Gospel Truths That Will Heal a Hurting Heart and Cure a Condemning Conscience

The human heart is a tender, vulnerable, and complex component of every single person. Who you are on the inside, what we sometimes call "the real you," is a gracious gift from God when it is functioning as our Creator intended. As an ethical barometer, it helps us to make moral choices. It also allows us to express emotions and feelings and to be self-reflective. Sometimes we like what we see when we look on the inside. At other times we are wounded and even crushed by what we find. Our inclination is to embrace platitudes like "trust your heart" and "let your conscience be your guide," but God tells us in Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?" Interestingly, the answer to this often quoted verse is found in the very next verse in Jeremiah: "I, Yahweh, examine the mind, I test the heart to give each according to his way."

From a pastoral perspective we should recognize there can be a number of reasons a person may have what John calls a condemning conscience or heart. James Boice notes,

Self-condemnation can be due to a number of factors. It can be a matter of disposition; some people are just more introspective and melancholy than others. It may be a question of health; how a person feels inevitably affects how 83he thinks. It may be due to specific sin. It may be due to circumstances. But whatever the cause, the problem is a real one and quite widespread. How is a believer to deal with such doubt? (Boice, The Epistles of John, 121-22)

The apostle John recognized that those who have believed in Jesus (3:23) could still suffer from a hurting heart, a condemning conscience. He also knew there were some basic truths, all grounded in the good news of the gospel, that could provide healing, the exact cure that is needed. Some basic knowledge of what God has done and is doing in the lives of those who have trusted in Jesus provides the precise remedy for this all-too-common heart condition. The medicine is strong, but the outcome for the patient is more than worth it.

Love for Others Reassures Our Hearts That We Belong to God

Love for Others Reassures Our Hearts That We Belong to God

1 John 3:18-19

John uses verse 18 as a "hinge verse" to connect two related passages that have a common subject. The subject is love. When we love "with truth and action" (v. 18), this reassures our hearts before God that we are of the truth (v. 19). Assurance will spring forth in the heart, in the conscience, when we demonstrate genuine and authentic love for others. It assures us that we are children of God. We have confidence in His presence that He is our God and we are His children.

Loving others as God in Christ has loved us strengthens our hearts and gives us assurance. Indeed by loving others in truth (v. 18) we come to "know we belong to the truth" (v. 19). However, we must be honest. Loving others is not always easy. Clearly it is easier said than done. After all, at the heart of love is serving others as we have been served by Jesus. Sometimes this service is public, noble, and newsworthy. Sometimes it is private, humiliating, and unnoticed. It can be a challenge. Richard Foster nails it when he writes in Celebration of Discipline,

In some ways we would prefer to hear Jesus' call to deny father and mother, houses and land for the sake of the gospel than his word to wash feet. Radical self-denial gives the feel of adventure.... But in service we much experience the many little deaths of going beyond ourselves. Service banishes us to the mundane, the ordinary, the trivial. (Celebration of Discipline, 110)

84Yes, love requires service. Service involves humility. And loving others in humble service gives us assurance that we belong to Jesus. That sounds like a life worth living, a path worth pursuing. And don't miss this: it is by this knowledge and truth in our minds that assurance is planted and flourishes in our hearts.

God Is the Perfect Judge Who Sees Everything

God Is the Perfect Judge Who Sees Everything

1 John 3:20

Verse 20 can be a tricky and difficult verse to interpret, at least when it comes to the details. However, its basic meaning is clear. Even though Christ has propitiated all our sins by His perfect atoning work, we may experience a condemning heart or guilty conscience, something the great and omnipotent God does not want us to have. So when my conscience sends me on a guilt trip, I look in faith to the God who is greater than my vacillating heart and who assures me of my total and complete forgiveness through the perfect work of Jesus. I claim once more the wonderful truth of 1 John 1:9. John, therefore, addresses directly this guilty conscience and the way to deal with it. In 3:20 he does so in the context of the omniscience of God, and in verses 21-22 he will do so in the context of prayer.

We know that the Bible teaches that it is possible to be saved and yet have doubts and become discouraged. In such instances, we would be wise to take the threefold test we have already seen in 1 John:

• Belief: Do I really believe rightly about Jesus?
• Obedience: Am I really obeying God as I ought?
• Love: Is my love for others what it should be?

Sometimes I doubt; sometimes I disobey; sometimes hate comes, seemingly out of nowhere, and these things bother me. That is bad, right? No, it is actually good. Those who do not know Christ ask none of these questions! Such issues do not bother those with hard hearts. But they can trouble the Christian.

When your heart hurts and your conscience condemns you, look to God. Look to Christ and the gospel because He "is greater than our conscience, and He knows all things." Now, exactly how does God apply the healing balm of His Word in such situations? I believe He does so in several ways.

