So where did you get that conscience?

I don’t know about you, but I have been blessed (or cursed) with a conscience that works overtime. “Why on earth did I say this or that?” “How could I have ignored that opportunity to help so-and-so?” “Why does he get on my nerves and I react like a kid?” “I know I should have acted differently.” And all that in one day!

But how do we know when we’ve crossed the line on a moral issue? What is it about our conscience that yaps at us when we do something wrong? Many believe that God’s laws are written in our hearts. Many theologians argue that because of our intrinsic nature to do good, God exists. Somehow, these moral black and white areas live in the depth of our humanity, and God, the ultimate “good,” placed them there.

“The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” written in 1948, states formally: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” Our own Constitution (1776) asserts: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”

In “The Abolition of Man,” C.S. Lewis writes: “The same sorts of moral standards – don’t murder, don’t take another’s property, don’t defraud – continually surface across civilizations and cultures and throughout history.” How does that happen unless it is part of our internal makeup?

R.C. Sproul, in his work “Defending Your Faith,” writes: “The key to understanding this concept is found at various places in Scripture, not the least of which is at the beginning: ‘Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’” (Genesis 1:26) It is by virtue of God creating us in His image and likeness that there is an analogy between the Creation and the creature, thus enabling us to speak of God in meaningful ways even within the limits of our finitude.

So the next time you wake in the middle of the night in a cold sweat over something stupid you did, know that God is just gently pulling you back by grace to a place where you can evaluate your conduct and make a change to truly become more like His “image.”

Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”