Human Freedom and Conscience

Instructions
Answer the following questions:

1. What is Christian Freedom?

2. What are some interior and exterior obstacles to authentic freedom?
3. What is Conscience?
4. What are the types of Conscience? Give a short description for each type.

1. The Bible states emphatically in Galatians 5:1 that believers are free in Christ: “It
is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1). Before Jesus died on a
cross, God’s people lived under a detailed system of laws that served as a moral
compass to guide their lives. The Law, while powerless to grant salvation or
produce true freedom, nevertheless pointed the way to Jesus Christ (Galatians
3:19–24). Through His sacrificial death, Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law, setting
believers free from the law of sin and death. God’s laws are now written in our
hearts through the Spirit of God, and we are free to follow and serve Christ in
ways that please and glorify Him (Romans 8:2–8). In a nutshell, this is the
definition of Christian freedom.

In Christ, we are free from the Law’s oppressive system, we are free from the
penalty of sin, and we are free from the power of sin. Christian freedom is not a
license to sin. We are free in Christ but not free to live however we want,
indulging the flesh: “For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and
sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your
freedom to serve one another in love” (Galatians 5:13, NLT). Believers aren’t free
to sin, but free to live holy lives in Christ.
2. A person who becomes interiorly free is no longer the victim of circumstances
but rather learns to consent to trials, sufferings, and external circumstances
that seem to limit one’s range of choices.
While rebellion is not always out of the question and sometimes a necessity,
interior freedom is attained most often not by rebellion or resignation
but rather by assenting to those things that seem to hem us in,
seeking in hope the good that can come from those things we cannot change.
As love takes possession of us and as we respond in love,
we begin to experience true interior freedom. Being interiorly free does not mean
that it becomes easy to bear witness to the truth.

Even in those hearts in which the liberating grace of Christ pulsates,

there is struggle, anguish, and sorrow – but above all, freedom –
freedom for the good, the true, and the beautiful.
 External obstacles – lack of appropriate or no easy read material, Lack of
reasonable adjustment to health information, ignorance, fragmentation of
information.
3. Your conscience reacts subconsciously, “under your knowledge.” You are not
aware of it until you do something related to what you have been taught. It gives
you good feelings when you agree with what you know to be right. But it can give
you bad feelings when you do that which you know to be wrong. It is not true that
a bad person “has no conscience.” He has a conscience, but not everyone’s
conscience reflects the same values. Your conscience is trained by what you
believe, and it changes as your knowledge and values change.
4. -
 Correct conscience - tells us when something is a good choice or a bad choice
and that this decision is in agreement with what that thing.
 Erroneous conscience - is when a person knowingly, or unknowingly, makes a
mistake in judgement by doing the wrong thing which they, consciously, believed
was the right thing to do.
 Certain conscience - is a subjective assurance of the lawfulness of unlawfulness
of a certain act. This implies that the person is sure of his decision. It is possible
however to be sure of something as good when in fact it is just the opposite, and
vice versa.
 Doubtful conscience - A state of mind when it cannot certainly decide for or
against a course of action and leaves the person unsure about the morality of
what one is to do, or what one may have done. One sign of a doubtful
conscience is that it gives rise to a positive judgment with a prudent fear of being
wrong, or more commonly to a negative judgment in which the person does not
know whether an act is lawful or not.
 Lax conscience - An erroneous conscience when the mind decides on
insufficient grounds that a sinful act is permissible or that something gravely
wrong
 Scrupulous sin - a person's obsessions focus on moral or religious fears, such as
the fear of being an evil person or the fear of divine retribution for sin. Although it
can affect nonreligious people, it is usually related to religious beliefs.
 Delicate conscience - always wants to please God and does not want to offend
him in the slightest degree. certain conscience. is convinced without any doubt
that the action is good or bad.