To Encourage You

Hebrews 4:12-13 “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

An interesting perspective I heard years ago about the Word of God addressed the tension that it brings to the heart of men and women. The Bible tells us that God has written His law on our hearts (Romans 2:15). This verse says that “They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.” In other words, it is the conscience that is the evidence of this. People know in their heart of hearts that certain things are evil and a violation of God’s perfect law, and when they violate this God-given inner sense, there is an internal tension that results. The written Word of God further informs the conscience and heightens the sensitivity of it to God’s truth.

So, what do we do about this tension? How do we get relief from it? Ultimately there are two choices. The one choice is to ignore the conscience, to close our ears to it and continue to violate it. Eventually this will sear the conscience, rendering it unfeeling (1 Timothy 4:3). Furthermore, this deadening is enhanced by attempts to alter the clear meaning of Scripture or otherwise minimize it by claiming that it’s just the teaching of men and that while it contains some good thoughts and teachings, it has errors, and we determine on our own what those errors are. In this context, an error is anything that conflicts with what we want to believe or how we want to live.

On the other hand, the only other option is to confess that God’s Word is indeed true, admit that we are sinners, ask for God’s forgiveness for that sin, and turn away from our sin and towards God as the course of our lives. This is called “repentance.”

Which option we choose of these two will determine our eternal destiny – according to God’s Word, that is. May God heal our seared conscience if we are choosing to reject what He has told us in very clear terms, both in terms of the law written on our hearts, and the Law written in His Word.