Biblical Essays
MORALISM
(A Deadly Danger)
“Knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified” (Galatians 2:16).
What can Christians do to help halt the spiritual and moral decline in America? Many believe the best solutions are political activism, judicial challenges, public protests, organized boycotts, educational programs, and other kinds of organized civic efforts. By such means they hope to elevate the standard of morality in American society and thereby win God’s blessing for our nation.
On a purely human level, the rationale behind that kind of thinking is easy to understand. The courts, the legislature, and even local school boards have participated in systematically undermining the morality of America. The sexual revolution, abortion on demand, and similar changes in public policy spawned a host of evils that have disfigured American society. Can we truly love the Lord and support policies driving such trends? Do we support the Bible by supporting policies driving those trends?
As Christians, we zealously desire goodness, integrity, decency, and morality to be the hallmarks of our society. God’s law exalts virtue; His will as revealed in Scripture demands it. Certainly in every way and at every opportunity, we ought to pursue and promote biblical morality. What Christian could do less?
Moreover, as true Christians, we despise every form of evil. What genuine believer doesn’t hate the wanton killing of unborn infants? What Christian doesn’t oppose pornography, drug abuse, and the promotion of various sexual perversions? In our utter contempt for such things, all Christians ought to be in full agreement. It is right for us to oppose the sins of our society, and it is right that Christians as individuals should voice our objection in the voting booth and by speaking out in other ways.
Mistaking the Symptoms for the Disease – Are political movements and moral crusades the ultimate answer to the evils threatening America? Can the spiritual decline in our nation be reversed through legislation and moral reform alone? Is that where the church should be investing its energies? Can a political coalition of Christians and non-Christians based on shared moral values really work to the benefit of the cause of Christ? Is that what the evangelical movement in America should be pursuing? Is there any mandate in Scripture for the church to try to organize political coalitions and work for moral reform in secular society through social activism? Is the so-called Religious Right the answer to what ails America?
Moralism – A Deadly Danger
The widespread growth of religious political activism seems to be rooted in the misconception that morality is the answer to everything wrong with society. People think if America becomes moral, God will bless America. They are therefore desperate to put prayer back in classrooms and get the Ten Commandments back on courtroom walls, as if mere icons of Biblical faith and the external trappings of Christianity were enough to guarantee God’s favor on the nation.
But restoring such symbols to public places would be only cosmetic, like makeup on a harlot. Legislation to promote moral reform is too superficial to be a real solution. The moral decline in America is merely the symptom of our nation’s spiritual malaise, and we dare not confuse the symptom with the disease. The cure for a brain tumor is not aspirin to make the headache go away. Likewise, the cure for America’s spiritual ills is not merely reform of some laws and policies. The real solution is one that strikes at the root of the problem. It is a solution that answers the problem of sin. It is the way of salvation set forth in the Gospel.
To be perfectly clear, morality and even religion per se will not invite or secure the blessing God. Morality and religion alone will not gain our nation an ounce of divine favor. America could be both more moral and more religious, and yet not escape divine judgment. The influence of Pharisaism in Jesus’ time did not avert the devastating judgment of God in a.d. 70, when the entire city of Jerusalem was laid waste by godless Romans. Jesus Himself had warned on several occasions that the external morality being propagated by the Pharisees was not sufficient to save individuals from judgment, and not sufficient to save the nation from impending destruction. In other words, He rejected the “Religious Right” of His own era and promised judgment. The most stringent and exacting morality was no defense. In fact, it was an offense to God because they used their morality as a mask, hiding their rejection of His Son.
God blesses only one thing: saving faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6). Scripture teaches this repeatedly, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. (Romans 8:8-9)”
Anyone who does not believe in and love the Lord Jesus Christ is among the cursed. John 3:18: “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Clearly, union with Christ by faith is the one way to avert ultimate judgment: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (v. 36). “If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed” (1 Corinthians 16:22).
Why Human “Goodness” Won’t Solve A Nation’s Problems
As Christians, of course we support morality. We’re certainly not in favor of immorality. We are not against those who hate evil and wickedness; we are among them. There are occasionally some temporal, superficial benefits to be gained by using the democratic process to mitigate public indecency and to oppose immoral policies. Christians don’t oppose such efforts within their proper limits. But such cannot become the church’s main strategy for influencing a nation. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).
