Moral laws reflect the nature of who God is. God’s character provides the source for morality as well as the standard for moral law in the universe. Every human being is made in God’s image, like God, we are moral beings. It is no surprise that we know intuitively that right and wrong exist and are real. Right and wrong are not just words used to express our personal preferences but real fundamental moral laws that God has written on our very souls.
God is the perfection of goodness and it is in comparison with that perfect standard that we can measure all relative goodness. Without presupposing an absolute standard of ‘good’ there would be no way to discuss how near or far something is in relation to that standard.
When Christians speak about God being all good, it is not as though “right” and “wrong” are arbitrary concepts base on some arbitrary decision that God has made. Right and wrong reflect the nature, the moral character of God. God could not declare that murder, rape and lying are good because those things do not reflect his nature. On the other hand, honesty, peace and virtue are good things because they reflect the nature of God.
The instinct each person feels to love what is good and be repelled by what is bad is natural. It’s God given because God is good and he wants you to know the truth by which you can live and experience happiness and peace.
When Jesus Christ commanded us to be good, kind, loving, just, merciful, patient and forgiving, he was saying: Live as God created you to live. Reflect his character of goodness and truth in you own actions. Be imitators of your Father in heaven.
The Christian theistic world view can account for the real existence of a moral law, as well as humanity’s universal recognition of that law.
From “The Godless Delusion” by Patrick Madrid and Kenneth Hensley.
3 comments:
I remember a book, written, I think, by a Christian who tried to put forward a moral code that had no Christian base - and no natural law base either.
It was silly. One man's suggestion of what might constitute right and wrong, but might not.
Even natural law is only a small base for good moral behaviour.
While I have seen some awful behaviour from Christians, everyone recognises that they are sinning against the moral law Christ gave us.
But I have seen terrible behaviour from non believers and they have no concept that what they are doing is wrong.
Shell
(Blogger wont allow me to sign in as mum6kids)
This sounds like a great book for the teenagers to read. I read Patrick Madrid's 'Surprised by Truth' when I converted and was really inspired by it. Thank you for following my blog, Therese. I have really enjoyed looking at your blog - there are so many interesting posts here! God bless, Vicky:)
The Godless Delusion is an excellent book. Well worth getting it and having a read.
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