The Devil wants us comfortable in our sin so we will keep doing it. God wants us uncomfortable in our sin so we will quit it. For an unbeliever the conscience might make him uncomfortable in sin. When we keep sinning, we wear out our conscience. It gets insensitive to sin. Sin gets easier and more comfortable. The Bible calls that sort of conscience defiled or even worse, seared.
Titus 1:15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
1 Timothy 4:2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
When we receive Jesus into our hearts He purifies them. He purifies our conscience too. It does no harm to the truth to believe that our conscience is part of our heart.
Acts 15:8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; 9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
1 Timothy 1:5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: 3:9 Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
Titus 1:15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
Hebrews 9:8 The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: 9 Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
When God does His work on our heart and conscience, our conscience and the Holy Spirit will work together to make us uncomfortable with sin. The discomfort will rise to a higher level than it would with an impure conscience and without the Holy Spirit’s work, if necessary the Holy Spirit can take the discomfort to an extremely high level, as high as necessary. When we receive Christ an important part of His work is repairing our conscience. As He lives in our hearts, His work on them is continual. A defiled or seared conscience is one of the things He saves us from.
If you are aware that you need God’s work on your heart and conscience, invite Christ into your heart and ask Him to begin and continue His work on you and in your life.
