Since the great Fall of mankind, one of the most telling ramifications of a humanity separated from the God of all creation and love is the tragic human condition of a “seared conscience” (1 Timothy 4:2). And alongside the Fall's perversion of a nature created for living in communion with its Creator, going hand-in-hand with the “core brokenness” of a seared conscience are the twin accompaniments of "hearts now deeply darkened", and "minds that have become futile in their vain thinking". For since the Fall, for all of fallen and unregenerate mankind, “although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were [they] thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:21).

The futility of man’s thinking separate from the wellspring of all understanding, knowledge, wisdom and counsel is preceded by a "conscience abdicated" and perpetuated by a "conscience seared". Hearts grow extremely dark in the vanity of man as sovereign over self and motivated by self. For the heart is the theatre of all motives, and it is a very dark day when every motive of man is predicated on the chief pursuit of self and self gain only. For in the wash of a heart painted dark with the glory of the gain of self are the casualties of widows and orphans neglected, and the love of neighbours entirely forgotten. Selfishness is the essence of the Fall, and what follows from selfishness are all other crimes against God and man. In every sense and in all ways, sin is a turning "IN upon oneself", and a turning "TO oneself".

A seared conscience is a once healthy conscience that has dried up and withered, much akin to when the sentient nerve endings of a body’s extremities become increasingly dull and unfeeling, masking their innate ability to respond to stimuli. From the instant man chooses, by force of his own will, to live a life wholly independent from God, and to choose for himself what is right and wrong, and what is good and evil, thereby choosing self as sovereign and self as all-important, man’s heart and mind suffers the blunt force trauma of becoming progressively deaf and calloused to the insistences and advances of a conscience wholly alive to the prompting and leading of the Holy Spirit.

Through a lifestyle of turning a deliberately deaf ear to the urgencies of a conscience vying for an audience, man’s conscience becomes seared and hardened, just like the scar of a branding iron scorched across the mouthpiece of a living skin. Essentially, man begins to develop Jericho walls between the indispensable life-force of the "indwelling Holy Spirit" and the "inner court of his soul". These inner Chinese walls begin to seal closed the deep rent that at great pains Jesus tore open in the great veil that, for millennia, had existed between the “Holy of Holies” located deep inside man and the inward part of the court of his soul. “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit in you, whom you have from God? And you are not your own.” (1 Corinthians 6:19).

Just as with the "layout of the physical temple of God", as the temple of the Holy Spirit, man’s body is “the outer court” of the temple, the soul is “the inner court”, and the Holy of Holies is “the hidden part” deep inside man where the spirit of man may now daily enter into the majestic Presence of God by being permanently caught up in the Spirit (as opposed to only once a year, as for the High Priest alone of the physical temple). “Behold, thou desirest TRUTH in the inward parts (SOUL): and in the hidden part (SPIRIT) thou shalt make me to know WISDOM.” (Psalm 51:6). “Truth” is that part that is required for “the soul” of man, for it is man's soul that ultimately needs to be "set free". It’s when the conscience of man’s spirit is alive to the Holy Spirit that: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32). And it is “the spirit” of man that needs “wisdom” in order to know how to both govern the soul and counsel the soul in the way and the truth and the life that is love (where love is the living model of first communion with God and then community with man).

When it comes to this wisdom, we are told two things by the irrefutable counsel of God. Firstly, that wisdom is “the chief thing”. And, secondly, that the fear of the LORD is “the beginning” of that wisdom. The reason why the fear of the LORD is “the beginning” of wisdom, is because how we "start out" our day is often critical to how "we finish" our day. In other words, if we "begin" a course of action in the right way, which is heeding a conscience primed to walk in righteousness, which is in wisdom, the likelihood of us also "ending" or completing that course of action in the right way is significantly improved. By ensuring that whatever we do, that we have done the right thing, is the wise way to finish anything. Which is a course of action that is framed with wisdom "from beginning to end". In effect, by beginning in the right way, which is not grieving the Spirit, we will effectively be adding wisdom to wisdom, and understanding to understanding. "That the wise man may hear, and increase in learning; And that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels" (Proverbs 1:5). "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding." (Proverbs 4:7). “The fear of the LORD” is none other than the healthy operation of a sound conscience wholly alive to the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

A good conscience is the faculty of man's spirit that makes a man's mind "consciously aware" of his actions as being either morally right (righteous) or morally wrong (sinful). In the case of iniquity, being the specific category of "premeditated sin", the conscious awareness provided by the conscience will precede man's actions, serving as a "preventative agency". Where there is no premeditation of sin, but where sins or trespasses or transgression has already transpired, the conscious awareness of mind of "morally wrong behaviour" follows afterman acts, operating in the capacity of a "corrective agency". By being the early warning system that alerts “man’s mind” to improper thoughts as well as “man’s heart” to impure motives, where man's "thoughts and motives" are the two forerunner catalysts (seedtime) for what subsequently translates into “man’s behaviour” (harvest), the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, because it substantiates the frame of reference of the conscience, which then, in turn, precedes and primes "righteous behaviour" (which is wisdom).

