How Can I Have a Good Conscience?
00:00:00.000 | Good Monday morning, and thank you for listening.
00:00:07.000 | Today we begin the week with a really sharp and robust question from a listener named
00:00:12.360 | Arnaldo.
00:00:13.360 | Here it is.
00:00:14.360 | "Hello Tony and Pastor John.
00:00:16.000 | Thank you for your labors in this podcast.
00:00:17.680 | My question is one that I've struggled with for over two decades now.
00:00:22.920 | It's this.
00:00:24.540 | How can I live with a good conscience?
00:00:27.380 | The Apostle Paul often talks about the conscience and how specifically a good conscience is
00:00:32.340 | something he always lived with, apparently even before he became a Christian."
00:00:36.940 | Acts 23 1 and Acts 24 16.
00:00:41.700 | We also see that a good conscience is a qualification for Christian leaders in 1 Timothy 3 9.
00:00:48.720 | And having a good conscience is an important goal of the Christian life for all believers,
00:00:54.040 | according to 1 Timothy 1 5 19.
00:00:58.800 | When I read the way Paul uses the word conscience in these contexts, it seems like he's saying
00:01:03.420 | it means to be presently walking in obedience to everything God has revealed to him.
00:01:10.160 | He does not seem to mean that he's trusting in Christ's blood to cover over his indwelling
00:01:14.660 | sin.
00:01:15.660 | I believe in both the doctrine of indwelling sin and of progressive sanctification, according
00:01:22.140 | to texts like Proverbs 4 18 and Romans 7 verses 21 to 23.
00:01:28.980 | God is always revealing to me new areas and sometimes old areas where I need to grow in
00:01:34.300 | holiness.
00:01:35.860 | These are very real sin issues that I can't simply stop doing, like turning off a light
00:01:40.540 | switch.
00:01:41.800 | These are ones in which I am engaged in a long-term, ongoing struggle and fight.
00:01:48.540 | So I pray for daily forgiveness, according to 1 John 1 verses 8 to 10 and Matthew 6 12.
00:01:56.380 | All this means that I literally never have a good conscience.
00:02:01.060 | I am always aware of important ways in which I presently need to repent and become more
00:02:06.780 | holy.
00:02:08.080 | So if a good conscience is a basic Christian issue, and Paul always had one, yet I will
00:02:14.060 | always know of sin areas in my life, and if I have to pray daily for forgiveness, how
00:02:20.900 | could I, or any Christian for that matter, ever attain to a good conscience?
00:02:27.780 | Well, Arnaldo has done his homework.
00:02:34.420 | He laid out texts in that question, as I hear it, that contain all the pieces.
00:02:54.580 | If there's a solution, and I do believe there is, it's probably found inside those texts
00:03:01.340 | that he was just commenting on, but maybe drawing some inferences from them that were
00:03:08.260 | not necessarily accurate.
00:03:11.180 | I feel the force of the question.
00:03:13.980 | Experientially, walking in a good conscience is not easy for me, since I share Arnaldo's
00:03:21.300 | deep awareness of my ongoing indwelling sin—that's Paul's term in Romans 7 17, 7 20, 7 23, that's
00:03:32.940 | his term.
00:03:34.100 | We all have remaining corruption and indwelling sin, and so the more keenly you are aware
00:03:41.540 | of that, the more you will feel embattled at the level of needing a good conscience.
00:03:48.340 | So I get it.
00:03:49.340 | I mean, I think that's a serious question.
00:03:53.420 | The whole New Testament does assume that in this life nobody attains sinless perfection.
00:04:02.500 | We need to just settle that.
00:04:03.860 | That's one of the premises.
00:04:06.020 | Nobody attains sinless perfection in this life.
00:04:09.860 | Jesus said that we would pray, "Forgive us our sins right after, give us this day
00:04:14.660 | our daily bread."
00:04:15.820 | They go together every day.
00:04:18.180 | Say both of those.
00:04:19.620 | Paul said that I have not already attained perfection, but I press on to make it my own.
00:04:26.260 | He referred to the sin that dwells in him and cried out in dismay, "Who will deliver
00:04:32.340 | me from this body of death?"
00:04:33.980 | Romans 7 24.
00:04:36.700 | Jesus pointed to the publican who said, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner," over against
00:04:43.460 | the Pharisee who was thanking God that he had such a clear conscience, and said that
00:04:49.780 | the one who cried out for mercy about his sin went down to his house justified.