In other words, we are engaged in a battle for the truth against lies. And the best way to thwart the lies of demons and men is by answering those lies with God’s revealed truth. That means our best weapon in this warfare is not the carnal political process, but the mightyproclamation of God’s Word; preaching the Gospel in particular. Moral reform and legislative efforts that leave people in unbelief are worthless for any eternal good.
We must understand that divine favor can never be earned by human “goodness.” The good works of sinful people cannot merit divine favor either individually or collectively, because our best works always fall short of the standard of perfection God demands. God’s standard is even higher than the ultra-fastidious legal righteousness the Pharisees exemplified. Jesus said, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).
The Pharisees’ rigid adherence to Moses’ law set a standard never even attempted by most people. If that wasn’t good enough, we have to ask, “How high is God’s standard?” Jesus was clear; it is the absolute perfection of God Himself: “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (v. 48). Any “good works” that fall short of that standard simply cannot earn merit with God. That is why the best of human good works are likened to “filthy rags” in Isaiah 64:6. They are an offense to God – a reason for condemnation, not blessing. The only good works that are worthy of God’s blessing are the works of Christ on our behalf – His perfect righteousness imputed to those who believe.
Therefore the remedy for society’s immorality cannot be moralism (religion reduced to moral practice). Moralism condemns just like immorality. Moralism cannot bring divine blessing. That is why Jesus regularly went head to head with the moralistic people in His world. In fact, He reserved His most scathing, searing, severe invectives for them. That ought to be reason enough for the church to be wary of the agenda promoted by the modern Religious Right.
Jesus’ Preaching Against Moralism
In Matthew 23:13-39, Jesus pronounced a series of woes on the religious leaders of His time. Again, these were the most moral people of His society, people who were obsessive about keeping the smallest of Old Testament laws and Jewish traditions. They even gave a tithe of the little seeds in their spice cabinets (v. 23). Yet Jesus’ discourse against them was the harshest sermon He ever gave. He condemned their moralism as mere hypocrisy: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (vv. 27-28).
Jesus never used harsh words like that against the outcasts, the prostitutes, the tax-collectors, or criminals of His day. In fact, He spent His time ministering graciously to such people – so much so that the Pharisees accused Him of being “a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” (Luke 7:34).
Moralism was never the message of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) prophets. It was never the message of the Messiah. It was never the message of the apostles. It is not the message of the New Testament. It has never been God’s message to the world. In fact, God’s assessment of moralism is given in Isaiah 57:12: “I will declare your righteousness and your works, for they will not profit you.”
The apostle Paul characterized his own pre-conversion lifetime of Pharisaical moralism as “rubbish” (Philippians 3:9 NASB). The Greek word he used was very explicit: skubalon. It means “dung.”
Whatever superficial morality people may exhibit, it earns no merit with God. It gains nothing. “By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight” (Romans 3:20).
Degenerate people can sometimes become more moral. The scoundrel turns over a new leaf. Political organizations can sometimes achieve a degree of “moral rearmament” in society. People who have failed miserably can, to some degree, reorder their lives. The delinquent youth can decide to live a better life to impress a girlfriend. But when such changes are nothing but fleshly willpower divorced from faith in Christ, they are ultimately all for naught.
The Biblical message is not that humanity is divided between the moral and immoral. The clear message of the Bible is that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). There is no division between good people and bad people; all are sinners, and all deserve condemnation. The moral unbeliever may actually be in a worse state than the profligate sinner, because the moral person does not understand his own need. Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Mark 2:17).
Whenever level of external morality a person might attain, he or she is a condemned sinner apart from Christ. One might be the most moral Pharisee in Israel; the most generous philanthropist in town; the most clean-living student in the college dorm; the kindest and most active parent in the PTA; or the most devoted follower of the latest spiritual fad. But without Christ, we’re in the same spiritual group with dope dealers and prostitutes. Unless we’ve been reconciled to God through His Son Jesus Christ, all the morality in the world will not help us. “For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law” (Romans 2:12). Either way, if we are counting on our own merit to save we are doomed.
What’s Wrong With Moralism?
