TODAY'S DEVOTION ON THE BIBLE
A third way God reveals Himself to us is through our conscience. In Romans 1:14-15, the Apostle Paul teaches us an extraordinary lesson on conscience. According to Paul, “When Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 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” (ESV).
Even pagans who have never heard the Word of God have an internal moral compass—conscience—put there by the hand of divine providence. This is not only proof of God’s existence, since there is no other explanation for the existence of conscience, but also is a revelation to pagans of God’s person, revealing to them the divine will. How else can one explain the inbred sense of right and wrong existing in all humanity, not just in God’s saints, but also in sinners?
Granted, the Bible does teach that one can become so obstinate to the voice of conscience in their life that their conscience becomes seared (1 Timothy 4:2). They become deaf to its voice and it becomes desensitized to their actions. Such a person has passed a point of no return with God, having become morally bankrupt and completely calloused to both a guilty conscience and the Holy Spirit’s conviction. Still, apart from those hardhearted souls with a seared conscience, all others have a built-in glimpse of both God’s person and precepts.
Don Walton
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