Saturday, July 24, 2021

Moral

In the beginning God created heaven and earth 

He didn't have to do that. He was under no obligation or duress to cause existence to be. He did it anyway. 
He didn't have to knit me together in my mothers womb, He didn't have to preserve my life the several times it could have been taken from me, But he did anyway.  He could have left me homeless, hopeless, broken, unloved, and forgotten. God could have abandoned me, but He didn't and hasn't, and I have reason to believe that He wont. Why? Because God IS good. 

God is good, but this fact if disputed among Atheists.  The Atheist looks around the world today that is rampant with chaos, war, famine, destruction. They see the death, the decay of decency, the suffering and the pain that is so loudly on display. To see this suffering is to acknowledge the truth of the world as it is, but, to attribute that suffering to God is where the Atheist falls prey to an old mistake. They attribute the blame to God like Adam in the garden when he accused God for giving him a faulty wife. 

Why then did God allow evil to be possible? When God made man, He said:


 ... “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule ... over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.” 
Man was made in the image of God and God's likeness. That means that man was created Righteous and Virtuous, Moral. In order for man to be made like God he had to have the capability to reject that which God is not. If God is Righteous, and He is, What does it mean to be Righteous? 

acting in accord with divine or moral law : free from guilt or sin


So in order for man to be Righteous as God is Righteous, Man must act in accordance with Divine Moral Law. God made this test remarkably easy. In all of the garden God gave 1 prohibitive command, don't eat from 1 tree. The only sin is violating this directive. At this point there is no death, no suffering, no cancer or abortion or famine or genocide. Just a couple, and a garden, animals and God. What does it mean to be Moral?

a: of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior : ETHICAL
moral judgments

b: expressing or teaching a conception of right behavior
a moral poem

c: conforming to a standard of right behavior
took a moral position on the issue though it cost him the nomination

d: sanctioned by or operative on one's conscience or ethical judgment
a moral obligation

e: capable of right and wrong action
a moral agent

For man to be made perfect, he MUST have been able to be capable of rejecting God and choose not to. Without the choice or the free will then he would not be a moral being, he would not be a perfect man. He'd be a programmed group of nerves and neurons. 

Man did reject God and open the door to virus and corruption to the perfect system in which God created. When man failed to be moral, God decided that He would still be moral. He would still be faithful. He would still be good. Rather than destroy all life that chose to rebel against Him- which He absolutely would be justified in doing- He chose to instead bear patience and grace, and mercy, leading to redemption. (granted when the world was consumed with violence, He did pour out judgement- but He still saved a group of humans in His grace)

Now, lets look at the cross for a moment, seeing as how we don't look at it enough- it still bears an extra picture here in the context of Morality. God, who doesn't ask us to do anything that HE Himself is willing to do. He clothed Himself in flesh and proved that He is Moral on our behalf and died IN ORDER TO FIX THE MISTAKES OF MAN. 

Jesus- Yeshua- The Messiah, the Christ- An innocent Man lived out an entirely moral life choosing to not sin to show God is Good, and to revoke sin that Adams failures opened the door to. 
God is cleaning up after us, our messes, our sins. He clothes those He has told us to clothe, and feeds those He told us to feed. He shelters those He told us to shelter... because He is Moral. 

Hebrews 4 = Ezekiel 20

 Ezekiel 20: 8-24Then I resolved to pour out My wrath on them, to accomplish My anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. 9 But ...