A Clear Conscience

Those of us who are in the New Covenant know that its demands for holiness are much higher than the Old Covenant's demands. In other words, keeping Jesus' commandments is much more challenging than keeping Moses' commandments.

To follow Jesus is much harder than following Moses. Compare the Sermon on the Mount to the Ten Commandments, and you'll see what we mean.

Keeping the Ten Commandments is easy compared to loving your enemies, having a pure heart, fasting in private, and walking by faith in Christ. In fact, we have to keep a clear conscience and always feel certain that what we do aligns with the dictates of our conscience. That is, for a Christian, anything not done in faith is sin!

The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is the one who does not condemn himself in what he approves [in other words, a man who acts according to his own convictions--his own conscience].

But the one who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin (Romans 14:21-23; NASB).

Blameless

Jesus fulfilled the Jewish Law, but then raised the bar for Christians. We now have to eat, drink, dress, speak, and act by faith in him now. And when we do something that makes us feel bad in our conscience, it counts as sin. If we don't act by faith, it's a sin.

That's why Christians must be blameless. We must be above reproach. There should be nobody in your life or mine who can reproach us for doing anything wrong. There should be nobody who can say:

“He stole from me."

"She lied to me."

"He took advantage of me."

"She hurt me.”

Daniel and Job

Daniel, an Old Covenant believer, could meet this standard, the standard of blamelessness, thousands of years ago, and around 600 years before Christ was born. Daniel professed his blamelessness to King Darius as they removed Daniel from the lion's den, saying:

… I was found blameless before him [God]; and also before you, O king. I have done no harm (Daniel 6:22).

Daniel proclaimed that he had done no harm. Remarkable. He accredits his salvation from the lion's den--a place of certain death--to his blamelessness.

And Job also met the standard of blamelessness. And Job attained to such a degree of holiness long before the Ten Commandments were given because Job lived long before Moses.

In fact, Job's blameless character is mentioned as soon as the very first verse of the Book of Job! Here's how the book opens:

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright… the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright…’ (Job 1:1,8)

Not Optional

So, Daniel and Job were blameless. That's not so much of a surprise since the each have their own Bible books. Obviously, they were holy men. But what about us? We're not Bible characters, so can we become blameless? Oh yes. In fact, as Christians, we must become blameless.

Paul writes that it should be our goal to become blameless. He says that we should stand out as lights in the darkness of this World through our blamelessness. He says:

... prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach... (Philippians 2:15; NASB)

Obtaining this level of holiness is not impossible. It's very possible and it's expected of us. We are the Church, after all.

We are the virgin bride of Christ.

What is expected of a bride but that she should be blameless? What does the groom expect of her but one thing: that she would be pure and innocent? She wears a white dress to make a very specific statement: "I am unstained and pure."

We're part of the Church but we must get to this irreproachable condition individually too. You and I must obtain this level of holiness in order to see God. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews exhorts us to…

… pursue … the holiness without which no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14; NASB).

And yes, the original author, in Greek indeed put the word the before the word holiness in that verse. He wanted to demonstrate that he was speaking of a particular kind of holiness. He was speaking of the holiness—a special type of holiness. He was not speaking of holiness in the general sense, but the kind that allows you to see God.

Jesus made reference to this kind of holiness on his Sermon on the Mount when he said:

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God (Matthew 5:8).

You've noted that this holiness consists of being pure in heart. That's the kind of holiness we either attain or do not attain in order to either see God or not see God--one of the privileges of the Kingdom. You have to do some really deep soul searching to know that you are pure in heart. You've got to examine yourself deeply.

The way God often uses to make you blameless is to have a lot of people point their fingers at you, but for all of their accusations to be found false. Your self-examination gets more strict when slanderous false accusations are hurled at us.

We need to obtain such a level of holiness that we be blame-free. There should be nobody around who could blame us for anything. We must be above suspicion and irreproachable.

Our enemies will try with all their might to find something wrong in us, but we will not give them any reason to accuse us.

A Greek Word Negated

Paul introduced the concept of a spiritual test in 1 Corinthians by using the Greek word for test, dokimazo. That’s very interesting because it’s the same word he used in 2 Corinthians--well, almost the same word. Here’s the difference: The word in 2 Corinthians has the same root as the word we just saw in 1 Corinthians. It just has one more letter at the beginning, an a- which is for negation.

Anyways, let’s compare the two words in context and you’ll get the idea. First, here’s the word dokimazo the first time Paul used it, in 1 Corinthians:

… whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy way, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a person must examine [dokimazo] himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

For the one who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not properly recognize the Body (1 Corinthians 11:27-29; NASB).

Nice. So, you see that Paul used the word for examining in the passage above and you see that it's dokimazo. However, in the 2 Corinthians passage, Paul uses another word that means not examining well. And that might sound like a totally different word, but it's actually the same word, just in the negative form. It is often translated fail the test—and it’s based on the same Greek root, but it has the letter a- at the beginning.

That word is a-dokimos. The prefix a- makes the word negative just like it sometimes does with English words. For example, how do you negate the word theist in English? You add an a- at the beginning.

And how do you negate the word Gnostic? You add an a- at the beginning.

Notice how this rule of negation works:

• Gnostic [someone who believes they know God] is negated with an a- at the beginning so that it becomes → agnostic [someone who does not believe they can know God]

  
  

• Theist [someone who believes in God] is negated with an a- at the beginning so that it becomes → atheist [someone who does not believe in God]

It’s the same thing here in Corinthians. The same Greek word root is being used, it’s just that it has an a- at the beginning the second time Paul uses it. The first time it means examine yourself, and the second time it means you fail the test. Both words are about testing.

What’s the point? The need for a Christian to subject himself to testing is something Paul reinforced. He gave us two different angles on the same idea so that we would understand the importance of testing ourselves. Twice he reminded us to see if we are in the Faith.

Now that you have heard the invitation twice, will you ‘Test yourself to see if you are in the Faith?’ Will you, as the Scriptures command, ‘Examine yourself?’ Or do are you so sure of yourself that you refuse to be tested? If you are sure of yourself, then, be warned:

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18).

Pride and a Fall

Remember Nebuchadnezzar? He exalted himself and got humbled. Hopefully you won't have to go through what he did to learn humility. Hopefully you won't have to become like a wild beast and live in the woods for seven years.

Daniel summarized Nebuchadnezzar's experience like this:

Nebuchadnezzar became proud and stubborn, so his power was taken away from him. He was taken off his royal throne and stripped of his glory. Then Nebuchadnezzar was forced to go away from people. His mind became like the mind of an animal. He lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like an ox. He became wet with dew.

These things happened to him until he learned his lesson (Daniel 5:20-20; NASB).

King Nebuchadnezzar was warned by a dream to examine his own heart, but he wouldn't. God willing, it will be enough for you to hear today's lesson, and you'll test yourself. After you've tested yourself, you'll know whether you are in the Faith or not.

You can repent, if needed. It's not too late.