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Conscience – A Convicting Conscience, Part 5

Christ’s spirit convicts us to know truth from error – 1 Jn 4:6

[Study Aired November 11, 2023]

We can be convicted to know truth from error all our lives and still not be given to be our Lord’s Wife at the First Resurrection. As frequently stated and expressed in different ways in this series, if we didn’t know evil, we wouldn’t know good, and even if we do, unless we walk and live dynamically in the Commandments of Christ, we will be made to do so in the Resurrection to Judgment, the Lake of Fire.

What does “Conviction” mean according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary?

conviction
noun
con·​vic·​tion kən-ˈvik-shən 

Synonyms of conviction

1. The act or process of finding a person guilty of a crime especially in a court of law
2. 2. A strong persuasion or belief

a the state of being convinced

3. The act of convincing a person of error or of compelling the admission of a truth

a the state of being convinced of error or compelled to admit the truth

As with all nuances of conscience, a convicting conscience is a foundational theme from Adam taking of the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil to the New Adam’s total conversion; then, the perpetual purity of God being all in all makes the notion of conscience utterly foreign. As stated in the previous study, God doesn’t live in a dichotic state of conscience since good in his Kingdom isn’t polarised by evil.

2Co 5:16  Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
2Co 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

The Bride of Christ is first to be given to fully understand the meaning of a “convicting conscience” since she, in trembling honour and respect for her Lord, is convicted that she was a whore and is now being made new.

As seen in all 16 topics of conscience, there are hundreds of scriptural references denoting different nuances of the 16 subjects, yet, for each subject, there is mostly only one scriptural direct reference.

Following is the account of the woman caught in adultery and the only Biblical narrative using the term “convicted by conscience”. The italics used in John 8:9, “… being convicted by their own conscience,” is added by the King James translators. Normally, you would think that if you are convicted by conscience, whose conscience does the convicting? It seems that the KJV translators had a little insight to see that the conniving Pharisees would try to separate Mose’s Law from pointing to Christ, knowing that conscience is conscience no matter what creed one adheres to.

Joh 8:1  Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. 
Joh 8:2  And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. 
Joh 8:3  And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, 
Joh 8:4  They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. 
Joh 8:5  Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? 
Joh 8:6  This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. 
Joh 8:7  So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. 
Joh 8:8  And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
Joh 8:9  And they which heard it, being convicted [G1651] bytheir own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 
Joh 8:10  When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? 
Joh 8:11  She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. 

Convicted G1651
Definition: 

1. to convict, refute, confute 
2. generally with a suggestion of shame of the person convicted
3. by conviction to bring to the light, to expose
4. to find fault with, correct 
5. by word 
6. to reprehend severely, chide, admonish, reprove 
7. to call to account, show one his fault, demand an explanation
8. by deed 
9. to chasten, to punish

A person convicted is directly affected by his conscience at a point of divergence to choose good or evil. Such a person, be he a gentile or an Elect, is emotionally ready to accuse or excuse. Yet, it is only the Elect of God by His spirit who is convicted to consistently choose neither since his spirit is his Lord’s written in their hearts that instantly connects spirit with spirit. 

Rom 2:14  For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 
Rom 2:15  Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) 

By default, we, like Adam and Eve, try to substantiate our righteousness by excusing our actions by blaming anyone or anything rather than owning by acknowledging the sin.

Rom 2:16  In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. 

Rom 8:10  And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 
Rom 8:11  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. 

We shall use John 8:1-11 as a demonstration of how our conscience is endemic to every mostly unconscious thought that crosses our minds thousands of times each day.

Jesus’ act of going to the Mount of Olives to teach the Apostles the deeply impactful illustration of spiritual forgiveness was subject to His utterly convicted conscience. He was on a mission to wallop slavery to the Laws of Moses with His new Commandments for His followers to rely on His spirit and liberating light yoke ~ Jesus went to the Mount of Olives – Joh 8:1. Jesus was immutably convicted in agreement with the Father the timeliness to call to account a gradual change in the Law, and all in accord with the meaning of convicted (G1651).

Joh 8:2  And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. 
Joh 8:3  And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,

The people mostly unconsciously were convicted to attend the Temple and be instructed in the Lord’s ways, and none were more convicted of stringently keeping their version of the Laws of Moses than the scribes and  Pharisees. They are us, particularly when we were a “twofold child of hell” in Babylon, full of conviction for ‘another Jesus’, ready to thoroughly catch the Lord’s Elect in their presumed pomposity of understanding. We brought the Lord’s Elect before him, a Woman caught in both physically and to them/us, unwittingly blinded for a lesson in spiritual adultery for a most satisfying Saul of Tarsus-like stoning. The Pharisees, who were us, were full of accusing being excused (defending their stance) by the letter of the Law.