A sound conscience is the working of a behavioural "safety net" that inserts itself between man's thoughts and intentions and a "possible fall". It is also the invaluable faculty by which man is able to ensure that we neither grieve nor quench the Spirit. Which is the practice of ignoring the counsel and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Over time, the continual disregard of the leading of the conscience through the counsel of the Spirit, is that not only does this repeated behaviour lead to a "searing of the conscience" (1 Timothy 4:2), but by repeatedly "grieving the Spirit", we ultimately end up "quenching the Spirit". The Spirit shrinks and withdraws. We cannot afford to grieve or quench the Spirit because it is the counsel of the Spirit that ultimately counsels us "in the way we should go" and that keeps us "on the path of righteousness".

As such, the fear of the Lord is massive boon, for it is the "beginning" of the process that is the wisdom of both living and walking in the way and the truth and the life. Which is why both Moses and David valued the function and the presence of the Holy Spirit above all else. They not only valued the faculty of a good conscience through the counsel of the Holy Spirit, but more so than that, they valued the presence of the Holy Spirit, even more so than "all the blessings" of the promised land. David said, "Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me." (Psalm 51:11). "Then Moses said to him, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here." (Exodus 33:15).

 As the curator of man’s conscience, the fear of the LORD assists the conscience to catch any wayward thoughts and improper motives before they becomes flesh (sin), as well as primes the mind and heart for what glorifies the Father in heaven (righteousness). A sound conscience is both the self-preservation mechanism by which man’s mind, under the coaching and counsel of the conscience of his spirit, is able to tear down every pretension and argument, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and take captive every thought into the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5), and by which man is able to then live and walk in the Spirit of love (Galatians 5:25), which is to live and walk in wisdom.

As such, a good conscience is a conscience that, instead of deciding for itself what is right and wrong, and what is good and evil, it is one that listens earnestly to the leading of the Spirit. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom because it is the forerunner to wise choices, where "wise choices" are ultimately the gatekeepers and precursors to what keeps man “on the straight and narrow”. In other words, a “good conscience”, by contrast, is a conscience that is not seared and mute to the prompting and priming of the Spirit, but one which lives in "open fellowship" and "living communion" with the fullness of the sound mind of Christ. A “clear conscience” is a conscience that has lived and does live strictly according to the instruction and counsel of a good conscience, where there are no longer any regrets or remorse for having walked in sin by disregarding the prompting of the good conscience.

To God, love is the core of all morality and goodness. In man’s fallen state, man is utterly incapable of doing or choosing that which is acceptable to God, apart from divine grace. Without the supernatural regeneration of the Holy Spirit, all men would remain enslaved to the fallen nature. When it comes to God’s will, it is God’s will that all should be baptized in water and be baptised in the Holy Spirit. In the matter of water baptism, 1 Peter 3:21 says: “The like figure whereunto EVEN baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the ANSWER OF A GOOD CONSCIENCE TOWARD GOD) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

It is by obedience unto the will of the Father in being "water baptised", and by faith in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ , that the resurrection power of Jesus Christ resurrects man's conscience back to life by tearing away the spiritual scar tissue of a seared conscience so that mankind can be saved "by the answer of a good conscience towards God". And thereafter, by obedience unto the will of the Father through "baptism of the Holy Spirit", the veil that separates the conscience of man’s spirit from the leading of the Holy Spirit is thoroughly torn asunder in the temple of man. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the supernatural work of Jesus Christ, in loving His neighbour as Himself, whereby the Spirit of God empowers the believer to walk in righteous union with the Christ, and in righteous unity with other believers in the body of Christ, so that they may not only live in the Spirit (right standing through salvation), but they can walk in the Spirit (right living through sanctification).

And then, through the twin operations of a good conscience and a sound mind, we may yet prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God (Romans 12:2). For it is a GOOD thing to love. And love is our ACCEPTABLE service. And love is a PERFECT work. For through the working of a good conscience, we will prove our love for God when we love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our strength, and all of our mind (wisdom), and when we love of our neighbour as ourselves (wisdom), and when we: “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:8).

"Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen." 1 TIMOTHY 1:17

God's richest blessings, for now and for always, Wayne Biehn.