But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man. | Acts 24:14–16
On Sunday, we talked about the freedom that God offers us through obedience to His way. I focused specifically on how He saves us from the practical burdens that sin brings upon us. What I didn’t spend much time on is the freedom of having a clear conscience.
When the Bible talks about our conscience, it does so in a few different ways. One way it uses conscience is as the voice that directs us in the right way (I wrote about that HERE). Conscience is also used to describe what keeps us from pursuing evil (I wrote about the idea of seared conscience HERE). In the verse above, Paul uses conscience in a third way. When he mentions a clear conscience, he is referring to freedom from all guilt and responsibility. In other words, Paul did everything that he could, within the limits of the flesh, so he is unburdened in his relationship toward both God and other people.
This aspect of the Christian life is far too underrated. We are so used to second guessing ourselves and wallowing in guilt that it is hard to imagine life without this cloud. Much of this comes from not being sure about whether or not we are good enough and/or not knowing what is right. We do our best, but there is this nagging feeling that we are not good enough. We can never really be at peace because there is no way to be sure. We spend a lot of time and energy worrying about being better, without having any means to know if we are.
Paul shows us the key to a clear conscience, when he says that he: believes everything laid down by the law and the prophets. This means that he trusts in the way that God has set. Not only that, he also says: there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. It matters what we do, the way to know that we have done what is right is measured in alignment with God’s good plan. This gives an authority, a direction, and a promised end.
While this does not make a person good, it does take away the confusion. To conform ourselves to God’s way means that we accept that He is the means by which we know what good is. This gives us a blueprint to act. If we do our best and the situation goes sideways, we don’t have to get lost in the navel-gazing and ‘what-ifs,’ we can be assured that we did what we could. This gives us the ability to have a clear conscience.
Sometimes, we are going to mess up and fail to do what is right. God’s standard gives us the ability to see this. He does not just leave us to despair, but gives us a means to clear our conscience, through confession and repentance. The whole law was given to Israel as a means to cleanse and come back into pure relationship. While Jesus does this fully and completely for us, we still have to deal with the earthly consequences of sin. His way acts as a means for us to continually do the next right thing.
In the end, even as we mess up, we can have a clear conscience toward God and men. This allows us to walk around without the fear and guilt and shame that otherwise controls us. We don’t have to have it all figured out, we simply need to obey the one who does.