Moralism holds a number of deadly dangers. There are at least fifteen basic reasons why Christians should not embrace moralism as a strategy for curing the evils of our society:
1. It Is Not Our Commission
Second Corinthians 5:20 describes the proper role of the Christian in society: “Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.” We are Christ’s ambassadors. Although that may sound like a political calling, it is not. We are a kingdom of priests, not politicians. A priest is a reconciler. And that is what we are called to do; to implore people to be reconciled to God. We are not called to stand apart from society and point fingers; we are called to go into all the world and make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). When Christians become confused about what God has called us to do, when they make moralizing society their priority, they abandon their true mission. When the church elevates the pursuit of cultural morality above the biblical mandate to proclaim the Gospel, it essentially forfeits its distinctive voice and takes its place among a myriad of lobbyist groups and political parties peddling earthly agendas. Heaven’s agenda is summed up in the Great Commission; it is the task of evangelism, not political and moral reform.
2. It Wastes Immense Amounts Of Precious Resources
When the Christian invests time, money, and human energy in political causes, we waste our resources. It ultimately matters very little whether someone is eternally lost as a prostitute or a policeman. Our energies should not be spent just trying to make sinners better people. We need to be telling them the solution to sin and the way of salvation. All this effort to clean up America smacks of trying to make the leopard change his spots (Jeremiah 12:23). It is a waste of the Christian’s resources. Ephesians 5:16-17 says, “[Redeem] the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” The will of the Lord is clear: we are called to preach the message of reconciliation and implore people to be reconciled to God. To do something else is to be foolish and to waste time and resources. We’re not interested in making cosmetic changes to our nation’s moral climate. We ought to be proclaiming the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ through which God saves people from their sins and gives them new hearts and eternal life.
3. Moral Reform Is A Frustrating and Ultimately Impossible Work
Moralism aims at an unattainable goal: the improvement of society without any transformation of people’s souls. The leopard cannot change his spots. Sinners cannot reform themselves. And therefore society as a whole cannot be truly reformed unless people are made new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
4. Moralism Misconstrues The Nature Of God’s Kingdom
Those who aim only at moral reform usually misunderstand the kingdom of God. In John 18:36, Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight.” We’re not trying to preserve our nation’s status in the world or preserve some earthly culture. To spend one’s time, energy and effort striving for political power and influence misses the point of God’s kingdom. Jesus told His disciples, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you” (Matthew 20:25-26). The quest for earthly political influence is incompatible with the purposes of God’s kingdom. Furthermore, the prosperity of the kingdom of God in no way rises or falls with political fortunes in America. The ultimate advancement of God’s kingdom will not be thwarted by any kind of politics or immorality in America or anywhere else.
5. Moralism Asks Sinners To Do What Only God Can Do
We cannot make other people more moral, and they cannot reform themselves enough to make any eternal difference. A bad tree cannot bear good fruit (Matthew 7:18). We cannot even discern our own hearts, much less make them pure (Jeremiah 17:9). The transformation of a human soul is God’s work and God’s alone. And He accomplishes this work through the instrumentality of His Word (1 Peter 1:23).
6. Moralism Misconstrues What It Means To Be Salt And Light
In Matthew 5:13-14, Jesus said to His disciples, “You are the salt of the earth . . . You are the light of the world.” Ironically, those statements are often quoted as a justification for political activism. But salt and light are not symbols of our moral influence or political power; those figures represent the Gospel witness and the power of holy living. That is how Jesus used the imagery in His Sermon on the Mount. Light represents the shining forth of truth. Salt is the preservative power of godly living. As light, we proclaim the truth; as salt we add seasoning and act as a preservative in society by manifesting righteous works in our own lives. Being salt and light has nothing to do with any political strategy.
7. Moralism Has No New Testament Model Except The Pharisees
All the Pharisees’ efforts to moralize people were counterproductive. Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves” (Matthew 23:15). Furthermore, there is no New Testament model for political action. Jesus didn’t try to overthrow slavery. The apostles didn’t organize protests against the immorality, inequity, abusive tax system, or even the ruthless persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire. Nothing in Scripture suggests we are called to such a task.
