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In our last post from Romans we contrasted Hitler’s social Darwinism to the worldview of Jesus and St. Paul. If you’re interested you can read more here: Hitler vs. Saint Paul–Romans 9:25-33. In today’s post we’ll look at Paul’s words from the beginning of Romans 10, and what that has to do with where morality comes from.
Romans 10:1-4
Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
My Heart’s Desire
In today’s passage, Paul starts with: “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.”
In today’s blog post, I start with: “Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for you is that you may be saved.”
That’s truly my heart’s desire.
Paul goes on to say of his Jewish brothers and sisters, they have a zeal for God, but they’re not on board with salvation through the righteousness of God. Paul says they’re seeking to establish their own righteousness, and they’re not submitting to God’s righteousness.
Then Paul says, Jesus is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Another way to say that, would be to say: Jesus is the embodiment of righteousness.
This passage reminded me of an interview I heard recently with New York Times columnist David Brooks. Brooks was talking about morality (or righteousness, if you will).
“. . . for people to feel secure morally, emotionally, spiritually, and socially, they need to be rooted in covenantal communities that precede choice. So, we don’t really choose our families. We don’t really, most of us, choose our nation. Coming to faith doesn’t feel like a choice, the way I would choose a Mazda instead of a Nissan. These are covenantal relationships. And Rabbi Jonathan Sax, who died maybe three or four years ago, said: ‘A contract is about self-interest. A covenant is about identity.’ It’s about transformation. And so I think one of the things our society has done, mostly since World War II, is weaken those covenantal relationships–the idea that there are things that precede choice. And if you go to commencement speeches, people say, ‘Find your own values, find your own truth.’ And if your name is Aristotle, maybe you can do that, but most of us can’t do that. And so we’re left without a moral order.”
The Embodiment of Righteousness
Most of my friends and family believe in Jesus as the end or fulfillment of the law, as Paul says. But there are a few who want to create their own righteousness, as it were. They want to create their own moral framework to live by. When I listen to people who desire to craft their own morality, I’m reminded of the verses in the Bible where it says, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” And in those days when everyone did what was right in their own eyes, things didn’t go well. (Judges 17:6, 21:25)
I remember listening to an interview with an atheist who approached life this way. During this particular conversation he commented: There are moral laws in the universe and we violate those laws at our own peril. I would agree with that statement completely. And Jesus is the personification or embodiment of those universal laws.
I would ask that person, “Who decides or chooses those moral laws in the universe?” Usually, when I see someone who desires to create their own morality, they answer: the world decides.
By that, they mean the five billion adults in the world must come to a consensus and decide what those moral laws are. Which is kind of crazy if you think about it. I mean, if you put just 50 random adults in a room together, we’d wouldn’t form a consensus on what to have for lunch, much less what determines moral rightness or wrongness that applies universally.
So it seems to me, that would be impossible. But even if it were possible, there are a couple of major points that need to be addressed. Firstly, because people come and go rather quickly (the average lifespan globally is about 73 years), those 5 billion adults would have to constantly be revising morality as older people pass away; what was evil 30 years ago might now be totally fine because the majority who believed it to be wrong died off, and vice versa.
Additionally, who’s to say the consensus of all the people in the world won’t come up with a morality that results in a nuclear apocalypse? In fact it’s almost inevitable; you’ll get people who disagree so strongly that they form groups that believe eradication of the other is morally right, and then they wipe each other out.
The person who’s the arbiter of their own morality has to concede these possibilities. He also has to concede one greater, fatal point that ultimately dismantles the whole idea.
Today someone pointed out to me that whenever there are conversations about the source of morality and righteousness, it always comes down to one question. And that question is:
“Says who?”
If morality is determined simply by the consensus of an ever-changing collection of living adults with ever-changing tastes and opinions, what weight does this consensus really have? As I said before, what was wrong 30 years ago could be right today if enough adults agreed to it. So what position can anyone be in to criticize anything anyone does as “wrong?” You could always just say that the consensus can be changed and changed again to make that wrong right.
So, says who?
Says you, or says me? Says the consensus of five billion people? Says my neighbor who’s very passionate about his politics?
Or says God?
Whoever we choose to create morality and righteousness has to be perfect, because the fate of humanity depends on it. And human beings aren’t perfect. Societies aren’t perfect. Cultures aren’t perfect. Human beings, societies, and cultures: they all come and go.
As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. (Psalm 103:15-16)
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children. (Psalm 103:17)
God and Christ transcend human beings, and societies, and cultures. Human beings, societies, and cultures come and go.
But God and Christ are eternal.
And both God and Christ are perfect.
Contrasting Views on Righteousness and Morality
In contrast, consider the materialist atheist view of morality. Harvard cognitive psychologist, and atheist Steven Pinker describes it this way:
“The scientific outlook has taught us that some parts of our subjective experience are products of biological makeup and have no objective counterpart in the world. The tastiness of fruit, and the foulness of carrion, the scariness of heights and the prettiness of flowers are features of our common nervous system. And if our species had evolved in a different ecosystem or if we were missing a few genes, our reactions could go the other way. Now if the distinction of right and wrong is also the product of brain wiring, why should we believe it any more real? And if it is just a collective hallucination, how could we argue that evils like genocide and slavery are wrong for everyone, rather than just distasteful to us? Is There Meaning to Life? | William Lane Craig, Rebecca Goldstein, Jordan Peterson – Toronto 2018
If you’re one of those few who seek to establish your own morality, I just want to go back to how I started this blog post: My heart’s desire and prayer to God for you is that you may be saved. Life inside of Christ is so amazingly good, and I want you to experience that life with me.
God and Christ are Love itself, Truth itself, Wisdom itself.
God and Christ are righteousness and virtue and goodness.
Let God decide.
Notes:
David Brooks on Moral Courage for a Soulless Age | The Russell Moore Show
Image of Jesus via artplus on iStock
The Love Like Jesus Book
Available on Amazon, Google Play Books, and Audible!
Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus)
In this heartfelt, Scripture-rich journey, Kurt Bennett invites you to study not just the words of Jesus, but His actions—His love, His mercy, His boundaries, and even His naps.
Honest. Practical. Deeply human.
Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others. Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:
- Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
- How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
- The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
- How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
- How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
- How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
- How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
- How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
- How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.
With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.
A life of loving like Jesus.
(Kindle, hardcover, and paperback now available on Amazon, the ebook is now available on Google Play Books, and the audiobook is available on Audible.)
Now you can take Love Like Jesus with you wherever life happens.
We recently released the audiobook version, beautifully narrated by Jonathan St. John. And it’s available on the following platforms:
It’s also available on Amazon, Hoopla, Audiobooksnow, Chirp, Libro, Overdrive, and virtually everywhere audiobooks are offered.
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