Reign of Grace Media Ministries

REIGN OF GRACE NEWSLETTER
Vol. 4, No. 7 July, 2002

From the editor . . .
The clear and consistent preaching of the Gospel will always bring false accusations from unbelievers. Legalists will accuse us of doing away with a person’s responsibility to obey God. Mystics will accuse us of placing too much emphasis on the work of Christ and not enough on the Person of Christ. Sometimes we may get tired of answering these false accusations, but we should not faint. God tells us to be ready to give an answer to all who ask us a reason for our hope. The articles on Christian morality and ethics are designed to answer some of these objections and accusations. We hope they are helpful in giving a Scriptural answer to our accusers.

In this issue we have the next installment on the subject of Christian morality and ethics. It deals with the conscience, and this is so important to understand for a right foundation for the Christian walk and life. It helps us to confirm the motive of grace and gratitude in true Christian obedience that is pleasing unto God. As always we invite any questions, comments, or valid discussion of any of the issues raised and dealt with in these articles. May the Lord use them for His glory and our good.

Bill Parker, pastor
Eager Avenue Grace Church

REIGN OF GRACE is a ministry of
Eager Avenue Grace Church
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Bill Parker, editor
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CHRISTIAN MORALITY AND THE CONSCIENCE

How and upon what basis do you judge yourself and others to be moral and ethical? How and upon what basis do you judge yourself and others to be godly? How and upon what basis do you judge yourself and others to be Christian or saved? These are serious questions that need to be answered, and how we answer them reveals something about ourselves. For example, I remember a doctor who had an offer to join a medical group which would have required him to relocate his family to another city. One of his main concerns was whether or not there were any Christians among those with whom he would be working. He decided not to take the job because he knew the other doctors were not Christian because they drank alcohol. He said the only Christian he saw in the office was a woman whom he knew was a Christian, not from any discussion of doctrine and Scripture, but because he saw her reading her Bible daily. We could discuss the evil of the abuses of alcohol and the virtue of reading the Bible, but this is not the issue. The issue is this – Was this man right in his judgment? Did he make a moral, ethical judgment in this matter? When I heard him say these things, I immediately thought of Scriptures where it is recorded that the Lord Jesus Christ made wine, drank wine, and was accused by the religionists of His day of being a glutton and a wine bibber (a drunk) (Matt. 11:19). I also considered the Ethiopian eunuch who was reading his Bible but who was not a Christian until Philip the evangelist preached the Gospel to him and he believed it (Acts 8). Consider also the Pharisees of whom the Lord said, in essence, “You do ‘search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life” (John 5:39-40). These men read their Bibles, but they obviously were not Christians.

What would motivate a man to make the judgment described above? It is the testimony of his own conscience, a standard of morality and ethics firmly established in his conscience by which he was convinced he was right. The Bible teaches that one of the many unique things separating mankind from the animals is that God has given every man a conscience. The Apostle Paul proved this by Gentiles who had not been under the Law of Moses. God holds every man responsible, even those who did not have the revelation of law from Mount Sinai, because the law is written on men’s hearts – “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another” (Rom. 2:14-15). The conscience is the seat of judgment in our minds. It is the standard by which we judge right and wrong, sin and righteousness, by which we accuse or excuse, and make moral and ethical choices. It is also the standard by which we accuse or excuse ourselves and others before God, thus, it becomes the standard by which we judge whether or not a person is saved or lost.

THE NATURAL CONSCIENCE

The problem with man in a fallen condition wherein he is totally depraved and spiritually dead is that his conscience has been defiled by sin and the powers of darkness – selfishness (self-love), pride, and self-righteousness. However, although man’s conscience has been defiled by sin, God says that the light of law in the conscience is enough to hold men responsible and accountable to the standard of His law. Even we as sinful men, by the light of conscience, ought to seek the Lord, but apart from God the Holy Spirit enlightening our minds by the law and the Gospel, convincing us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:8-11), we will always go in one of two destructive ways: (1) we will defile our consciences even more with false religion, idolatry, self-righteousness, and legalism, or (2) we will ignore or even suppress our consciences, some even to the point of extinguishing it. The Apostle Paul described the first class of people by the example of the lost, religious Jews who sought righteousness by their attempts to keep the law (Rom. 9:31–10:3). He described the second class of people by the example of many of the Gentiles who had gone so far ignoring their natural consciences to the point of having “a reprobate mind,” a mind void of judgment (Rom. 1:26-32).

