(The Real Truth) 3. the Real Truth About Our Conscience

We have all been created with a conscience that constantly reminds us that we are moral beings. Conscience is God's voice within us telling us that we are responsible for our actions. One day, we will have to give an answer to God for the way we have lived our lives.

We are not like animals, who have no conscience. Animals are not moral beings and so they don't have to answer to God for anything. When an animal dies, that is the end for it. But not so for us. Man was created in the image of God and is an eternal being.

For us there will be a day of judgment. Then everything that we did, said and thought during our entire lives will be brought back to our minds, and assessed by God. And He will judge us according to the standard of His holy laws given in the Bible. We will then have to give an answer to God for every single action, word and thought.

The Bible says, "It is destined that men die only once, and after that comes judgment" (Hebrews chapter 9, verse 27).

Many men escape punishment for their crimes here on earth. But they will get their just punishment when they finally stand before God's judgment-seat. Likewise, many men have never been appreciated or rewarded here on earth for all the good that they did to others. They will be rewarded when Christ comes back to this earth.

Since we have to give God an answer one day for whatever we do, it is important that we listen to the voice of our conscience always.

Conscience is one of God's greatest gifts to man. It is like the gift of "pain" in our bodies. Most of us think of pain only as a nuisance. But we don't realize what a tremendous blessing pain is to our lives. For it is through pain that the body warns us that something is wrong somewhere. It is the body's first signal, warning us of sickness. If it were not for pain, we would not even know when we have a sickness, and we could die. It is pain that saves us from premature death.

Lepers don't feel pain, because leprosy kills the nerves and destroys all sensation. A leper could get a nail through his foot and never feel it at all. The foot will get infected - and he still won't know about it. Finally his foot will get so bad that it will have to be cut off - all because he did not have the "blessing of pain".

Conscience is like pain. It warns us when we violate God's laws - when we are thinking of sinning, or when we have already sinned. If we ignore its warnings, and go against it, we will gradually kill the sense of sin within us. Then a day will come when we won't feel any sensitivity to sin at all. Then we will become spiritual lepers - with a dead conscience. We would then be like the animals that have no conscience. That is why some people behave worse than animals. The final result of such a life is to be punished eternally by God.

We all know we are sinners, because our conscience tells us that. We must never shake off that sense of guilt, because that sense of guilt is like "the blessing of pain". It tells us that we are spiritually sick and that we need to be healed. Conscience is God's greatest gift to man.

Jesus likened the conscience to the eye (Luke chapter 11, verses 34 to 36). Our eyes are the cleanest parts of our body, because they are being washed many, many times every day, by our tears.

Every time our eyelids blink (and that happens thousands of times in a day, without our even realising it), our eyes are being washed of all dust. Even a small speck of dust is enough to irritate our eyes and make us stop all our work, until we have washed our eyes clean.

That is how we must also keep our conscience - always clean.

Our sins can be forgiven and cleansed away only by God. That is the only way for our conscience to be cleared of its sense of guilt.

But forgiveness of sins is NOT cheap.