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"But the Spirit
explicitly says that in the later times some will fall
away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful
spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the
hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as
with a branding iron." 1 Timothy 4:1-2
Before you came to Christ you were mostly untroubled by
your conscience. You could practice sin and sleep well.
But when the Lord called you and began to convict you
through His Spirit, your conscience was abruptly
awakened and was sensitive to the will of God. This new
found awareness of sin made sin to be utterly wicked to
you.
Paul said that with his mind he agreed with the Law of
God but painfully found that his agreement didn’t wholly
prevent him from breaking it. He cried, -"Oh
wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body
of death!"
He was asking who would save him from himself. The
Apostle’s conscience was awakened to righteousness and
to sin and he felt the pain of the violation. But Paul’s
conclusion is one that as Christians, we all must come
to receive by faith, -"Therefore
there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has set you free from the law of sin and of death."
(Rom.8)
God wants our conscience to be sensitive and our
hearts to be soft so that we can truly hate evil and
love righteousness, but we must not give the devil
opportunity by receiving lying accusations against us. Though
the body of sin and death is present with us, it is not
us - we are a new creation in Christ and in Him there is
no condemnation.
No saint past, present or future has the power to
produce a righteousness worthy of the presence of the
Lord. This is why God not only removes our sins, but
clothes us with the righteousness of His Son.
The devil wants to accuse you but the Lord has
already declared you innocent in Christ.
Paul concluded that since he hated sin, loved the Law of
God and wanted to obey it, that anything short of that
was not produced by him but by the body of death present
with him. Paul did not own the sin, he acknowledged the
righteousness.
An
awakened conscience and a sincere heart must receive the
truth that we are in Christ, and in Him there is no sin.
However, we must be sure that we are living in Christ
for there are many who profess His name who are not.
Jesus said that those who keep the Commandments abide in
Him, so do not be deceived into believing that you are
living in the truth of Christ while practicing lawless
rebellion. "Test yourselves
to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or
do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus
Christ is in you - unless indeed you fail the test?" (2
Cor.13)
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