Previously, I told you about how I stole a cassette from a big sister. Later, my walk with God became deeper and I began to make progress in my journey with God. My conscience became heavy about that matter and I knew God was giving me a greenlight to restitute. The moment I did, my conscience became clear.
We have established in previous teaching the doctrinal stand of scriptures on the subject of restitution. We started from the old testament and checked what the new testament said about it as well. I want to restate again that restitution is not a precursor to salvation neither does it complete it.
Theologically, it is not a fundamental doctrine of the new testament church. At best, restitution is only a fruit of genuine repentance. Anything aside this will nullify the grace of God that saves and the blood of his son that washed us clean.
However, from the train of our teachings, we established that God may instruct a believer to restitute for certain purposes one of which is to avert negative harvest of evil seeds sown in the past.
Another purpose of restitution is to ensure we have a clear conscience. This aligns with what is written in the new testament. Severally, Paul spoke about having a clear conscience.
Acts 23:1 says, "Gazing intently at the high council, Paul began: “Brothers, I have always lived before God with a clear conscience!”( NLT)
How do you think he achieved a clear conscience? Probably, one of the ways he achieved that was through restitution. In Acts 24:16( NLT), Paul says, "Because of this, I always try to maintain a clear conscience before God and all people".
In fact, Paul's desire for all believers is to have a clear conscience: "The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith"(NLT)
In verse 19 of the same chapter, he advocated for having a clear conscience. 1 Timothy 1:19 (NLT) says, "Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked".
