I think Christians love morality and confuse it for the Gospel. I think we give morality a share on the throne of our hearts as if Jesus is pleased to parcel out his kingship to another. Morality, if it stands alone or is made primary in life becomes antithetical to the Gospel. In order to even make statements like this it’s necessary to have an understanding of these categories. I’ll go with Webster’s definition of morality.
1. conformity to the rules of right conduct; moral or virtuous conduct
2. moral quality or character
3. virtue in sexual matters, chastity
4. a doctrine or system of morals
Morality is not hard to understand. It’s natural for us to comprehend. We love making statements like “Be good not bad” and “Do right not wrong” as if Jesus and the Holy Spirit are in heaven doing cartwheels because they are so impressed with how we are living. However, our conformity to “right” conduct is much more deceptive in that we tell each other that God is impressed when we abstain from alcohol, fornication, adultery, pornography, “non-christian” music, swear words, clubs, lying, cheating, short skirts, bikinis, fighting, gossip and greed. Our conformity becomes even more deceptive in that some of these things aforementioned are clearly commanded against in Scripture and some are just beasts of our own creation. The lie we believe in regards to this system of right and wrong is that God is primarily after right action. One point for God and the Christian team if we burn our Coldplay cd’s, say darn instead of damn, boycott Disney and the homosexuals and avoid mixing with the tramps, broken and lost unless handing out a tract or doing a survey asking what they think about God. RIDICULOUS!!!
Now I do think the Scriptures speak to virtue and I do think that there is a obvious call on the Christian’s life to obedience, but through the Gospel it works itself out in a very radical and divine way. Only God would think of something like this and only his Gospel brings about this kind of beauty. I used the word “primary” a couple of times when dealing with the moral code above and I think within that word lies a correct understanding of Gospel centered obedience. I think the Scripture states that Jesus is not primarily concerned with outward action and the Gospel is not primarily about correcting bad living. Over and over again in the gospels Jesus makes it painfully clear that right action without the right heart is detestable to God. Matt Chandler, when preaching through Luke 14, stated that Jesus is relentlessly after our hearts. If the heart is wicked then everything else will be twisted and warped even if it is a Scriptural ideal; however if Jesus has the heart, our lives will be worshipful towards him in joy. Living hearts filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit live rightly before God as we walk by faith in a person and not a system of morals! BEAUTIFUL!!!
