And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men. Acts 24:16.

Today there is great need of a moral sense that fits the mind and the law of God. We are to abound more and more in the moral and spiritual stature of Christ.

The record of man's sinful history is one of setting his own moral code over against that of God. Nothing but a firm belief in the divine revelation of God's moral law at Sinai and in Christ's Sermon on the Mount can cleanse the conscience and develop high moral character. A loss of confidence in, or disdain of, the law of God has always led to a moral decline.

Unfortunately, almost all of us from time to time become affected by the universal letting down of moral standards. We are assailed by the warped moral judgments of men and their moral situation excuses. We need not only the knowledge of moral standards, but the power to obey them. By itself the moral code cannot make us obedient. Without the gospel we are left to do everything ourselves. We must start with Jesus Christ, with the gospel and its saving power.

"Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments" (1 John 2:3). None of us can escape this clear statement. If we really claim to know God, we must take His answer. Nothing can exceed the absolute plainness, the simplicity of Christ's teaching. "The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned" (1 Tim. 1:5). Let us not argue about the meaning of the word "commandment." When the young ruler asked our Lord, "Which commandments?" He directed him to the Ten. Would that all Christians would ask Christ the same question and accept the same answer.

God could have made it impossible for us to break His commandments. But then God would never find out just what kind of people we are. We are nothing if we are not capable of making the right moral choices and developing a moral character akin to that of Christ. But with people who are like Christ, God will have no problem in creating a new heaven and a new earth.