Sin and rebellion against God is man’s main problem, and the remedies man devises by the standard of a defiled conscience are worse. The conclusion then is found in the following – “What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Rom. 3:9-12)

It is sadly true that many people spend their lives soothing their consciences with false assurances of peace based on their own subjective and perverted judgments or the testimony of men whose judgements are just as perverted. Others spend their lives suppressing or ignoring their consciences altogether. We need only consider the openness of sexual immorality in our society today. Many people have been desensitized to this because homosexuality, fornication, adultery, pornography, and every kind of sexual perversion is constantly on television, movies, and on the internet. Liberal thinking in these areas is considered to be morally superior to any thinking that would denounce and censure such behavior. In Hollywood they give awards for positive portrayals of homosexuals in television and movies. There are no positive portrayals of homosexuals in God’s Word. There are churches who call themselves “Christian” who condone homosexual marriages, accept them as believers, and allow them to be ordained into the ministry. The majority of professing Christians still condemn such behavior, but this shows how far some have gone in ignoring their natural consciences to the point of having no sound judgment.

The argument is not whether or not Christians should denounce and avoid such behavior. The light of natural conscience teaches us this. True Christians should be the most obedient, moral, and virtuous people on earth. We who have been given the abundance of God’s grace in Christ Jesus have so much for which to be thankful. We ought to strive to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We ought to be grateful to God who has blessed us so freely and unconditionally in Christ. We ought to express our love and gratitude in acts and deeds of obedience as we seek to be conformed to Christ, our perfect example of love and obedience. A believer who uses grace as an excuse for disobedience, liberty to condone and rationalize licentiousness, is one of the most offensive and disgusting people on earth. He too has to ignore his own conscience to a point. He is a disobedient, rebellious, ungrateful child. This is why he must be recovered, not with legal threats of punishment or mercenary promises of earned reward(s), but with the comfort and assurances of the grace of God in Christ (Gal. 6:1). This will result in a true believer being brought to godly sorrow over sin that will result in repentance to deliverance from such thoughts and practices (2 Cor. 7:10a). Recovery by legalism will only result in “the sorrow of the world” that results in death (2 Cor. 7:10b), because it brings about legal repentance and fruit unto death. The person who claims to believe the Gospel but who cannot be recovered graciously unto godly sorrow reveals he is not a true believer and never has been.

LET YOUR CONSCIENCE BE YOUR GUIDE

The Bible teaches that within all men there are only two types of conscience – the legal, defiled conscience which we all have by nature as inherited from our natural father Adam, and the gracious, cleansed conscience which only believers have as given by God the Holy Spirit in the new birth. Those who are guided by a legal, defiled conscience are those who seek salvation and/or some part of it based either on their efforts to keep the law or their confessions of sin and acts of repentance that follow. One of the main evidences of a person with a defiled conscience is in his judgments of salvation and condemnation. A person with a defiled conscience will always judge himself and others to be saved based on standards highly esteemed among men but an abomination unto God. The same goes for his judgment of those whom he sees as lost. He will always judge himself and others to be worthy to fellowship and commune with God based something other than the blood, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is one of the main areas in which the legalism of a defiled conscience is manifested.

Those who are guided by a cleansed conscience are those who have sought and found all of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ and based on His righteousness alone. One of the main evidences of a person with a cleansed conscience is also in his judgments of salvation and condemnation. A person with a cleansed conscience has a new standard of morality in this area, a new system of ethics, which is directly related to the glory of God in Christ. He judges himself and others to be saved based on God’s testimony in the Gospel wherein Christ is revealed as the Savior who established the only righteousness based upon which God could be just and justify the ungodly. He sees Christ as His worthiness to enter into the holiest, commune with God, and receive God’s favor and blessing. He judges all who are either ignorant of or not submitted to Christ and His righteousness as lost and in need of salvation. To see this properly we must understand two important truths: (1) what condemns and defiles the natural conscience, and (2) what removes that condemnation and defilement.

