Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
- Hebrews 4:14-16
After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
- John 17:1-5
“Because the law is no longer the last word—but Jesus Christ is—in the disagreement between conscience and concrete responsibility, we must make a free decision for Christ. That does not mean an eternal conflict but the gaining of an ultimate unity. For the basis, essence, and aim of concrete responsibility is indeed the same Jesus Christ who is the Lord of the conscience. Thus responsibility is bound by conscience, but conscience is freed by responsibility. Whether we say that the responsible person becomes guilty without sin, or that only the person with a free conscience can bear responsibility, the result is the same. Those who in responsibility take guilt on themselves—and no responsible person can escape it—credit themselves and no one else with this guilt; they accept it and take responsibility for it. They do this not in frivolous overestimation of their own power but in conscious awareness of this very freedom, which is driven by necessity and puts them in need of grace. Before other human beings, people of free responsibility are justified by the urgency of need. Before themselves, they are set free by their conscience. But before God, they must place all their hope in grace alone.”
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I Want to Live These Days with You (devotion for August 23, devotions compiled from his writings)
Bonhoeffer continues a little later from yesterday’s discussion about rights before duties. Just because we discuss what God gifts to us before we talk about duties does not mean there are not duties. Before the quote above, Bonhoeffer discusses the call of conscience and the liberated conscience.
Now we get to the brass tacks as the old man used to say. Do we follow our conscience or concrete responsibility? Jesus simplifies that. Both.
God breathed life into our nostrils. Like Adam, we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and we are made in God’s image. That means that we were born with a conscience. A conscience is like a lot of things. It can be damaged. Some people have this profound will that they have learned to never listen to their conscience, or they feed their conscience lies, redefining what God is trying to tell them with what they want to hear. But that initial conscience was breathed into us by God, and Jesus is the standard bearer. Jesus was tempted as we are and came out of it by remaining without sin.
So, Jesus is the standard bearer of our conscience and Bonhoeffer says that Jesus is what we find when we hang our hat in the area on concrete responsibility. How can you beat being so responsible that He dies on a cross to save the lives of sinners?
Do we do things according to our sense of responsibility out of obligation? No. We do it out of the Love that God puts in our hearts. Regardless of the secular concept to the contrary, we love other people, and we want the best for them.
Thus, our conscience and responsibility complement each other. And the guilt, as Bonhoeffer mentions, is that we are unable to do more.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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