Paul says that we are comprised of spirit, soul, and body. I Thessalonians 5:23
We all understand what the body is with its five sense gates of sight, touch, sound, smell, and taste. The various organs of the body, with their chemicals and electrical currents, enable us to process information from the world around us through the senses, for fight or flight, and for safety or fright. David said we are fearfully and wonderfully made. The eyes are a marvel in and of themselves, enabling a baseball player to know exactly how to position himself to catch a ball hurling at him at speeds up to 100 mph!
The Bible tells us that the body is dead to the things of God. It is naturally carnal, desiring the things of pleasure and comfort. It is born into sin, with a desire to rebel and disobey the things of God. It starts to die the moment it is born from the mother’s womb. It naturally decays and corrupts back to the dust from whence it came. It is composed of the basic elements of this earth and back to earth it returns. I Corinthians 15:44 speaks of the hope for this natural body to be turned into a spiritual body at the 2nd coming of Christ. In the meantime, Paul says that which we desire to do as right, we always end up doing that which is wrong, because of the law of sin that lives in these bodies of death. (Romans 7:7-25)
The soul is a little more mysterious, and it has taken psyche doctors many years to gain just a basic understanding of its inner workings. The one thing they agree on is that the mind influences the health of the body.
The will, the intellect, and the emotions are the three major areas of the soul, with their sensory gates.
There is the imagination, the power to reason or to argue, the power to attach affections to our thoughts, the power to decide what is right and what is wrong in any given situation, the power to remember, and the power to shut out painful memories.
The Bible refers to the soul as the natural mind which cannot know the things of God, for the things of God are spiritually discerned. It is asleep and blinded to the things of God, because the spirit of man is dead due to the fall of Adam. Only when the spirit of man is born again, does the soul or mind of man begin to be renewed and to understand the will of God. The will, the intellect, and the emotions now come into obedience to what is pleasing to the Father, by refusing to obey the desires of the flesh for comfort and pleasure, and exercising self-control over every thought and action that is not pleasing to God.
We bring every thought into captivity to the Word of God. We align every affection and argument with the character of our Father. We turn the intentions of the imaginations and passions toward God and His will for our lives, instead of just living by the standards of the world. We rise above the animals to become spiritual beings a little lower than the angels of God. I Corinthians 2:14 ESV, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”
The spirit of man died as soon as Adam and Eve were escorted outside the garden. The childlike innocence in hearing and seeing their heavenly Father was removed from them. They no longer enjoyed His daily walks of fellowship in the evenings as they had inside the Garden of Eden.
The spirit of man, without its communion with the Father, is subject to the dominion of the soul and flesh of man. Its voice of conscience whispers that this is wrong, while the reasons and affections of the mind scream, “No, this is right!” Only through the New Birth experience does the spirit of man become infused with the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit then brings to remembrance that which God says is right and wrong, by creating a desire to spend time in fellowship with the Father once again, as in the garden. As we spend time with God and His Word, our natural, carnal minds are renewed and transformed into minds that discern and understand that which is pleasing to the Father. Romans 12:2 ESV, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
The conscience is one of the mysteries of the human mind, or soul. Acts 24:16 ESV Paul says, “So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.” What is the voice of conscience? Man has a conscience, means what? If a man drives a hard bargain, we say, “That man has no conscience.”
Without a conscience, man would be an animal. Man’s conscience is part of man’s soul, not his spirit.
The word ‘conscience’ comes to us from a Latin word ‘conscire’, which means ‘con-science’ or ‘with knowing’. The word ‘conscientia’ means ‘a moral sense of knowledge.’ The Greek word ‘suneidesis’ means ‘knowing or to know the truth’. So, ‘conscience’ means ‘to know the truth’.
It is the faculty by which we comprehend the will of God. It is designed to govern our lives. A sense of guilt before God comes through the conscience. It helps us to know how we should live before God.
In the Old Testament, sin was forgiven at the time of sacrifice. When the worshipper committed another sin, they had to offer another sacrifice. The offerings took away the conscience of sins. The Lord Jesus does not operate this way. He does not have to die every year, month or day. Christ died one time and purged our consciences from sin.
Hebrews 9:11-14 ESV says, “he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”
Conscience distinguishes between what is considered morally good or bad. It commends us if we are good, and condemns us if we are bad. Conscience has the ability to evaluate, judge and justify works or thoughts you have. It functions throughout your whole being; mind, feelings and decisions.
Human conscience was not part of man’s nature until Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Kenneth Taylor wrote in his Living Bible that the tree Adam and Eve ate of was the “Tree of Conscience.”
The conscience as a soulical part is neutral. It can become spiritual through rebirth, or it can become evil as you lend yourself to evil thoughts and deeds. Then the human conscience is no longer neutral.
The Bible says that people’s consciences are seared as with a hot iron because of wrong decisions. Man has to decide what kind of conscience he desires inside himself. Paul desired a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man.
You can make your conscience tender by drawing nearer to God, or it can become hardened by ignoring its voice over and over and over again.
There are no medicines to heal the conscience. Alcohol, drugs, and pleasure only dull its voice for a few moments. I Timothy 1:19 “holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck.”
Your conscience can beat on your heart’s door and be refused entry. It can make your brain restless at night because you did not do the right thing during the day. Or it can burn out and be so calloused that even when you commit murder, it will not bother you.
The first created man lived unclouded, secure and free. His purpose was to reflect the glory of God. By rebellion, he lost his security and significance. Living without God, humans leave morality, justice and behavior to the discretion of the natural enlightened man, encouraging people to worship man and nature rather than God. He sinks lower and lower into depravity, blindly following a philosophy that intends to heighten the dignity of man, but instead lowers him to the level of animals. Paul speaks of this in Romans chapter one, verses twenty to twenty-five.
Man has now turned to others for his self-worth, based upon his ability to meet their standards. We show in our behavior the insecurity, fear and anger resulting from our instability. We believe that we are generous and gracious, when in reality we are very selfish. We perform according to our self-perception, and if that is separated from the Word of God, then it leaves us with guilt, shame and condemnation, and many times, humiliation.
People can appear easy going on the outside, but inside they are running from every potential situation or relationship that might not succeed. We develop patterns of behavior, which can turn into bondages, leaving us empty inside and performing for the approval of others.
To escape, we have to be honest enough to look deep inside, even if it means more pain. We have to confess these painful memories and patterns of behavior to the only one who can heal them, Jesus Christ. We have to begin to study the Scriptures that relate to our situations as we pray for His healing of our wounded souls. We have to ask the Holy Spirit to revive and rebirth our conscience to guide us into right and wrong thinking and actions. We have to be willing to listen to our conscience as it directs us to live in agreement with the Word of our Heavenly Father. Only God can give us true self-worth, based upon His Grace, without the demands of the works of the flesh in trying to secure the approval of others.