00:04:55.580 | So it was good for him to own his sinfulness, not say, "Oh, it doesn't exist.
00:05:00.580 | I've got a clear conscience.
00:05:01.580 | I don't have any sin to repent of."
00:05:03.800 | So we feel the force.
00:05:05.660 | Now I think 1 John 1 is not only especially illuminating, but gives us a category alongside
00:05:16.220 | good conscience that may provide the solution.
00:05:21.260 | So here's my reading of 1 John 1 6-10.
00:05:26.220 | If we say we have fellowship with God while we walk in darkness, we lie.
00:05:33.900 | We do not practice the truth.
00:05:36.780 | But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,
00:05:45.820 | and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
00:05:50.740 | Now that is staggeringly amazing.
00:05:53.600 | If we walk in the light, the blood of Jesus cleanses us.
00:05:57.580 | Wow.
00:05:58.900 | Here's verse 8.
00:06:01.020 | If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
00:06:08.140 | So now he's reeling it back in and saying, "Oh, whoa, whoa.
00:06:12.380 | Don't assume that when I say walk in the light, I mean sinlessness."
00:06:16.020 | Huh.
00:06:18.100 | Verse 9.
00:06:19.740 | If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
00:06:24.660 | us from all unrighteousness.
00:06:27.040 | If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and the word is not in us.
00:06:32.460 | Now what's amazing about this passage—there are a bunch of amazing things about this passage—but
00:06:38.860 | what's amazing about this passage is that it says we must be walking in the light for
00:06:45.060 | the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from our sins.
00:06:48.860 | But then he says that this walking in the light doesn't mean sinlessness.
00:06:53.780 | We are liars if we say it does.
00:06:57.980 | Then he explains, "When we walk in the light, we see clearly enough"—we have light—"see
00:07:06.220 | clearly enough to know sin."
00:07:09.460 | See sin as what it is and hate it and confess it, and then we enjoy ongoing cleansing and
00:07:17.260 | forgiveness.
00:07:19.360 | So here's what I would draw from this if I use the category of conscience to explain
00:07:26.760 | this passage.
00:07:28.360 | A good conscience is virtually the same as walking in the light.
00:07:35.840 | Christians should be able to say, "I'm walking in the light," and mean it, and mean by that,
00:07:43.920 | "I'm walking in a good conscience," which means I don't think we should equate having
00:07:52.800 | a bad conscience with having indwelling sin.
00:07:56.520 | That may be the most important thing I say, Tony, so let me say it again.
00:08:00.280 | So I'm inferring from what I've said from 1 John 1 that having a bad conscience is not
00:08:11.000 | the same as having indwelling sin.
00:08:14.480 | They're not the same.
00:08:17.400 | That's my basic answer to Arnaldo's question.
00:08:20.080 | He feels that as long as he is aware of the reality of indwelling sin, as in Romans 7,
00:08:28.120 | he cannot have a good conscience.
00:08:30.760 | Now, if that were true, I don't think Paul could ever have a good conscience, but he
00:08:36.480 | clearly says he does have a good conscience.
00:08:39.400 | In 1 Timothy 1.3, "I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience."
00:08:46.200 | And he expects the elders of the church to do the same.
00:08:49.240 | 1 Timothy 3.9, "They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience."
00:08:55.520 | And that's the goal for all Christians, according to 1 Timothy 1.5.
00:08:58.840 | "The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and
00:09:04.440 | sincere faith."
00:09:06.440 | So I don't think we should equate good conscience with sinless perfection in this life, nor
00:09:14.840 | equate bad conscience with the presence of indwelling sin or remaining corruption.
00:09:23.120 | Rather, a clear or a good conscience is like walking in the light.
00:09:30.520 | In 1 John 1, "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with
00:09:37.400 | one another, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin."
00:09:42.120 | If we say we have no sin—in other words, if we interpret walking in the light as sinless
00:09:49.160 | perfection—we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
00:09:54.060 | If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from
00:09:59.200 | all unrighteousness.
00:10:01.280 | I think both Paul and John inherited this conception of ongoing, indwelling sin that
00:10:10.640 | nevertheless coexists with a good conscience from the Psalms in the Old Testament.
00:10:18.120 | For example, in Psalm 25, David confesses three times that he's a sinner.
00:10:25.920 | Verse 8, "God instructs sinners in the way."
00:10:29.700 | Verse 11, "Pardon my guilt, for it is great."
00:10:33.180 | Verse 18, "Forgive all my sins."
