Conscience is an inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior.
Humans have a conscience that holds them accountable to their belief system. Whatever or whomever you believe as "right," "wrong," or "unsure" is exactly where your conscience regarding that matter throws down its anchor. It is upon the foundational anchors of who and what we believe (and for some, are told to believe), that we base and support our daily decisions.
Ultimately, what our life produces is the sum total of all of these everyday decisions—big and small. Consider for a moment your lifetime from a beginning-to-end perspective. What anchors your belief system? Does it show a history of proven success? Can you honestly rely on it to promote good character and establish moral well-being? The definition of "moral" is: "concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character." Moral literally means the matters of conscience.
The anchoring principle of Christianity is simply put: Be like Jesus. The basis of Christianity is centered on Jesus Christ, the crucified-resurrected-and-ascended Son of the living, triune God. Even if people choose not to personally believe in Jesus as their Savior and Lord, what's not to appreciate about His example of how to live life honorably and successfully? Jesus is selfless. He is full of forgiveness, compassion, and truth. Jesus is empowered by His Father's grace and is utterly loyal to His family.
If we look at the list of characteristics that describe who Jesus is, it's easy to see how anchoring our belief system in Him and emulating Him ensures that we will be living within a belief system to which our conscience will actually feel anchored. By "feel," we mean that we literally get to feel the benefits of believing Jesus through "feelings" of love, joy, peace, patience, self-control, etc. With such solid anchoring, we can begin trusting our conscience to prompt us positively or negatively when we are making our daily or major life decisions. Having this kind of inner guidance is priceless—especially in a world of ever-escalating problems and confusion.
Jesus can be trusted to base our belief system upon. His life reflects why.
I Peter 2:21-24; to this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth." When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. "He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed." For "you were like sheep going astray," but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Romans 14:12; So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
God's grace ensures that every believing Christian will become more and more like the One whom they rely upon—their Savior and Lord—Jesus Christ.
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