The Moral Impulse Within

It seems that since the onset of recorded history mankind has been fixated with the question of what it means to be human and has wondered how is it that we got this way.  Philosophers and Poets alike sought to explore this mystery by both logic and lyric - giving expression to this desire to understand.  The German Philosopher Immanuel Kant is famous for saying "two things constantly leave me in wonder. The starry heavens above and the moral impulse within." And it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to speculate that this fascination that he had with the conscience caused him to form his moral argument for the existence of God.  

Kant's moral argument for the existence of God is a compelling one¹ because in it he states that morality is impossible if there isn't an All-Knowing, All-Powerful God who will hold every person accountable for the things they did in their life.  In other words if there isn't a Day of Judgement (Hebrews 9:27) then there can be no real Justice in the world.  If there is no Justice then there is no real morality because right and wrong would never be truly enforced.  Because anyone who has observed life in any way can testify that Justice is not fully done in this world².  So if its not exacted by God after our natural death then morality isn't real.  

The Conscience

But to draw the conclusion that morality isn't real leaves us unsatisfied.  We like Kant are aware of this thing inside of us - this moral impulse - that is constantly examining our conduct and comparing it with our values to either commend us for what we have done right or accuse us for our failures.  This internal spiritual organ is what the Bible calls "the conscience".

Scripture indeed has much to say about this.  We see in Romans 2:15 that the conscience is that which brings about thoughts that "alternately accuse or defend" one as it compares his actions with his moral principles.  We see that David's conscience bothered him when he cut off the edge of Saul's robe (1 Samuel 24:5).  His heart did this to him because he had strong beliefs about not touching the Lord's Anointed (1 Samuel 24:6).  And in the New Testament we find multiple exhortations to live one's life in such a way that his conscience is "clear" - or in other words that it doesn't create thoughts that condemn him for his behavior (see Acts 24:16, 2 Corinthians 1:12, 1 Timothy 1:5, 1 Timothy 3:9, 2 Timothy 1:3).

Paul's Past Life

But while its important to live with a sensitivity towards one's conscience its also important to note that our conscience can at times be wrong.  We see this in Acts 23:1 when Paul says that he had lived his life before God with a good conscience up to that day.  This would indicate that even when he was approving the execution of Steven (Acts 8:1) and going from house to house to drag believers off to prison (Acts 8:3) that he was acting in agreement with his value system at that time.

Paul expresses deep regret for this in 1 Timothy 1:13-16 where he reflects on the fact that his persecution of the Church was done from a place of ignorance.  In those days he thought he was doing the right thing and it took a supernatural encounter with Jesus to convince him otherwise (Acts 26:12-18).  In this moving letter to Timothy he acknowledges the perfect patience of Jesus towards him (and subsequently towards all who would believe) in waking him up even in the midst of his passionate opposition towards all that Christ was doing on the earth.  Christ came into the world to save sinners - among whom Paul felt that he was the foremost.

Letting Scripture Renew our Values

So then we are met with a tension.  We should always seek to live with a clear conscience but should recognize that our current value system may not be that which is in line with God's value system.  As such we should be regularly searching Scripture to truly renew our conscience to the actual Truth (Hebrews 4:12).  Then as God gives us greater light and Truth then we should seek to live in a way that is consistent with our renewed values.

In this process should God show us - as he did with the apostle Paul - that the things we did in the past that we thought were right at the time were actually opposed to His values then we can like the apostle Paul celebrate the abundant grace and patience of God.  This God who sent His Son into the world to save sinners, of which we may have been the foremost.

help us to live with a clear conscience before You oh God

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¹I hope the reader doesn't misunderstand my agreement with a piece of Kant's philosophy as an affirmation of all that he wrote.  Kant is certainly a consequential figure who had many significant things to say.  In addition to his moral argument for the existence of God I also find his understanding of the way in which the human mind has been programmed to interpret sense perception (what he calls the Transcendental Unity of Aperception) to be fascinating.  That being said I disagree with his rejection of other arguments for the existence of God and ultimately don't like where he lands in his overall skepticism of sense perception giving us an actual knowledge of the thing we are perceiving.  There are some things that Kant says that are very illuminating (for example his understanding of how we are wired to interpret sense perception) that if taken to their proper conclusion can be understood as the design of God enabling us to rightly experience the real world but were not conclusions that he arrived at.  This in my opinion is the weakness of philosophy.  Which is that no philosopher has the ability to know to ask all the right questions and as such are only able to ask questions that are the result of their reaction to their upbringing.  This is why God needed to speak to the world - for only the God who knows everything would be able to present us with something that we could trust as the infallible source for Truth (John 17:17).

²There are further implications to life if Justice is not real.  If Justice is not real then it means people have no value because there is no one who will exact payment for when they are wrongly treated.  In a world where Justice didn't exist then powerful people could treat others however they saw fit and nothing would happen to them.  It would mean that human dignity is a false construct and that the only thing that really mattered was earthly circumstance and power.