(1) What condemns and defiles the natural conscience? Two things condemn and defile the natural consciences of all lost sinners – the guilt of sin which brings condemnation and wrath from God, and the defilement of sin which brings alienation and separation from God. Many believe sinners cannot recognize the guilt and the defilement of sin apart from the Holy Spirit’s work in conversion. This is not so. Lost sinners can see themselves as guilty and defiled. They can see themselves as worthy of condemnation and separation from God. What lost sinners cannot see apart from the Holy Spirit’s work in conversion is the depths of guilt and defilement that leave them with no hope of salvation but by the grace of God based on the righteousness of Christ freely imputed and received by faith. Even lost people will admit they are sinners. When the Lord Jesus confronted the accusers of the adulterous woman, He said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” (John 8:7). We are told immediately after this, “And they which heard it, being convicted in their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst” (John 8:9). They knew and admitted they were sinners and had no just cause to be the judges, jury, and executioners of this woman, yet they were not convicted by the Holy Spirit unto conversion, faith in Christ and repentance of dead works and idolatry.

The Old Covenant law was a continual reminder to Israel of the guilt and defilement of sin. This is why the Apostle Paul called it the “letter” that “killeth” (2 Cor. 3:6), the “ministration of death” (2 Cor. 3:7), and the “ministration of condemnation” (2 Cor. 3:9). The blood sacrifices were continual reminders that sin deserves death, that men by nature were guilty and defiled by sin, because, as it is written, “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Heb. 10:4). These sacrifices could only accomplish “a remembrance again made of sins every year” (Heb. 10:3). This is why there was no spiritual and eternal forgiveness of sins in them. This is why the Old Covenant was established by God to be Israel’s “schoolmaster” to lead them to Christ and His blood for spiritual and eternal forgiveness of sins (Gal. 3:24). Israel was commanded to look beyond the sacrifices to the Person, mediatorial offices, and work of Christ. Notice the language of Hebrews – “Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, AS PERTAINING TO THE CONSCIENCE (Heb. 9:6-9).

“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 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. 10:1-2).

The blood of animals could not remove the guilt and defilement of sin from the persons of those who participated in the services, therefore, the knowledge of sin’s guilt and defilement remained in the consciences of any who did not look to Christ. If the blood of animals could have accomplished the removal of the guilt and the defilement of sins from the persons of those who participated in the services, they would have ended because it would not have been necessary to offer them again. Why? It is because if they could have accomplished this task, then those who participated in this Old Covenant worship would have been purged or cleansed from the guilt and defilement of sin and, thus, their consciences would have been purged from the guilt and the defilement of sin. This is why Christ’s one offering was enough. He did not have to be offered yearly, but He suffered and died one time. His one sacrifice for the sins of God’s elect accomplished what rivers of animal blood could not accomplish.

(2) What removes condemnation and defilement? We have seen that the blood of Christ offered for His people removes the guilt and the defilement of sin. Nothing else will accomplish this, and nothing can be added to the blood of Christ in accomplishing this great work of God’s grace. We have seen how the blood of animals in the Old Covenant were inadequate to accomplish this task. The animal sacrifices, as well as the whole Old Covenant, were types and shadows of Christ who shed His own precious blood to accomplish what they could not accomplish – “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3)

“Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” (Heb. 10:9-14)

The Apostle Peter wrote that all believers are redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Pet. 1:19). The Apostle John wrote “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin (1 John 1:7). Nothing will remove the guilt and the defilement of sin but the blood of Christ. Christ had to shed His blood unto death to establish righteousness, because the guilt and defilement of sin could never be removed without God’s holy law and justice being satisfied.

THE BLOOD OF CHRIST APPLIED TO THE CONSCIENCE

God saves guilty and defiled sinners by first bringing them under the Gospel of His grace in Christ Jesus where they hear and learn how God can be both a just God and a Savior based on the blood of Christ which cleanses from all sin. God then applies the blood of Christ to the sinner legally and objectively by imputing Christ’s righteousness to him. They are washed in the blood of the Lamb of God which removes the legal guilt of sin which kept them condemned and under God’s wrath and removes the legal defilement of sin which kept them alienated and separated from God. God no longer imputes the guilt and the defilement of sin to them. The immediate result of this imputation, this legal washing in the blood of Christ, is the subjective work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth, where He brings a sinner to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works and idolatry. This is described in Scripture as “sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:2); being sanctified and cleansed “with the washing of water by the word” (Eph. 5:26); and being saved “by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5). This is all the fruit and result of Christ’s righteousness imputed to remove the legal guilt and defilement of sin from the sinner who believes in Christ. There is no time span between this imputation of righteousness and washing of regeneration.