Like the Lord’s very own chosen Elect, this Woman, sat squarely in the midst of Babylonian Christianity, convictedly condemned, frightened and assured of death. By the letter of the Laws of Moses, one of the most outstanding convictions of a broken Law was adultery. The smug scribes and Pharisees were convicted that they had pinned Jesus to the wall of their temple since nobody could argue against the Commandments of God; they said,

Joh 8:4  They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
Joh 8:5  Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?

Whether the scribes and Pharisees stumbled upon or spied upon this woman about to commit adultery, scripture doesn’t say. Either way, their evil consciences convicted them to let the fullness of adultery be committed. In the One-Thousand Year reign, Christ and His Christs can likewise choose when to enforce the rod of iron either before, when the would-be sinner is “thinking above what is written” (1Co 4:6) or after the sinful event. All of Exodus 20–23 confirms that process as portrayed in Exodus 22:1-2 with the stealing of sheep or oxen or being killed upon breaking into another’s dwelling or business.

Exo 22:1  If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.
Exo 22:2  If a thief be found breaking up [breaking in, burglary], and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.

One of the primary purposes and effects of the rod of iron is to severely impact the remembrance of the sins committed under the Rod of Iron in the resurrection to judgment with the stark reality that without the holy spirit, it was impossible to consistently choose righteousness, even if convicted of the underlying laws. An iron rod symbolises the rigidity of conviction by dynamic forced living by every commandment of Christ. Every knee shall bow in submission and acknowledgement that without Christ within, eternal life is impossible.

With the presumed assurance of a ‘gotcha’ moment and most haughtily, with more convicted impudence than any whore, the scribes and Pharisees tried to convince Christ to keep the Laws of Moses and said, “… but what sayest thou?”.

Joh 8:6  This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.

The blind scribes, Pharisees and we were utterly convicted by Mose’s Laws to outsmart Christ with the ultimate humiliation and backdown of Christ by his conscience convicting himself. Christ always righteously uses the same method on us by His every spiritual law. The scribes and Pharisees were witless to a dynamic shift with the gradual implementation of how every Law of Moses was to be lived, now, spiritually. With blissful ad nauseum, we shall read the entire account of how we are becoming less a scribe, and Pharisees have already been convicted of a spiritual conscience since Adam.

Rom 2:12  For as many as have sinned without law [a Barbarian largely witless to God’s spirit (1Co 14:11)] shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law [since they have a convicted conscience to know truth from error]; 
Rom 2:13  (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 
Rom 2:14  For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 
Rom 2:15  Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) 
Rom 2:16  In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
Rom 2:17  Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law [as these scribes and Pharisees are doing with Christ with the woman caught in adultery], and makest thy boast of God [… oh, yes!], 
Rom 2:18  And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law [by the holy spirit discerning spirit in an by one’s conscience];
Rom 2:19  And [the scribe and Pharisee that we are,] art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, 
Rom 2:20  An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes [for our cause, ‘this Jesus guy has no idea! We will wear our own clothing and eat our own bread’], which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.
Rom 2:21  Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? 
Rom 2:22  Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? 
Rom 2:23  Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God? 
Rom 2:24  For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you [particularly unskilled use of God’s word by an Elect], as it is written. 
Rom 2:25  For circumcision [a verified commitment to Moses’ Law] verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law [as we all do without the spirit of truth], thy circumcision [imagined purity] is made uncircumcision [ie. Deliberately by design made null and void]. 
Rom 2:26  Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? [In other words, if any man or Barbarian’s good conscience at the Lord’s hand causes him to abide by the Law, he, as does all men, have the law written in their hearts since Adam and he is judged as righteous]
Rom 2:27  And shall not uncircumcision [not knowing the Law] which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? [… answer: We all have transgressed now most conspicuously since the spirit of rightly dividing the Law by Christ’s spirit convict our scribe and Pharisaical hearts ~ and likewise, off we slink without recourse and ‘hiding‘] 

Jer 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 
Jer 17:10  I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.)

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 
Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. 

Joh 8:7  So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

For the scribes, Pharisees and particularly us in our time, what a mesmerising experience of foreboding we all have experienced when starkly realising that our conviction of righteousness wasn’t particularly strong. A new and unsettling compunction driven by the holy spirit was shaking our conscience, an earthquake increasingly experienced as a glorious feeling and celebrated joy. It’s not initially easy, but he who is given by experience to glory in Christ for that maturity is happy, indeed.

Joh 8:8  And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 
Joh 8:9  And they which heard it, being convicted [G1651] by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

Of course, a mature Christ wouldn’t have slunk off morose for his outing and have delightedly stayed with ‘the Christ’ and the mirror of his adulterous self to further and excitedly discuss the nuances of a convicting conscience precisely as we are doing this very hour! 