85When we do not love in action and truth (v. 18), God—who is (1) greater than our hearts and (2) knows all things—deals with us. Sometimes our heart rightly condemns us, blames us, and judges us for not loving others in a real, true, and genuine sense. Our conscience calls us out! God in grace and mercy can help us overcome and conquer this. He will motivate us (v. 17) to just say no to a hard and unloving heart. He sees everything, so He knows what is going on. Indeed, He knows our hearts better than we know them ourselves. He will inspire us, encourage us, and challenge us to love others just like He has loved us (v. 16).

Our conscience can be too lenient in its verdict. However, our conscience may also be too severe, forgetting that "no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus" (Rom 8:1). God is greater than all, and He knows all. He is the perfect judge. None of the believer's failures or successes escape His notice. This is the difference between conscience and omniscience! He knows! He sees! Yet he still accepts us in Christ!

Remembering who we are in Christ will provide assurance as we stand before the perfect Judge, who also happens to be our Father. So be honest. Tell God, "I don't know myself, sometimes, why I do what I do (or don't do). But You do know me perfectly, so I commit all judgment to You! I put it all in Your hands." Pray Psalm 139:23, where the Bible says, "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns." Trust what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:3-5:

Be Confident That God Answers Our Prayers

Be Confident That God Answers Our Prayers

1 John 3:21-22

There is a beautiful and natural flow to John's argument in these verses. Loving others as we have been loved by Jesus assures us that we are in the truth, even when we don't love perfectly. God says, "Trust Me, not 86your conscience, which is not infallible and is not always correct." Now that we are confident before God (v. 20), we can be confident when we pray (vv. 21-22).

John again addresses his readers as "Dear friends" (Gk agapetoi, cf. 4:1, 7), showing concern and compassion for those struggling with a hurting heart and a condemning conscience. It is followed by words of encouragement. The sense of what John says is this: When we trust the judgment of our conscience to our great God, who is omniscient about everything, our confidence shifts from being based on our experience and our feelings to being based on God's Word and what He says about us. He tells me there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1, 31-34). Seeing who I am in Christ, I have confidence and boldness, "the boldness with which the son appears before the Father, and not that which the accused appears before the Judge" (Westcott, The Epistles of St. John, 118).

This confidence before God, resulting from a clear conscience in Christ, provides motivation and assurance as I approach Father God in prayer: "If our conscience doesn't condemn us, we have confidence before God and can receive whatever we ask from Him because we keep His commands and do what is pleasing in His sight" (vv. 21-22). My request made in prayer flows from a heart and life that, first, delights in keeping His commands and, second, does what pleases Him. These provide the crucial theological context for the later promise in 1 John: "Whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for" (5:14-15).

The wonderful Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon had words of wisdom that drive home the truths of these verses:

"If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God; and whatsoever we ask, we receive of him." He who has a clear conscience comes to God with confidence, and that confidence of faith ensures to him the answer of his prayer. Childlike confidence makes us pray as none else can. It makes a man pray for great things, which he would never have asked for if he had not learned this confidence; and makes him pray for little things which a great many are afraid to ask for, because they have not yet felt towards God the confidence of children....

87The man of obedience is the man whom God will hear, because his obedient heart leads him to pray humbly, and with submission, for he feels it to be his highest desire that the Lord's will should be done. Hence it is that the man or obedient heart prays like an oracle; his prayers are prophecies. Is he not one with God? Doth he not desire and ask for exactly what God intends? How can a prayer shot from such a bow ever fail to reach its target? (Spurgeon, "The Conditions of Power in Prayer," emphasis added)

Believers with clear consciences, confident access, and obedient lives that please Christ can be assured that God will hear and answer their prayers for their good and for His glory. After all, I am a trusting child coming to a loving Father who knows all my sins and imperfections and still loves me and accepts me anyway in His Son.

Believe That Jesus Is the Son of God, and Love One Another

Believe That Jesus Is the Son of God, and Love One Another

1 John 3:23

This verse (together with the one that follows) is quietly but clearly Trinitarian, and it provides a grand and glorious summary of the Bible. It is interesting how John packages this verse. Fundamentally, there is one comprehensive command expressed in two parts. First, there must be an explicit belief in the Son, Jesus Christ. This is John's doctrinal test. Second, there must be an active love for one another. This is John's moral test.

God's command is "that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ." Every word in this command is significant. This is the first of nine occurrences of the word "believe" in 1 John (cf. also 3:23; 4:1, 16; 5:1, 5,10[3x],13). It means, "to trust or rely on." Jesus' "name" conveys His person and work and all that He is and accomplishes. That Jesus is the "Son" emphasizes His eternal deity and unique relationship to the Father. "Jesus" is His human name, equivalent to the Hebrew name Joshua. It means "Yahweh saves" or "Yahweh is salvation." And "Christ" means "Anointed One," the Messiah of God.

Let's put it all together. To believe in the name of God's Son Jesus Christ is to place your trust, your faith, in Him and only Him and all that He is—the divine Son, the incarnate Deity, the sinless human, the perfect atonement for our sin, the Messianic Savior. You trust all of Him, 88not some, part, or even most. You trust the biblical Christ or you trust in no Christ at all.