8. Political Efforts To Moralize Society Result In Unholy Unions With Unbelievers And Enemies Of The Gospel
Lots of unbelievers, member of religious cults, and people from religious traditions that skew or reject the Gospel nonetheless favor moral reform. But what happens when Christians form political coalitions with such people? In order to keep the coalition together, the preaching of the Gospel has to be eliminated. When the Christian aligns politically with people who are offended by the Gospel, our testimony is hindered and our ability to minister effectively is hamstrung. It is a serious mistake to forge such alliances (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
9. Moralism Leads To Inclusivism
Political coalition-building starts to eat away people’s convictions about the exclusivity of Christ. Many now say they believe heaven will include people from non-Christian faiths – perhaps even some agnostics with high moral standards. They have redefined the way of salvation in moralistic terms and rendered the Gospel moot.
10. Moralism Is Selective About The Sins It Attacks
Consider this: If the first and Great Commandment is Matthew 22:37, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,” then the greatest sin would be any violation of that commandment. Want to talk about morality? Let’s briefly consider that. Want to talk about sin? Let’s not pick out five we can most easily assault because we don’t do those sins. Let’s talk about the greatest of all commandments. If we are going to go after America’s immorality, then let’s indict people (including ourselves) where we need to be indicted most – for not loving God as we ought to.
11. Moralism Fails To Understand The True Nature Of Spiritual Warfare
Many moralists are convinced they are waging warfare in the spiritual arena. But this is not the kind of warfare to which Scripture calls us. Again, true spiritual warfare is described in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5. It entails smashing down erroneous ideologies with the truth of God’s Word, “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” This battle is not waged against flesh-and-blood enemies, and it is not advanced by political strategies that are nothing more than worldly wisdom.
12. The Politics Of Moralism Makes Those We Are Supposed To Reach With The Gospel Into Enemies
Unbelievers, immoral people, pornographers, homosexuals, and abortionists have become vilified and hated among many Christians. We tend to regard them as our enemies. But they are our mission field. We mustn’t become like Jonah, who hated the Ninevites so much that he would do anything to avoid preaching to them. And even after they responded to his preaching and a revival swept that city, Jonah sulked, because he wanted God to destroy all those people. The Ninevites were indeed wretched people. They slaughtered their enemies and built pyramids out of the skulls of their victims. They loved torture and bloodshed and violence. In terms of earthly measurements of wickedness, they were far worse sinners than those we think of today as enemies. But God displayed His love and mercy to them, and He rebuked Jonah for not having compassion toward them. There is a legitimate holy hatred of sin. But Jesus wept with compassion over sinners. So must we.
13. The Politics Of Moralism Brings Persecution And Hatred Of True Christians For The Wrong Reasons
It is a privilege and honor to suffer reproach for the sake of Christ (Matthew 5:11). But the moralistic religious zeal of some today cause true Christians to be vilified by the world because of their political positions and hostility toward the very people we are supposed to be trying to reach.
14. Moralism Reverses The Divine Order
Moralism makes morality the power for salvation, rather than vice versa. Too many preachers today seem to operate with the notion that if we can elevate the morality of our culture, then more people will believe the Gospel. They seem to imagine that if we can clean up the country, it will afford greater opportunities for the Gospel. That’s exactly the reverse of the divine order.
15. Moralism Fails To Understand The Wrath Of God
Do we imagine that moral reform and political machinations can overturn the wrath of God? None of us can know what God’s plan for America or any other nation is, but we can know the mandate He has given to the church, and that mandate has to do with proclaiming the Gospel and that alone.
Moralism confuses and misses the priority for what Christians ought to be doing in the world. It misrepresents the divine message that all people, moral or immoral, are lost and must be saved. And they can be saved only by believing and obeying the Gospel.
September 11, 2002 clearly demonstrated this: It is people who consider themselves highly moral and deeply religious who are trying to kill Americans. For that matter, it was people who thought of themselves as highly moral and deeply religious who conspired with the Romans to crucify Christ. The moral and the immoral schemed together to kill Him, and in His dying He provided the salvation they both desperately needed.
Moralism isn’t the answer to what ails America or any country. The Gospel is. Higher moral standards alone won’t earn God’s blessing on this country. Our only hope for that lies in the transforming power of the Gospel. And our calling is to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth, regardless of what unbelievers in our nation or any other nation do. May God give His people grace to be faithful to that task. After all, it’s the most significant blessing He could ever bestow on any nation.
(Unless noted, all Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version)
