One of the most politically volatile topics kicking around today is moral values. No one can deny that a cultural revolution is transpiring for the soul of our nation. We have the moral relativists on one side, saying that there are no absolutes in morality. Each person decides based on reason and experience what is to be right and wrong for them. There is no absolute truth. Live and let live. Among these are some of the elite intelligentsia of higher education, members of the Supreme Court, and politically correct liberals. On the other side are those who believe in moral absolutes, received by transcendent revelation and which cannot be negotiated. Among these are the vast majority of thinking people throughout two millennia of Western civilization, including such notables as the founders of our nation, Dan Quayle and Scott Northrup.
No matter what side you are on in this debate, you have a set of moral values. It is inescapable. Moral values are like armpits and opinions. Everybody has them. The homosexual has his own highly developed sense of right and wrong. The abortion doctor and the pro-lifer both have their own highly developed set of morals. Dan Quayle and Scott Northrup have their standards. And we all try our level best to live up to our sense of right and wrong. But we all have this in common - we all continually fail!! It's a frustrating aspect of the human condition. Paul of Tarsus expressed this conundrum in his letter to the Romans (7:19): "For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish....Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" He found the answer to his own question, and if you'll finish reading this you'll find it too.
The Good News is that God is not impressed by your moral standards. He knows that no matter how good your morals are, they cannot save you from what is wrong on the inside of your nature. He is interested in imparting to you a free gift that He has for you, the gift of the Holy Spirit. It's not a reward for "being good". He wants you to become a partaker of the divine nature through a supernatural transfusion which is not connected to your prior adherence to moral standards. God has a higher Law than the Moral Law. "The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." (Romans 8:1) The Moral Law that God gave Moses is right, and it is good, and can be summarized as walking in love. But it cannot fix what is wrong with us. "For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law." (Galatians 3:21) The Moral Law cannot impart life to us, because it is only as strong to fix us as our flesh is to obey it. "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son...as an offering for sin." (Romans 8:3) If you believe that you can be right with God by trying to be obedient to a Moral Law, you are lost. Everyone who is trusting in his own "goodness" by an attempt to live up to a set of standards, no matter how noble, is in the same boat. In God's eyes a self-righteous religious moralist and a God-cursing homosexual are in the same category. The answer for the homosexual is new life through faith in Jesus of Nazareth. The answer for the abortion doctor and the pro-lifer is the New Birth available through the true Jewish Messiah. The answer for Dan Quayle and Scott Northrup is the eternal life that is offered through the Son of God.
How can a person receive this gift of God? By faith! Find out in the New Testament what Jesus has done for us through His life, death and resurrection. Believe it! Believe that He loves you, and that He died for your sins. The wind blows where it wills. The Spirit of grace moves towards the "I surrender", just as high pressure moves toward low pressure. The transforming power of God does not move toward the high pressure of human pride which says, "I think I am a pretty good person. That's all that matters. I don't need Jesus." But Jesus said, "Unless you become converted and become like little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." But why is it by faith? Why isn't being a "good person" enough? (There is that moralist in you!) Because responding to a faith-God takes a faith-person, not a moralist. Not everyone has the same capacity to be "good", but every person has the same capacity for faith. The requirement of faith puts the entire human race on equal footing. It makes the Spirit accessible to all. But what about those who have never heard of Jesus? God has figured that out. He's fair. Don't let that stop you from acting on what you have heard! Jesus is saying to you now, "If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.' But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive..." (John 7:38-39) Supernatural Christianity is not morals, but the New Birth. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy and peace - a goodness far beyond what you and I could have done on our own. Believe and receive.
@ copyright 1993 by Scott H. Northrup. All rights reserved.