00:10:37.300 | But the Psalm comes to an end in verse 21 like this, "May integrity and uprightness
00:10:44.920 | preserve me, for I wait for you."
00:10:48.800 | So in David's mind—and he's writing under God's inspiration, and this is not the only
00:10:54.760 | place in the Psalms—there's a lot of Psalms that distinguish the righteous and the wicked.
00:11:00.840 | And the righteous are really righteous.
00:11:02.480 | They're walking in the light.
00:11:03.480 | They have a good conscience.
00:11:06.200 | In David's mind, there is an integrity and an uprightness that is aware of indwelling
00:11:14.240 | corruption that breaks out at times in sins—it does—and that ongoing reality of indwelling
00:11:23.200 | sin does not nullify what David calls his integrity and his uprightness.
00:11:31.200 | I think Paul and John saw that.
00:11:34.280 | They were immersed in the Old Testament and used language that way.
00:11:40.240 | John used the language of walking in the light, though we are imperfect.
00:11:45.080 | Paul used the language of walking in a good conscience, though we are imperfect.
00:11:53.120 | And I think for all of them—David, Paul, John—the key that enabled them to think
00:12:00.120 | this way is that they all knew God had made a way for all their sins to be passed over—namely,
00:12:10.920 | the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ.
00:12:14.320 | David knew this was coming, and Paul and John knew it had come.
00:12:18.840 | I do think Arnaldo is right to say that justification by faith is not the same as walking in a good
00:12:28.800 | conscience or walking in the light or having integrity.
00:12:32.880 | Those are real character traits, not imputed righteousness.
00:12:37.720 | Nevertheless, it's the covering of all their sins by the blood of Jesus that enables them
00:12:46.480 | to look upon their conscience and walking and integrity with thankfulness and confidence
00:12:55.280 | that it really will be accepted by God as good, though imperfect.
00:13:03.240 | Here's one last implication.
00:13:04.840 | People might think, "Well, what does this really—how does this matter?"
00:13:08.840 | Here's a concrete illustration of how it matters.
00:13:13.800 | Suppose a pastor is accused falsely of being unfaithful to his wife, and the reason he's
00:13:21.040 | accused is because someone in the congregation hates him and wants him to be dismissed.
00:13:29.000 | And when he comes before the church or the elders to state the truth with his children
00:13:35.480 | present and his wife looking on, that is not the time for him to say to the church, "Well,
00:13:46.520 | yes, I am a sinner like everybody else.
00:13:50.480 | I'm no better than adulterers.
00:13:55.600 | Everyone has indwelling sin that crops out from time to time, and I shouldn't be put
00:14:01.480 | on a pedestal.
00:14:02.480 | I'm no better than anyone else."
00:14:04.600 | No!
00:14:05.600 | No, no, no.
00:14:07.600 | That is not the time to say that with your kids listening and your wife listening and
00:14:12.040 | the whole church wondering.
00:14:14.080 | What you need to say at that moment is this, "My conscience is clear.
00:14:19.360 | I am a man of integrity.
00:14:22.160 | I have walked in the light.
00:14:24.480 | I have never touched that woman or any woman sexually besides my wife, and this accusation
00:14:32.320 | is not true."
00:14:35.320 | So I think that is one of the implications of what Paul is saying when he says to the
00:14:42.360 | elders and to the rest of us that we should walk in a good conscience, or as John would
00:14:49.000 | say, walk in the light.
00:14:51.400 | Bingo.
00:14:52.400 | That is a great point, especially in 1 John 1, verses 7 to 10.
00:14:56.240 | "Walking in the light is not a life of sinless perfection."
00:15:00.920 | That's a profound connection.
00:15:01.920 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:15:02.920 | And thank you for joining us today.
00:15:04.480 | Ask a question of your own, like Arnaldo did today, or search our archive or subscribe
00:15:08.600 | to the podcast hall at AskPastorJohn.com.
00:15:11.360 | Well, I love to find sermon clips where Pastor John pastors his congregation by illustrating
00:15:20.500 | how he does certain things in the Christian life.
00:15:24.360 | From the pulpit, he will sometimes break into an example of, say, what it looks like for
00:15:28.400 | him when he meditates on the Word or focuses his heart on Christ.
00:15:33.400 | And I just found another example of him doing this very thing.
00:15:36.080 | I'll share it with you next time.
00:15:37.960 | I'm your host Tony Reinke, and we'll see you back here on Wednesday.
00:15:41.960 | See you then.
00:15:42.460 | [END]
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