God the Holy Spirit in executing His sovereign work in the heart of a sinner purifies the sinner’s soul and heart (mind, affections, and will) by faith – “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you” (1 Pet. 1:22-25). The believing sinner’s heart is purified by faith when he is convinced that the blood of Christ cleanses him from all sin, now and forever, that Christ’s righteousness secures him in salvation, God’s favor, now and forever, and that God will not charge him with the guilt and the defilement of his sin, now and forever. He still knows he is a sinner in his character and conduct, and he knows he should be ashamed of this and work hard to be conformed to the image of Christ in his character and conduct. He is also just as convinced and assured by God’s testimony of the fact that as to his state before God, he is, right now, “holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight” (Col. 1:22), that as Christ is, so is he in this world (cf. 1 John 4:17). The believing sinner’s heart is purified when he is assured that as to his state before God in Christ, and based on Christ’s righteousness alone, he is everything he needs to be and there is no room for improvement, even though as to his character and conduct he sees much room for improvement and has nothing in which to boast. His motto is, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14).

The heart is connected with the conscience, and the conscience is cleansed or purged in the same way the heart is cleansed or purged, by faith – “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:19-22).

Here we see the ground of salvation and entering into the holiest, the very presence of God – “the blood of Jesus,” and the result of Christ’s blood being applied to us – “a true heart in full assurance of faith.” The believing sinner is to have complete confidence that he has every right and qualification to commune with a holy and just God, not based on anything in him or anything that comes from him, but based solely upon the blood of Christ, the righteousness of Christ imputed. His heart has been “sprinkled from an evil conscience,” which is a conscience defiled with legalism and self-righteousness. An evil conscience describes a sinner who has confidence to commune with God based on something other than the righteousness of Christ.

“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) The conscience is cleansed, or purged, whenever a sinner sees that all his striving to attain and/or maintain salvation based on his best efforts to please God were no more than dead works and acts of idolatry. He sees now that it takes infinitely more than anything proceeding from himself to cleanse him from the guilt and the defilement of sin. He sees his only hope for salvation and every part of salvation is the blood of Christ, and this is the only way he can serve and honor the living God. This establishes in his mind, his conscience, a new standard of morality and ethics, a new standard of holiness. This dramatically changes his motive for obedience, for sorrow over sin, for reformation, and for seeking to be conformed to the image of Christ in his character and conduct. This dramatically changes his standard of judgment in the area of fellowship and speaking peace. He will no longer judge people to be “Christian” brethren apart from the Gospel, the doctrine of Christ (2 John 9-11), and the true evidences of saving faith. He will say with the Apostle Paul that his desire for any who are either ignorant of or not submitted to the righteousness of God revealed in the Gospel is that they be saved (Rom. 10:1-3). When his conscience is cleansed by faith in Christ and he repents of dead works and idolatry, it is then and only then that he begins a life of true obedience without legalism in seeking to mortify the sins of his character and conduct and be conformed to the image of Christ.

NO MORE CONSCIENCE OF SINS

As we saw as pertaining to the blood of animals under the Law of Moses, if they could have accomplished the removal of the guilt and defilement of sin from the sinner, then that sinner would have had “no more conscience of sins” (Heb. 10:2). This means that the blood of Christ, having totally and eternally accomplished the complete removal of the guilt and defilement of sins from the believer, the believing sinner should have no more conscience of sins. But are not believers in this life still sinners who fall short of God’s standard of holiness in their character and conduct? Yes. How then can it be said that believers have no more conscience of sins? This can be said in the same way that believers are said to be “dead to sin” and “freed from sin” (Rom. 6:2,7). This refers to the believing sinner’s legal death to the guilt and defilement of sin in Christ (Rom. 6:6-11; 2 Cor. 5:14). Believers in this life are not dead to the fact of sin. They still sin. They are not dead to the presence and influential power of sin in their character and conduct (Rom. 6:12-13; 7:14-25; Gal. 5:17). “No more conscience of sin,” “dead to sin,” and “freed from sin” refers exclusively to the believing sinner’s state before God legally and objectively, based on the righteousness of Christ imputed to him and based on the non-imputation of the guilt and defilement of sins to his person (Psalm 32:1-2; 130:3-4; Rom. 4:6-8; 8:33-34; 2 Cor. 5:21).

