Definition
Conscience (Greek: συνείδησις, suneidēsis) is the inner self-awareness of guilt and innocence. In theology the conscience functions as the inner judge that tests an action against a norm — whether the law or God himself. In George Warnock’s corpus the conscience occupies a special hamartological position: the forgiveness of sin is insufficient if the conscience is not also cleansed. Heb. 9:13-14 serves as the key text: the blood of Christ “shall purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
Usage in the corpus
George Warnock
Warnock argues that the Church has structurally known too little of genuine conscience-cleansing: “Forgiveness without cleansing still leaves the conscience defiled, and God has made just as full provision for the cleansing of the conscience as for the putting away of the sin itself.” The five Levitical offerings (Lev. 1-5) are for him types of the complete cleansing work of Christ. Special attention goes to the Sin Offering (Lev. 4) and Trespass Offering (Lev. 5): “The Sin Offering and Trespass Offering… fully deal with our sin as an offence against God and man, and completely cleanse and purify the guilty conscience.”
Warnock cites Heb. 9:13-14 as the decisive promise: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” He concludes that the Church has severely minimised this cleansing work: “There are areas of cleansing by the ‘water of separation’ of which we know but little. I believe that we have greatly minimised and limited the cleansing work of God’s Spirit in our lives.” [Warnock, The Hyssop that Springeth Out of the Wall, hyssop2b.html]