Faith & Insight: The moral of the story

Over the last four weeks I’ve had conversations that centered around morality. One of them sounded like this: I feel like God doesn’t care about morality as much as I do because he is willing to forgive some people who have done horrible things.

Meanwhile, I am very moral – moral than most! Doesn’t that count for something? Maybe you’ve had those thoughts too. If you go on any social accounts, you’re going to find discussions of what is right and what is wrong. The movies that have thrived in theaters lately have been explorations of morality. So, in Christianity, how does God view our morality?

The big picture of Christianity is not ultimately the morals that are contained in the Bible, but of course the Bible includes teachings on right and wrong. That’s because the Bible is about the God who created everything. If there is a creator, it makes sense that interacting with his world by his standard would yield the best results.

The Bible also teaches that humans are made in the image of God, and that we are moral creatures who often do many things that are good almost by default. This is good! Christians will often be reminded that faith without works is dead, and that we are no longer called to live in sin since we were freed from it (sin is broken commands and broken relationship with God or others). However, God is explicitly clear that as moral as you may be, what he requires is perfection. Jesus said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect.” Matthew 5:48

There are many more times this is communicated that we don’t have space to address, but it should gather a collective “uh-oh” from everyone. God doesn’t compare you to your less moral associates and pronounce you good or holy by that standard but says that perfection is what is required of you and me. I haven’t kept God’s standards perfectly and neither have you.

The apostle Paul compared his flawless track record of following God’s law to his own heart and cried out “woe is me.” His reason? Because by not keeping God’s law perfectly, he was found in sin, and therefore was guilty before God.

And so, if our morality isn’t enough, what do we do? This is exactly why Jesus is the moral of the story. Jesus is the perfect one that can take our sin and give us his perfection. If you cling to your own goodness for validation, this sounds offensive. But if you realize the inadequacy of your own works before God you see Jesus as the ultimate grace given to you.

A member of my church told me this week “I see now I’m not perfect – but thank God that Jesus is perfect for me!” That’s what freedom sounds like. When you see the failings of your morality to justify you, you can grasp the moral of the story of God – that Jesus counts for everything.

Gavin Jarvis is lead pastor at Living Stones Church.