A believer is to be acutely aware and remorseful of, as well as concerned about the remaining sins of his character and conduct. He is to confess these sins and fight them with every faculty of his being. He is to seek to mortify (put to death) all sin in himself. He is never given liberty by the Gospel of grace to look upon the remaining sins of his character and conduct casually or to excuse them as natural. He is never to use the liberty of salvation in Christ to promote remaining sin in his character and conduct. However, he is never to think that the guilt and defilement of sin is charged to his person so as to bring him under God’s wrath or separate him from God’s fellowship and family. In this sense alone he is to have no more conscience of sin. He is to seek to fight and put to death all the sins of his character and conduct upon this ground so as to glorify God, exalt Christ, and remove all legalism and self-righteousness from his efforts.

How then can we rightly judge ourselves or anyone else to be moral, godly, saved, or immoral, ungodly, and lost in God’s sight, or according to God’s standard? God’s standard is revealed in His Word, specifically the Gospel wherein His glory is revealed in the salvation of sinners by Christ, the Godman, who established a righteousness in His obedience unto death to satisfy law and justice and enable God to be both a just God and a Savior. If we or anyone else claim to be saved, to be not guilty and not legally defiled by sin, if we claim that God no longer condemns us and is no longer our enemy, the only way we can judge this claim to be valid is by our ground of salvation. What do we plead as that which saves, secures, and entitles us to God’s favor and fellowship? What removes God’s wrath and gains His favor and fellowship? The only way we can judge this by God’s standard is for our judgment to begin with God’s Gospel – “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” (Rom. 6:17-18)

A “servant of sin” is one to whom God imputes the guilt and defilement of sin. He is condemned under God’s wrath and alienated from God. The main evidence of this state is that he is ignorant of or not submitted to Christ and His righteousness as revealed in the Gospel. He seeks relief from the guilt and defilement of sin by ways that dishonor God, deny Christ, and promote legalism and self-righteousness. His conscience is defiled by sin, and he is deceived when he soothes his conscience with legalism and self-righteousness.

A “servant of righteousness” is a sinner saved by the grace of God and one to whom God does not impute the guilt and defilement of sin. He has Christ and His righteousness imputed to him. The main evidence of this state is that he has sought and found relief from the guilt and defilement of sin in Christ and by His blood alone. He sees that Christ’s blood continually cleanses him from all sin. His conscience is purged from dead works and cleansed from the guilt and defilement of sin by the blood of Christ, and he rejects anything and everything that would replace or rival Christ in this matter. This is the testimony and the judgment of the cleansed conscience. This is a new standard of morality and ethics established in the conscience, the heart, of a redeemed, regenerated, and converted sinner.

NEWS FROM EAGER AVENUE GRACE CHURCH

I want to print a correction of an item printed in last month’s newsletter where I wrote that Cynthia Breen from Santa Barbara, CA, “was converted by the grace and power of God in Christ by hearing the Gospel through our tapes”. The fact is that Cynthia first heard the Gospel and was converted by reading pamphlets and booklets on the internet written by our dear brother Moreno Dal Bello in Australia. It was through Moreno that Cynthia found our ministry via our website and began reading our literature and listening to our tapes. This correction may seem to be an insignificant matter, but I believe it is important to recognize how God is using other ministries to call His elect, not to give credit to men, but to show the wisdom, power, and grace of our great God and Savior. I once heard a Primitive Baptist preacher opposing the necessity of preaching the Gospel for the salvation of God’s elect by using the following argument – “What if God had an elect sheep in the deepest part of Africa where there is no gospel preached?” This argument will not hold up Scripturally because the Bible teaches that wherever God’s elect live, God is powerful enough and faithful enough to get His Gospel to them. Cynthia lives in California, heard the Gospel from a man in Australia, and was led to Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, GA. Our God works in mysterious ways, but His ways are always consistent with His Word. He will glorify Himself in the hearts of His elect by bringing them to hear the Gospel of our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We now have available study tapes on 2nd and 3rd John. Any who are interested in these tapes, they are available upon request. They are good studies to follow up our series on 1st John.

NEXT MONTH’S FEATURES –

“Christian Morality, the Purged Conscience, and Godly Sorrow unto Repentance”

“The New Gnostics”