This is a quote that I heard some years ago, but it has stuck in my mind. Recently, through various interactions, I have been faced with the idea of morality versus Christ. Unfortunately, many people carelessly link morality with Christianity – to be moral is to be Christian. This is not to say that morality does not play any part at all in the life of a Christian. However, morality is not the means of spiritual living nor the goal to which people are won.
Christ said that he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. This not to say that righteous people do not need Christ’s call. On the contrary, the Pharisees considered themselves to be righteous, yet they were only righteous in their own eyes. Before God, they were condemned. As a matter of fact, it was the view of their own righteousness that condemned them. They were self-righteous, not Christ-righteous.
This may seem obvious to most (or maybe not), but it is one thing to agree with the bare facts; it is another thing to live this way. People who promote morality rather than (and/or) without Christ, run a high risk of winning others to self-righteousness rather than to Christ. Christ came to deliver us from our self-righteousness. “HE became sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God IN HIM.” I fear that there are many people who view there own lives as good and moral, and may even have had at one point an experience of prayer and confession, but they have never heartily repented of their trust in themselves and turned their trust to Christ’s perfect and complete work on the cross. I am saying all this so that it is clear that a striving for morality may, in fact, turn others from freedom in Christ rather than to Him. A complete trust in Christ is necessary before anyone begins to address godly living.
Christ addressed immorality on many different occasions, but every time it was with the intention of turning people to trust in Him, not to make them moral. Good works, godliness, morality come because of a complete dependence on the righteousness of Christ.
Gal 3:1-3 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. (2) Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? (3) Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (ESV)
The work of Christ is what we need to begin and to continue. Without complete dependence on Him, we are striving for a righteousness of our own. However, a dependence on our moral living will only damn us.
In conclusion, we are urged to call people to dependence in Christ, not to morality. Morality will damn. So, I whole heartily agree, that “that America does not need morality, they need Christ!”
this is “grace at work”
Your thought very closely shadows the truth Jesus was trying to convey to the people in John 6. They sought him accross the Sea of Galilee because they did not find him on the side where they had been fed. He pointed out that they were seeking him because they were fed, not because they saw the miracle. When they expressed desire to work the works of God Jesus said that the work of God is that they believe on Him whom He had sent. They asked for a sign, like Moses had with the manna. As Jesus continued He very clearly pointed out THEY were looking for the PRESENCE when what they were missing was the ESSENCE of Christ. He tried to tell them, I AM THAT BREAD OF LIFE, but they were still carnally minded (minded to think about the needs and things of the physical body). They did not see that the miracle was from God, they only saw the bread (and still wanted a sign so they would have something to believe in or on).
So also is morality. It shows that something is PRESENT to keep someone in line with the mores of the people. But the ESSENCE of Christ is what we need, HIM, who He is and what He has done for us. We must see HIM.
Dad
August 17th, 2007
Another parallel thought (I used the word ‘shadow’ previously meaning a truth that follows the original) came to me as I was reading in the Psalms. We love the Psalms. Often they speak great things about God and His goodness. One that is most often read or referred to at funerals is Psalm 23. It is read at funerals of those whose life gave extremely little or no acknowledgement of God, or even a life whose content was opposed to God in either the law of God revealed in the Ten Commandments or opposed to God in the law of love revealed in Jesus Christ alone.
We read the written word and it is accepted by men at differing levels. There are those who read it as a good word, a comforting thought, or ancient Jewish poetry. Then there are those who read it embracing that they speak of a Divine Being whose goodness is to all people (except the very evil people of course). Even closer still are those who know Jesus Christ as Saviour (believing that He is the Son of God, they only Way, and have confessed and repented of sin) and read knowing that it speaks the truth that the author knew God and expressed it so well. Then there are those who not only know Jesus Christ as Saviour (believing that He is the Son of God, they only Way, and have confessed and repented of sin), but read knowing that ‘this God is my God’ and I am trusting in God in like manner as this author is expressing his trust in God.
The last two levels are extremely similar yet different. John Newton, the author of the song, ‘Amazing Grace’, knew the truth and accepted that his sin had offended an Almighty God and was trusting in His forgiveness for his sin, yet desired to have his heart and life, his entire being living in the reality that not only are these things true and accepted not just as fact for his life, but he desired to be trusting entirely resting in Christ alone for his daily provision and strength. He was not satisfied that as a believer his outward life and presence demonstrated a conformity to God in all moral areas of life, but that his heart and soul was first and only living in Christ, or more importantly, that Christ was living in him.
Jesus Christ himself told those who held closest to the Scriptures God had given them at the time He walked on this earth(the Old Testament only), ‘Search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life, and they, those Scriptures, testify of Me’.
Dad
August 18th, 2007