked that man can do such great evil without, it seems, being tormented by his conscience. How can evil mothers of this world murder their own unborn children and not, we say, be tormented by their conscience? It is hard to understand. Surely they themselves know how wrong and evil it is. It is so very obvious that all the humanistic reasoning of the world is not in the least convincing that their deed is not cold-blooded murder. How can the ungodly of this world live in open and brazen fornication and adultery and pretend it is harmless and that there is nothing wrong with it? We are living in a modern age. Everyone is doing it. According to the world, one can live such a life-style and still imagine himself to be a good person. The world is ever progressing, or shall we say degenerating, in sin and wickedness. The heart of man is becoming more and more hardened to evil. The world is becoming more and more ripe for judgment. But it still remains true that man will never be able absolutely to silence the voice of his conscience. His conscience will still always condemn him and leave him without excuse before God and he will be prepared for the final judgment. In the day of judgment the righteous judgment of God will be pressed upon the conscience of every man.

In our next article we will consider the function of the conscience in the Christian.