I feel ashamed and scared. I can hear my heart pounding. Deep down I am aware that I have done something wrong. Despair takes over my mind. Joy disappears.
The heart may pound due to physical exertion or mental tension, but a pounding heart can also be a sign of conscience at work. My conscience reproaches me for—or in other words, accuses me of —doing something wrong, and it makes my heart rate rise. The heart and conscience are also closely linked in the Bible. In the original Hebrew of the Old Testament, there is no specific word for conscience, but the writers of the Old Testament describe its workings by referring to the heart (e.g., 1 Sam. 24:6; 2 Sam. 24:10; 1 Kings 8:38).
We know together with God
When translating the Bible, the Hebrew word for “heart” is usually translated as “heart”. This had already been the case 100–200 years before Jesus‘ time, when the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, was made. However, chapter 27 of the Book of Job is an exception. In the Septuagint, as in some of our modern Bible translations, the original word for “heart” in the Book of Job is translated as “conscience”: “My conscience will not reproach me as long as I live” (Job 27:6). Job feels that he is innocent; his heart, or conscience, has no reason to reproach him.
In other words, instead of using the Greek word for “heart”, the ancient translator of the Septuagint uses the Greek verb “synoida”, which means to know something together with someone else. The noun syneidesis is derived from the verb synoida and occurs 30 times in the New Testament. In many languages, the word has been translated with a word referring to shared knowledge (e.g., English “conscience”).
Christian tradition has interpreted the concept of conscience as knowing together with God (with the exception of Acts 5:2, where synoida means two people knowing together). When Job says that his conscience does not reproach him, he means that he does not know or feel anything for which he should be reproached for violating God’s will. In the New Testament, the apostle Paul states that he too knows nothing (synoida) for which he could be reproached, but that does not mean he has been justified, or found innocent (1 Cor. 4:4). Paul reminds us that the Lord himself is the judge. A person’s own assessment of their innocence is therefore not a sustainable foundation for life.
The idea of knowing together with God is most clearly expressed in the First Epistle of Peter, which speaks of “God’s conscience”, that is, knowing together with God: “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.” (1. Peter 2:19). In some Bible translations, the expression is translated as “conscience bound to God”. On the other hand, the Bible also clearly states that conscience is specifically a sense of sin. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, syneidesis means “joint knowledge of sins” (Hebrews 10:2).
According to the Gospels, Jesus spoke many times about the human heart, but did not use the word conscience, because there was no such concept in his native language, Aramaic. Paul also spoke a lot about the heart, but as a skilled Greek speaker, he was also familiar with the word conscience and used it more than a dozen times. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews closely links the heart and conscience when he writes about “having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience” (Hebrews 10:22). Sprinkling refers to Old Testament worship, in which the Israelites were forgiven for their sins when the priest sprinkled the blood of a sacrificial lamb on them.
Everyone has a conscience
Paul writes to the Romans that even pagan nations, who do not have the written law of God, i.e. the five books of Moses, may naturally do what that law requires. In this way, they themselves prove that the requirements of the law are written in their hearts. According to Paul, their consciences also testify to this when their thoughts accuse–or defend–them (Rom. 2:14-15).
God has therefore written His law on the hearts of all people. He does not approach people only “from the outside”, in His acts of creation or in historical events, but also from within the heart. All people are aware in their hearts of what is good and what is evil. However, after the Fall into sin, the conscience no longer provides fully reliable information about God’s will, because the conscience can be misleading. A fallen person may consider permissible or even commanded what God has forbidden. Jesus taught that those who kill Christians may think they are doing God a great service (John 16:2; see also Acts 26:9). On the other hand, a fallen human being may consider forbidden what God has permitted, such as eating certain foods (Rom. 14:11).
God’s unchanging revelation, the Holy Bible, is the only guide from which we can learn God’s will. Listening to our conscience and acting according to it is not enough. Without the Holy Spirit’s interpretation of God’s word, our conscience may lead us astray. Then we think we know—together with God—what is right, even though we may be seriously mistaken. For this reason, teaching and studying God’s word is important in God’s Congregation.
In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul teaches that the conscience can also be “weak”, in which case a person may have a guilty conscience even about something that is not wrong according to God’s will (1 Cor. 8:7-12). According to Paul, the “strong”, or “those who have knowledge”, must not offend or seduce the weak into acting against their conscience. In the same letter (1 Cor. 10:23-33), Paul uses a very concrete example to advise that no one should offend another’s conscience, but that all should seek the best for others so that all may be saved. Freedom of conscience is therefore limited by responsibility for one’s neighbor, which is God’s will (Luke 10:27).
Only faith in Christ gives rest
The right kind of conscience is found in God’s children who stick to God’s word. Their conscience is enlightened by the Holy Spirit. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans: “I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 9:1).
When our conscience is guiding us correctly, we know together with God what is good and what is evil. At the same time, our conscience reveals to us all the evil we have done in God’s eyes. People who do not know the living God try to atone for their evil deeds by, for example, making sacrifices or doing good deeds. In this way, they try to change their quilty conscience into a good one, but they do not succeed.
According to the Letter to the Hebrews, the sacrificial service required by the law tries to free people from the quilty conscience caused by sin, but it cannot do so. “The gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper” (Hebrews 9:9), but “how much more, then, will the blood of Christ … cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14).
However, conscience by itself cannot grant anyone the gospel of Christ that cleanses from sin. Instead, we need to hear this gospel from the Kingdom of God. The faith in Christ’s atonement, which is received through this gospel, gives our conscience true rest, so that we no longer have any reason to look for other ways to turn our guilty conscience into a good one (Hebrews 10:22; 13:18).
I hear the assurance of forgiveness of sins from the kingdom of God. I am encouraged to believe in Jesus, my Savior, who has atoned for all my evil and wrong deeds. All my sins have been forgiven. My heart no longer pounds. I am no longer ashamed, but my heart rejoices. My conscience has acted for my best interest. I can live in harmony with God and in obedience of faith as a citizen of His kingdom.
Author: Kingdom of Peace
Image: Miika Kopperoinen, Credits: SRK