Joh 15:10  If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. 
Joh 15:11  These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

Being full of Christ’s spirit marvellously and excitedly exposes the lying dogs that we have been and causes our pricked consciences to stay like Mary at Jesus’ feet to learn more. A parallel account is when Peter spoke boldly before the men of Judaea in Jerusalem of the holy spirit’s convictions in Acts 2:14-43. Most present glorified Christ for what the holy spirit does to their consciences; this is their response,

Act 2:36  Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. 
Act 2:37  Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 

… and as opposed to the scribes and Pharisees’ sullen conviction, what were those given a whiff of the spirit their response in verse 41…

Act 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 
Act 2:39  For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. 
Act 2:40  And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. 
Act 2:41  Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

Instead of Pharasically skulking off without a word, you and I now receive the glory of Christ with gladness for the convicting freedom from slavery to the Law and His recreation of the New Adam.

Joh 8:10  When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? 
Joh 8:11  She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. 

No matter how heinous our sin, formally worthy of a physically jolly good and satisfying stoning, we in Christ are utterly liberated to go and practice sinning no more. 

Pro 24:15  Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; spoil not his resting place: 

Although, like us caught in adultery, our acknowledgement of our sins and the growing new Adam within is counted as righteousness, with our convicting consciences continually being freed.

Pro 24:16  For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief. 
Pro 24:17  Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: 

We will not rejoice in the enemies of the cross during the One-Thousand Year rulership under the rod of iron when they stumble and are unequivocally corrected, though, no doubt a righteous satisfaction will be felt by the Christs for their coming end to lawlessness as we felt and continue to feel in our time.

Pro 24:18  Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him. 

As have we, the scribes and Pharisees who lay in wait for both the woman to catch her in adultery and for this Jesus man upsetting the status quo of our formally imagined righteousness by the physical Law, we do not spoil the uncalled depicted by the scribes and Pharisees who are resting for forgiveness all the way until the end of the One Thousand Year reign by forcing the Lord’s truth on them. It is not their time to have their convicted consciences walk righteously and excitedly pursue Christ. As restless spirits with pricked convicting consciences, all that they can do is live with that tortured spirit, unwittingly awaiting the Resurrection to Judgement.

Mat 8:28  And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.
Mat 8:29  And, behold, they [the scribes, Pharisees ~ the world, and the dragged for a brief time] cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?)

Continuing in Proverbs 24…

Pro 24:16  For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief. 

Interestingly, the adulterous woman we are is the righteous man who has fallen seven-plus times, and right now, having been forgiven, the spirit of adultery termed “fornication” precedes adultery since it is rare to commit adultery without fornication (Mat 19:9).

Pro 24:17  Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: 
Pro 24:18  Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him. 

We rejoice when we find ourselves as the enemy, and he falls, yet we can marginally, as did Joseph upon outing his brothers, have some sense of satisfaction when they fall since it heralds God’s Kingdom ruling all within. We don’t rejoice at the pain written on the faces of our brothers; in fact, their pain severely destresses us; rather, we rejoice for the changed hearts of men and from where we have come.

Conclusion

1Jn 4:6  We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. 

A convicted spirit foundationally in Christ immutably knows God and keeps his Commandments. The world, including the many called and not chosen and the many chosen and not given to follow through with their conviction, become subject to various levels of a tortured spirit, awaiting authentic conviction in the Lake of Fire. Unknown to mankind, being convicted of keeping all the Commandments of Christ in the Lake of Fire will become a phenomenally liberating experience.

Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away [being dreadfully convicted!]; and there was found no place for them. 
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead [everyone not in the First Resurrection the entirety of humanity] were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works [being convicted by their evil consciences about to be made righteous]. 
Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their [convicting] works. 
Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 
Rev 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. 

It sounds dire, but it is the only way to eternal life for all humanity to go through the fire of God’s word (Jer 23:29, Jer 5:14, Rev 11:5). It is well drilled into the Lord’s Elect, the woman caught in adultery, that her refining ‘fire’ (not the Lake of Fire) is a result of her being given the first trust in Christ. It results in a pure conscience (Eph 1:1-14) joyously having her works of wood, hay and stubble consumed by the unquenchable fire of His word to bring forth only refined gold (Zec 13:9). She is the heavenly Jerusalem above through whom humanity becomes and goes through her gates that are never closed.

Rev 21:21  And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate [each gate] was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. 
Rev 21:22  And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. [As He is, so are we the Temple]
Rev 21:23  And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
Rev 21:24  And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
Rev 21:25  And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. 
Rev 21:26  And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. 
Rev 21:27  And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie [all of which make unclean through an evil conscience]: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.