Conscience is “the testimony and secret judgment of the soul” (John 8. 9), and it works both ways in either accusing or excusing (Rom. 2. 15). It is referred to as good (1 Tim 1. 5), not troubled (Heb. 10. 2), in the holy Spirit (Rom. 9. 1), or, on the contrary, hardened and seared as with a hot iron ( 1 Tim. 4. 2).
Conscience is essentially a New Testament word; not that the conception of conscience was unknown in Old Testament times, but rather that through the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ it became elevated to a higher plane.
The Old Testament does not use the word in the sense in which we understand it. The word “heart” expressed part of the idea, as in 1 Sam. 24. 5, where we are informed that David’s heart smote him because he had come so close to raising his hand against the Lord’s Anointed by cutting off part of Saul’s garment while he slept. This was conscience in the sense of remorse for an offence against his better judgment. This is the sense in which Proverbs 15. 32 speaks of the man who hears reproof, as getting understanding; that is to say, he possesses a heart for reproof (margin), which indicates understanding of the law of God.
When we come to the New Testament, however, we find a basis for a completer understanding of oneself, which is neatly summed up in Hebrews 9. 9 and following verses: the gifts and sacrifices of the law could not perfect the conscience of the offerer They were an expression of remorse, of awe for the sanctity of the law which they had broken, perhaps unwittingly. The new level of conduct in Jesus Christ is illustrated thus: the sprinkling of the ashes of the sacrifices was efficacious in the purifying of ceremonial defilements; but, as against that, the spotless sacrifice of Jesus through the eternal Spirit is effective in purging the conscience from the dead works of sin in order that service might be rendered to the living God. This can be called the enlivening of the moral conscience to the fact that Divine eyes are upon the individual’s conduct before the fault is committed.
The process of this change from remorse for sin to premeditated obedience is explained in chapter 10: the blood of animal sacrifices could not “take away” sin, but rather it aggravated the remembrance of sins year by year. God did not desire the sacrifices, and found no pleasure in them; they were a confession of weakness and failure. Christ set a new note by forestalling the need for sacrifice by deliberately setting himself to doing’ the will of God. He was a body prepared, with ears that were opened to hear and to heed. He took away the sacrifices because there was no further need for them, and he substituted obedience by offering his body in the performance of the will of God. By this will we are sanctified, and in this sense we are “perfected for ever”. This is one aspect of sanctification, that is, sanctification by “covering”.
The other aspect of sanctification has reference to the conscience: God was to make a new covenant under which he was to put his laws in men’s hearts and write them in their minds, in consequence of which there was to be no more remembrance of their sins and iniquities. This is the “new and living way” which Christ has consecrated for us in his own body offered on our behalf.
It will be seen that the effectiveness of this new covenant relies entirely upon the willingness of men to receive in heart and mind the perfect law of God and to cooperate in making the covenant work in practice. In other words they must be coworkers together with God (1 Cor. 3. 9).
The atoning ceremonies of the Law were a comforting provision for tormented hearts, but it needed so great an event as the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ Jesus to awaken conscience above the level of remorse.
Being Compassionate