What do people do when their conscience wakes up and they realize that they have sinned? As soon as their conscience catches up with them, they try to do good by performing good works. What is the purpose of man's trying to do good works? The purpose is to bribe the conscience. The conscience shows man that he has sinned. So now he performs more charitable acts and does more good deeds to tell his conscience that although he has done so much wrong, he has also done all these good things. What does it mean to do good works? To do good works means to bribe the conscience when it starts accusing, in order to quell its condemnation. This is a way of salvation invented by man.

But please remember that this is basically the wrong way. Where is the basic error? The error lies in our assumption that sin exists only in our conscience. We forget that sin also exists before God. If sin were only in our conscience, then we would need to perform at most ten good works to more than compensate for our one mistake. But the problem now is not with our conscience. The problem now is what is before God. I cannot be absolved from judgment for one violation of illegal parking just because I park the car legally a hundred times. Sin is something before God. It is not merely something in our conscience. Not only do we have to deal with the sin in our conscience; we also have to deal with our sin before God. Only when we have dealt with the record of sin before God can the sin in our conscience be dealt with. We cannot deal with the problem in the conscience first, for the conscience can be pacified by self-deception. But remember that the conscience will never die.

Perhaps you have not seen the conscience at work yet. I have often seen people who are troubled in their conscience. When the light of God comes, the conscience is ill at ease. A person in such a condition would crawl into a hole in the floor if there were one. He would do anything to pacify his conscience. He would even forsake his life to redeem himself from sin. Why did Judas hang himself? It was because his conscience would not let him go. He had betrayed Jesus, and his conscience would not let him go.

Why is there no need for God to send many angels to throw men into the lake of fire as though they were throwing stones? Why is there no need for God to have many angels guarding the lake of fire? Is not God afraid of a revolt in hell? I am sure that for a man who has sinned hell is a blessing rather than a curse. When the conscience rises up to condemn a man, it demands that the man be punished. Punishment is not just a demand of God, it is also a demand of man. Before you see what sin is, you are afraid of punishment. But after you see what sin is, you will take punishment as a blessing. Have you ever seen murderers or assassinators at the time of their execution? Before a man sees his sin, he may rejoice in murder. But after he sees his sin, he will rejoice in his own execution. Hence, hell is not only a place of punishment. It is also a place of escape. It is the ultimate place of escape. Sin in the conscience causes pain today and cries out for punishment in the coming age. Hence, for God to save us, He must deal with our sins before Him, and He must also deal with our sins in our conscience.