His head and heart were at war—an empath in his soul, a psychopath in his mind. Fyodor Dostoevsky’s fictional character Raskolnikov, in Crime and Punishment, feels compassion for the impoverished and exploited of society, but contemplates brutally murdering an old moneygrubbing woman he deems unworthy of life. He knows killing someone is wrong, but reasons that it is right because she was wrong. As a child, he witnessed a horse mercilessly beaten to death and wept at the malevolence of the act. Yet as an adult, he planned to swing an axe at another human being, lamenting that it had not been done already!

His conscience told him that homicide was heinous, but his heart excused it as a “necessary evil.” Raskolnikov is not so fictional after all. He represents the spiritual machinery operating within every fallen soul. Namely, the human heart often fabricates justifications for sins which the conscience knows are wrong. Sinners seldom sin because they do not know better—instead, the “desperately sick” heart rises as sin’s defense attorney (Jer. 17:9), arguing in favor of evil although the conscience knows that sin cannot be excused, defended, or rationalized.

Sinners and saints alike “suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18b), silencing the loud-and-clear voice of the God-given conscience when it tries to hinder what the heart sinfully desires. Like a defense counsel, the heart looks for loopholes and downplays the facts. Despite the Lord’s clear verdict against sin, supported by the corroborating witnesses of His word and the believer’s conscience, the heart will work overtime to find some “technicality” to make vices appear as virtuous. Like a smoke alarm sounding off at the smell of smoke, a Bible-informed conscience will ring when the fire of sin is threateningly close—and that is when the heart frantically waves a towel beneath it to shut it up. Within every sinner’s heart are false weights and measurements that make sin lighter than God says it is (Prov. 11:1; 20:10).

Caiaphas reasoned that it was better for Jesus to die than for all Israel to perish (John 11:47-50), and sinners often reason in a strangely similar manner: “I know gossip is sinful, but everyone needs to know what she did. I know I should forgive, but he hasn’t even apologized. I know I should speak the truth, but I don’t want to be offensive. I know I shouldn’t visit this website, but I can ask for forgiveness later.”

Whenever the conscience says, “I know,” the sinful heart will always come racing with a “but.” Do not allow your heart to speak louder than your Christ-cleansed conscience (Heb. 9:14; 10:22). God has rendered His righteous verdict against sin—do not let your heart appeal His ruling. Never reason yourself into doing what the Lord has already told you is wrong. The heart may manufacture a thousand arguments for sin, but obedience only needs one: God has spoken.

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