«The blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God» (Hebrews 9:14, NLT).
PASTOR LONNIE MELASHENKO once witnessed a debate on morality between a Christian and an atheist. On the one hand, the believer, based on the Bible, took for granted that God is «the source of morality» and that the concept of what is good or bad, both in a conscious or intuitive way, originates in our Creator. On the other hand, the atheist argued that our moral values merely come from our hearts and our feelings, and therefore nobody should feel they have the right to question the morality of others.
Just as the atheist thought he had presented irrefutable arguments once and for all, the Christian replied, «My friend, in some societies people love their neighbors, while in others they eat them, and they do so based on their feelings and the dictates of their heart. Which of the two societies do you prefer?»
Truth be told, I thought the last argument from the Christian was very interesting. As human beings we tend to define reality based on what we perceive, what we feel, or what our heart dictates. However, «doing what our heart dictates» is not usually a solid basis for our decisions; instead our heart can become the main source of deceit. Those who want to govern their lives based on their own feelings are warned that «the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked» (Jeremiah 17:9)
Paul talks about how Satan uses our senses so that we may «somehow be led astray from [our] sincere and pure devotion to Christ» (2 Corinthians 11:3, NIV). If what we feel is not in harmony with faithfulness to Christ, that’s our sign that we’re going down the wrong path. What we can do is keep our «senses exercised to discern both good and evil» (Hebrews 5:14).
If we want our heart to get accustomed to good, and for our ethics to be based on Biblical morals, we need to allow Christ’s blood to purify «our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God! (Hebrews 9:14, NLT).
If we allow the Lord to perform that work in us, then we will live in a better society.