MORALITY - Grace, the motivation for morality

EXPLORING CHRISTIANITY - MORALITY

THE BIBLE
Can we trust a book written 2000 years ago?

EYEWITNESS
Did the writers of the New Testament get their picture of Jesus right?

GOD - MAN
Is Jesus really God?

RESURRECTION
Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

RELIGIONS
With so many religions, why Christianity?

SUFFERING
If there is a God, why is there so much suffering?

TRINITY
Understanding the Trinity.

SCIENCE
The complementary nature of Science & Christianity.

FORGIVENESS
What it is and why it matters?

GUIDANCE
How does God guide?

REPENTANCE
What it is and why you can't get to heaven without it.

BORN AGAIN
What does it mean to be converted and born again?

SAVING FAITH
The kind of faith that will get you to heaven

ASSURANCE
Can I know for sure that I am going to heaven?

TRUTH
What is truth and does it matter?

MORALITY
Does it matter how we live? A Christian view of morality.

THE CHURCH
God's vision for his family, the Church. A call to the churches of the new millennium.

PURPOSE
How can I find a great purpose for living?

IDENTITY
Who am I; Finding my true identity as a human being and as a child of God.

SELF-ESTEEM
How can I feel good about my self? The Christian basis for proper sel-esteem.

LIFE AFTER DEATHChristianity's Hope & Challenge.

THE CROSS
Why did Jesus Die? What the Bible says about the Cross.

Grace
The importance of grace in the New Testament.

Grace, the motivation for morality

During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world were discussing whether any one belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What's the rumpus about?" he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among the world's religions. In his forthright manner, Lewis responded, "Oh, that's easy. It's grace."

"Christian morality, then, is something that grows out of the relationship, a relationship that could not exist without grace"

There are glimpses of grace in some other religions, but in Christianity it is the very foundation of our relationship with God. There could be no relationship without it. Because God wished us to have a relationship with him that was built on love and trust, it was necessary for him to give us freedom of will. To be truly autonomous persons we had to be free to choose whether we would love God or go our own self-willed ways. At the beginning of human history, we blew it. Humans turned from God in rebellion and as a result we have all been infected with the moral disease of sin. In the imagery of the Bible, men and women were banished from the garden, no longer having access to the "tree of life", that quality of life which has its origin in God himself.

The rest of the Bible is the story of God's plan to win us back to himself, culminating in the entrance into human history of God himself in the person of Jesus Christ, one who was both fully God, yet fully human*. He came for a number of reasons - to demonstrate in his own life and character what human life was meant to be and what true goodness was like, but also to reveal to us in his own person what God was truly like. If this was all he had done, he would have been wasting his time, as we do not have the power to live that sort of a life. However, the main reason for his coming was something far more wonderful than that. It was to be identified with us, not only in our humanity, but also in our sin. Though he himself was without sin, he took the full consequences of our sins on himself when he died on the cross. In some amazing way the Father was crediting to the Son the sins of us all. The Bible states this truth over and over in different ways. "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

*I have dealt with the evidence for the divinity of Jesus Christ, both from the written records and from history, in the booklet Is Jesus Really God?

God the Father raised Jesus to life after his burial to demonstrate his satisfaction with all he had achieved for us by his death. After forty days, in which he appeared repeatedly to his chosen followers, he ascended to heaven where he represents us sinful people in the presence of his Father. On the basis of his sacrifice for us, he now offers us a free pardon and reconciliation if we will but acknowledge our sin, turn from it in repentance, and invite him into our lives as our Saviour and Lord. In other words, the way is now open to anyone who wishes, regardless of what their past life has been, to be fully reconciled to this holy God, and to live in a daily relationship with him. We may also have the certainty that we will enjoy that relationship for ever beyond the veil of death, as Jesus has won the victory over sin and death on our behalf.

It is this reaching out to us in love, in spite of our rebellion, that the Bible calls "grace". It is totally undeserved, and not based on any goodness in ourselves. In fact, before we can have it we have to be humble enough to admit that we don't deserve it. Someone has spelt out the word "grace" as an acrostic as follows:

God's
Riches
At
Christ's
Expense

It means that, because the debt for our sins has been paid in full, no one is too bad to receive this full forgiveness if only they will come to Jesus, and no one is too good not to need it. The only sin God cannot forgive is the refusal to come. When the thief who was executed on the cross with Jesus turned to him in faith, Jesus said to him, "I promise that today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). Henk Kamsteed, editor of Challenge Weekly, puts it like this: "A sin-soaked criminal is received by a blood-stained Saviour. That's the pure definition of grace." The Danish philosopher and theologian, Soren Kierkegaard, warned against simply trying to live a more virtuous life in order to please God. He said:

The greatest Christian heresy is to believe that the opposite of sin is virtue. No. The opposite of sin is grace.

When we put our trust in Jesus and experience this reconciliation, then morality takes on a totally new meaning. Being "good" is no longer a matter of trying to reach some impossible passmark. It is a matter of responding in love and gratitude to the love and forgiveness one has already received, and which is wholly undeserved. Christian morality, then, is something that grows out of the relationship, a relationship that could not exist without grace. Without grace there can be no true morality. As Donald Bloesch concludes in Freedom for Obedience:

Ethics in this theological perspective is no longer submission to law but instead a response to divine grace.

Os Guinness, in The Dust of Death, says:

To know God as creator, is significance. To know Him in revelation is clarity of knowledge. To know Him as personal is fulfilment. To know Him in character is order and values. To know Him in grace is freedom, love, joy, peace and adoration.

Helmet Thielicke, in Theological Ethics, made an appropriate distinction between Christian and philosophical ethics. He said:

In philosophical ethics the ethical acts are determined by the 'task' to be performed. In evangelical ethics they are determined by the 'gift' already given.

I often feel sorry for parents who desire their children to grow up "good" rather than "bad" but are unable to give them good reasons for doing so. God's grace, revealed to us so clearly in the sacrificial death of Jesus for our sins, provides the only truly consistent reason, and once it is experienced it also provides the motivation. David Brainerd, a very effective missionary to North American Indians, wrote in his journal:

I found that when my people were gripped by this great doctrine of Christ and him crucified, I had no need to give them instructions about morality. I found that one followed as sure and inevitable fruit of the other.