7132	Forums / Theology Forum / Re: Conscience As Proof?	on: October 12, 2007, 05:50:02 PM
The conscience acts as a filter. From the very beginnings of our new birth the conscience is awakened to grace. Even tho the conscience and the law worked together to bring us to an understanding of our need for Christ , the conscience could never bring us to new life in Christ. If the conscience could be the cause of good behavior then there would be no need for a cause prior to the action of the conscience on the understanding . Then the will could act by itself. In the soul the cause of a new moral principle is what is prior to the choice. What is before choice is the strongest desire for the object. And what is most pleasing to the understanding comes through what the mind is most pleased with. The conscience works with the law to determine whether what is most pleasing in a believer is what glorifies God. But the question remains whether the cause of good moral choices comes as a result of the laws work on the conscience. For the answer we must explore what causes a change in the state of the soul. God made everything so that He is the cause of everything that transpires. If God created all things then it would be wrong to share the creating with God. First because if God created all things then He has the only rite to have a purpose in creating and sustaining all things. We have no claim even to the purpose of whatever transpires in this world. God is the only cause and if there is any other cause then there would be an effect that is other then Gods effect. If there was an effect other than Gods first cause effect then it would need to be equal or better because in order for there to be an effect there must be the cause of its power being manifested in its working.  And if there was a cause outside of Gods causing then there would need to be equal power of choice in order for there to be another effect. God created man for a purpose because God made man. God is the cause of mans existence. If God is the cause then He has a purpose from the beginning of a mans life to the end of mans life. If man could cause his own destiny then God could not be the first cause of mans existence. If man had the power to cause any purpose outside or along side of Gods power of purpose then man would be the first cause of the exercise of his own purpose. If man could will apart from Gods purpose then man could be equal with God. If man could have a purpose along side of Gods purpose then man would need to cause his own existence. The power of choice is what caused our being created. Gods sole rite to choose the identity of each one of us was a determinative choice. If our first choice determined our own destiny, then Gods purpose in our identity would be without that sole rite as God. Our identity as created moral agents is determined by the power to exercise that purpose throughout eternity. If Gods purpose is not determinative then man is working out in his own power to determine his existence. If there is no working purpose of existence then there is no existence. Without Gods power to exercise His will in our lives from beginning to end there would be no way for us to keep existing , because God could not be God because we would replace God. Which comes back to the matter of the conscience. If we could act apart from Gods purpose in our acting then we could become the first cause of our own acting. But if we are not the cause of our own existence then we are not the cause of the exercise of the will for us to exist. When God created us ,He created us body and spirit. We were created in His image, being given a desire to worship Him, or having a God consciousness. We were created with a mind will and emotions. But in the fall our mind was darkened by sin and our will was only evil continually. In order for us to have an acceptable choice we must have our minds enlightened because our choice is what is our minds view of the object as most pleasing. And a mind that is darkened does not view spiritual things as pleasing. In regeneration our minds are given new spiritual light. Now we can desire what is spiritually good. But if we could be the first cause of our being pleased with spiritual things then we could have the power to cause our will to exist. The Holy Spirit is what causes our desires to be acceptable. We are not the first cause of our being renewed. Our renewed desires are brought on by the Spirit and the word. There is a new principle at work in our mind will and emotions. Our consciences as filters are not the cause of us choosing morally correct. Prior to us being regenerated we had a relationship to the law that was legal. When we heard the word preached our filter condemned us. We were under a condemning conscience. We were under the power of the letter of the law. We had no will to choose what was spiritually acceptable. We lived in a guilty disposition, running from the deep well of guilt. But when we were regenerated we were free from the condemning power of the law. Because we had no cause in our being regenerated, or the will to be saved we were given a new will by grace so that we could choose what is pleasing to God because we now have the God by the  Spirit living in us. We no longer live by the letter of the law , but we live by the Spirit. The cause of our being able to choose good is brought on by the Spirit. Our consciences are renewed by the Spirit in grace. If we could be morally good by our own consciences then we could filter out our inability to do good. If our will was the cause of our consciences being clear then we could train our consciences to be self righteous. The defiled conscience is not just from filtering the outward sins. But our choosing comes from the view of the mind being pleased with the object of choice. We are unable to choose good without the Holy Spirit causing us to desire what is good. If we are unable to choose what is good then we are unable to filter what is good as a first cause. If we were able to be the first cause of filtering good then we could be self sufficient. We could really excel in keeping the letter of the law. But God has made it so that we are dependent on the Holy SPirit to be able to filter. Because we are unable in ourselves this keeps us filtering by grace.