Christian Morality

Ask just about anyone. They'll tell you. All religions are about morality. Ask most Christians and they'll tell you the same thing. Christianity may not be all about morality, but it is certainly a big part. The object is to make good people. That's the primary point.

It's not true, you know. Oh, in all other religions it certainly is. That is the sole measure of where you end up when you die. Be good ... or else. And the vast majority of folks figure it's the same with Christianity. But that's because the vast majority of folks, within and without Christianity, have failed to understand.

Most religions are a system of rules that you follow. Christianity is a relationship. There is a basic problem that has to be overcome. That problem is that we're dead in sin. Now, the "in sin" part is just the descriptor. We're dead because we're sinners. Fine. We got that. But that means that simply being good isn't a solution. "Dead" is the problem. Being a better behaved dead person won't solve the problem. What is needed ... is life. That's what Christ offers.

So, having been reborn, Christians have new life. That life is eternal life. That is, it comes from God who is eternal. Eternal is not the same as everlasting. Everlasting is from here forward. Eternal is certainly that. But eternal means that it never started, either. This is the life that is injected into the Christian, the life of God. We are given the Holy Spirit. We have Christ in us. We are, in fact, something entirely new.

So, the question becomes, "How does this new kind of person live?" This new person lives in accordance with the new nature -- in accordance with God. This new person loves "because He first loved us." He works out his salvation because "it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." He can commit sins, but cannot tolerate it for long because "he has been born of God." And so it goes. While the rest of the dead world is either working hard to be better dead people or giving up entirely, the Christian operates out of a new nature that produces a new desire to do new things motivated and powered by God in us. The morality isn't the issue. The new nature is the issue. Like a lion who eats a zebra or a natural-born skater who skates, the new nature produces a standard output that the world recognizes as "morality". And, indeed, it is moral, even though that's not the point. If "being good" is your aim as a Christian, you missed the point. "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Eph 2:10). It's much simpler than "being good". It's being what we are -- new creations.