We also "love one another as He commanded us." This command appears repeatedly throughout the Bible. Arguably, the most significant appearance of the command is found in John 13:34-35, where Jesus said on the night He was betrayed,

It appears again in John's Gospel in 15:12 and 17.

Warren Wiersbe nails the essence of this verse quite well for us: "Faith toward God and love toward man sum up a Christian's obligations. Christianity is 'faith which worketh by love' (Gal 5:6)" (Be Real, 133-34). John Piper helpfully adds,

The one all-embracing commandment of this letter is that we believe and that we love. These are the foundations of our assurance because these are the evidence of God's work; they are the testimony of his Spirit. ("Test the Spirits")

This last statement provides a natural transition to our final observation.

Abide in God and Know That God Abides in Us
by the Gift of His Spirit

Abide in God and Know That God Abides in Us
by the Gift of His Spirit

1 John 3:24

John addresses our keeping the commands of God for the fourth time in verses 22-24, but now he adds a blessing that flows from our obedience. Working backwards and paraphrasing the verse helps us clarify what John is teaching us. By the Holy Spirit, whom God has given us as a grace gift, we know that God abides in us and we abide in God. And, as a habit of his new life in Christ, the one who abides in God continually keeps His commands. John's point is that keeping God's commands and abiding in God always go together. Having the Spirit of God and abiding or remaining in God always go together. John's emphasis on abiding is clear in that 54 of the 102 New Testament occurrences of this word (Gk meno) appear in John's writings.

John clearly wants us to understand that the Spirit—the true Spirit who stands in radical contrast to the false spirits of antichrist89 (cf. 4:1-6)—comes as a gift, not as something God was obliged to give us. He is given to us as a grace gift; He is not something we can earn or merit. In saying the Spirit has already been given to us, John looks to the past, to our conversion, the moment in time when we first believed the gospel. That is when we received the Spirit.

Verse 24 is the first direct mention of the Holy Spirit in 1 John. This Third Person of the triune God is essential to God's abiding in us and our abiding in God. He is crucial to helping us discern the false spirits—the spirits of error—that do not confess that Jesus is from God (cf. 4:3). John Stott explains the Spirit's role in our abiding in this way:

The Spirit, whose presence is the test of Christ's living in us, manifests himself objectively in our life and conduct. It is he who inspires us to confess Jesus as the Christ come in the flesh, as John immediately proceeds to show (4:1ff; cf. 2:20, 27). It is also he who empowers us to live righteously and to love our brothers and sisters (cf. 4:13; Gal 5:16, 22). So if we would set our hearts at rest, when they accuse and condemn us, we must look for evidence of the Spirit's working, and particularly whether he is enabling us to believe in Christ, to obey God's commands and to love our brothers; for the condition of Christ dwelling in us and of our dwelling in him is this comprehensive obedience (24a), and the evidence of the indwelling is the gift of the Spirit (24b). (The Letters of John, 154-55)

Conclusion

Conclusion

A number of years ago I met a 55-year-old man who asked if he could share his conversion testimony. I said, "Sure! I would love to hear it." He told me he had trusted Christ at the age of 50, just 5 years before. He went on to say he was a recovering alcoholic and drug addict who had experienced several failed marriages, all of which were his fault. He said he blamed no one, that he had made bad choices and dumb decisions throughout most of his life. Then, with tears streaming down his face, he began to talk about his childhood and a dad who criticized and condemned him at every turn. He said, "You know, all I can remember about my childhood was my daddy saying things like, 'Boy you can't do anything right. Boy, you're just downright dumb. Boy, you will never grow up to amount to anything.'" He then added, "I guess I grew up to be exactly what my daddy said I would be."

90But then, with a gentle smile and a twinkle in his eye, he quietly and humbly whispered, "But 5 years ago, when I met Jesus, I got a new daddy. And this daddy loves me. He believes in me. He thinks I can do anything!"

In Christ, we do get a new daddy, a perfect daddy, a perfect heavenly Father. This Father longs for you to have a healthy heart and a clear conscience. And you can! Recall who you are in Him through Christ and by the Spirit. Love others as you have been loved by Him. Obey His commands and please Him out of "gospel gratitude" for who He is and what He has done. These are truths with the power to save. These are truths with the power to heal.

Reflect and Discuss

Reflect and Discuss

1. What are some reasons that believers might have a hurting heart? A condemning conscience?
2. Why should love for others give us assurance of salvation? Isn't love a natural feeling?
3. How can doubt and guilt actually serve to assure us of God's presence in our lives? Do you know anyone who never has doubts and never feels guilt? Does that seem healthy?
4. Why do we look to God for assurance and not to our own consciences? What aspect of our conscience is untrustworthy?
5. Why can we be sure that God will answer our prayers? Does this give license to ask for whatever we want?
6. Why must we keep John's doctrinal test and his moral test together? What happens if we relax on one or the other?
7. Why is the Holy Spirit such an astounding gift to every Christian? How does His presence provide assurance? How does His presence enable obedience?