All About the Conscience

The common denominator in just about every single Christian denomination, affiliation, sect, etc., is that they all allow for sin. Actually they all promote sin by allowing it. “Sinners saved by grace” best [or worst] sums it all up I would say. Any way you cut it, most teach that sin is just something that we all have to put up with. Jesus paid the price, and if we ‘believe’ on him we’re no longer accountable for the sins that we’re still going to live in. That’s the bottom line of what the modern Christian religion is about. But that is certainly NOT what the Bible teaches: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Rom. 6:1,2) That not enough? Well let’s try this one on for size: “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid” (Gal. 2:17). Now that’s some mighty solid doctrine there, and it supports the “righteousness and true holiness” that Jesus suffered and died to provide for us (Eph. 4:24). In fact, just the two scriptures noted here completely blow the doors off of most of modern Christianity and it’s doctrines of sin. So why are these doctrines of sin so universally taught and accepted? Well, that’s easy too: “For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins" (Heb. 10:2). What the apostle is saying here is that the old covenant sacrifices never truly removed sin from the hearts of those under that covenant, and if they had, then there would have been no more consciousness of sin in the people. The false teachings of today’s Christianity began long, long ago by fainting saints who were giving up the fight to overcome sin in their lives; and they gave in to “seducing spirits” that dictated unto them “doctrines of devils” that justified those sins that they did not overcome (I Tim. 4:1). These “doctrines of devils” have probably gone through many transitions of phraseology through the centuries, but their evil effect and confusion have remained the same.

The modern doctrines of allowing for sin are widely accepted because people have widely not been purged from sin; and it is deceitfully comforting to hear things that justify you even though you have a consciousness of sin in your life. The apostle Paul said it this way: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (II Tim. 4:3,4). People who want to find a religious justification for retaining sin take to the doctrines and traditions of men that are prevalent in Christianity today. Those who truly want to be free from sin and from the spirits of this world that want to keep men under sin, will take to the truth, meaning “THE faith that was once delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). It’s as simple as that, and Jesus said so (Jn. 3:20,21). That is what separates the truth of the Gospel from the man-made traditions of Christianity. The truth offers absolute deliverance from sin and all of its symptoms. Th popular traditions offer a false, symbolic liberty that just isn’t liberty at all. And how’s that? Because it leaves you in sin. Oh yeah, it also tells you that you’re just fine there. The only Gospel experience of faith in Jesus Christ that exists is the baptism of the holy Ghost, and it immerses the inner man with life and power from heaven that gets the job done; namely purifying sin from the heart and soul. This experience leaves the believer with NO MORE conscience of sin. That is the significance of the words of the apostle Paul, when he compared the effect of the sacrifice of Christ with that of the sacrifices of the old covenant: “For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: HOW MUCH MORE shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Heb. 9:13.14).

When someone truly receives God’s Spirit, they have no more conscience of sin, because THEY NO LONGER HAVE SIN!To give heed to the traditional “sinners saved by grace” doctrine and mindset is to say that Jesus is nothing more than another bullock or fatted ram that never really got the job done. The Lord showed me many years ago that Satan has long tricked the body of Christ into an old covenant mindset. This is mainly accomplished by the inclusion of natural, ceremonial ordinances [water baptism, ‘communion,’ etc.] and the mindset of accepting the retention of sin in our lives. Therefore those who adhere to these doctrines and ceremonies have a conscience of sin, because instead of being delivered from sin, it remains with them. Ceremonial worship was for those who were under sin, and to observe those things is to acknowledge one’s self as a sinner (Gal. 5:1-4). The result? Well, sin of course (Gal. 5:15-18). So God’s people continue to accept sin, and refuse the deliverance and liberty that the HOLY Spirit was sent for (I Cor. 6:11; II Cor. 3:17; Tit. 3:5). And the result of that? Well, it certainly is not the one that truly glorified this blessed Gospel nearly two thousand years ago: “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, THEY WERE ALL IN ONE ACCORDin one place… And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance… And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. And the multitude of them that believed were of ONE HEART AND OF ONE SOUL: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all” (Acts 2:1,4; Acts 4:31-33). May God grant us the mercy to repent of the sins and religion that have taken us so far from that reality. Amen.