God is not looking for a “moral” people

God is not looking for a “moral” people...

It appears that the church's engagement with the world on the intellectual level in the logical realm, the reason realm, has not not been successful and secular humanism has won the day in the moral realm. Now what should the church be doing?

The Book of 1st Peter focuses on the key issue of persecution and evangelism. The key theme is that we would be set apart as a holy people, so that, people would see us, respond to persecution and say... “Who is their God?” “Tell me why you have a reason to have hope”. “I have to know because you are a peculiar people who smile ...who bless... who love... who help even those who harm you.”

In this book of 1st Peter, Peter helps us understand how we are to react to persecution and that Christians are to have an eternal view and not just horizontal debates. As Christians we are to raise our eyes to something bigger. So here in 1st Peter the focus is on holiness.

1st Peter 1: 15 - 16
But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, be holy for I am holy.

The first thing we want to identify is context. The people Peter is writing to are being lit on fire by Nero. They are being tortured... They are being sawed in two. And Peter says be holy.

Why?

Because a holy, set apart people causes the world to watch, question and to get saved.

God wants a holy people as opposed to a moral people. Some may ask is there a difference between the two? Absolutely. To capture this most succinctly it is the difference between the Pharisees, the most jealous of all religious leaders in ancient Israel, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Here is the dichotomy... Jesus was holy... the Pharisees were moral.

Morality is the negative concept. It defines itself in terms of what one refrains from doing. More often than not it's preoccupation is with the external.

Holiness on the other hand is a much more positive concept. Like its related term it is much more holistic. It embraces the external but it doesn't stop there. It is far more penetrating, thorough and comprehensive.

So if we are called to be a holy people and not a moral people, we can conclude that morality is inclusive of one who is holy. Morals get swallowed up into holiness. But there is a radical difference between the two and I wonder in our Christian engagement into this world and activism in this country, have we mistaken the one for the other?

• The moral person abstains from an action. The holy person hates the very thought of doing wrong.
• The moral person is driven by what people perceive him to be. The holy person is committed to what God wants him to be.
• The moral person mindlessly adheres to a cold list of do's and don'ts. The holy person ponders what brings the greatest pleasure to his Heavenly Father.
• The moral person keeps a meticulous record of all of his good deeds expecting by them to win the favor of God. The holy person grieves that nothing that he ever does, even for God, is completely free of any sinful or selfish motives. He knows that any blessing he ever receives from God is pure grace.
• The moral person lives by his own definition of what is right and what is wrong, and he loves to impose that definition upon other people. The holy person allows the Word of God to direct his life, and anything beyond that he guards the silences of the Word of God, honoring the differences that freedom allows on those who dearly love the same Savior.

Now, considering our context, engagements with culture must be done carefully. We do not want to fall into a theology ditch. A ditch of complete apathy. This ditch sounds like... “I don't care what happens in our culture. Let people abort, let people do gay marriage”. This is not Christian. It is not Christian to ignore when wicked things are happening. We care, so we enter into the arena in which our compassion is demanded. But having said this, how we enter and how we engage is the issue that I fear that we have, as a church, confused.

Holiness affects the heart and it affects the mind, it affects the emotions and it affects the will, it affects the motive, it affects the conscience. Holiness affects the totality of a person. What he does, where he goes, how he feels, what he thinks. Unfortunately we are living in a time when the great majority of the evangelical church is morality driven rather than holiness driven.

The mantra of the morality driven church is:

• If we could just get prayer back in public schools
• If we could just get the 10 commandments once again posted on the walls of our legal institutions.
• If we could just manage to shut down all of the Planned Parenthood abortion clinics.
• If we could just elect more Christians to Congress

All of these are morality driven not holiness driven. This reveals our failure to understand the radical difference between moral improvement and life from death, the gospel.

Now were any of those moralizing statements bad? No, but that's not what God is looking for. God is not looking for a moral nation. God is looking for a holy people. This is radically different. As Christians, if you and I don't understand the difference between the two, then we will merely engage with culture on a moral level.

The real tragedy of the moralist is his failure to appreciate that the gospel of transformation is far more powerful then the region of prohibition. God has never ever advanced his cause by the means of a moral majority, but always by the means of a holy minority. God desires to be glorified through the redemptive work of his son Jesus Christ.

Lets take for instance the burning of the American flag. I would think that most readers of this blog would agree it is offensive to see people burn the American flag. But lets pretend that we were able to persuade all people everywhere that American flag burning is morally wrong and American flags never get burned or stomped on again anywhere on the globe. Now, because the majority of people have been persuaded that American flag burning is wrong, it becomes the new morality and results in a law to not burn American flags. So with the resulting law there are those who wanted to burn our flag, but they are not wanting to break the law and face the consequences legally and culturally. Also, this law won't make people love our flag and no hearts will have been changed. What have we accomplished? I know this is a ridiculous situation, but you can plug in all our favorite morialisms and see the same result. We should not focus exclusively on behavioral modifications. We as Christians don't want to do this with our children. We don't want our own children have a consequential obedience only. We want there to be a heart change. We want them to understand the gospel leading them to God to save them, which results in God making a holy people. The church should have the same desire for the culture.

The bible Genesis through Revelation, the entire scripture, cannot be appreciated without a Christocentric emphasis. This is a book about Jesus Christ from Genesis 1 to the end of Revelation 22. When you open it up and preach it, teach it, apply it and use it as a means of counseling and discipleship and you divorce it from it's Christocentric emphasis you have become a moralist and your not preaching, teaching, counseling and discipling in a way that is distinctly Christian. We have to be engaging with the culture in ways that are distinctly Christian. If we are going to say “thus saith the Lord” we better have it attached to the Cross so the culture understands our Christocentric gospel centered emphasis otherwise we are Pharisees.

So how have we gotten to the point that the culture is redefining morals? It starts in the Church. All around us in our own camp we find ourselves shoulder to shoulder with people that are:

• Denying the doctrine of substitutionary atonement.
• People advocating universal reconciliation.
• People denying Jesus Christ as the exclusive way to God.
• People denying the necessity of church as an essential ingredient for spiritual growth.
• Christians legitimizing homosexual monogamy.

Even now we are even seeing people within our own churches questioning:

• Why is it always the bible with you guys?
• Why do you insist that preaching really isn't preaching if it's not the exposition of the Word?
• Why is it that the various classes and bible studies and discipleship ministries must always be about the Word?
• Why can't we have more upbeat contemporary feel good songs in church instead of songs that are a vehicle through which the Word is communicated?

The answer to these questions is simply because we love you. It's because the Word is the God appointed means by which you will be sanctified.

Is it possible that so much of the Christian engagement in our culture is lacking the Word because so many of our Christian churches are lacking the Word in their churches? The Church can't say “thus saith the Lord” because the Churches are not hearing the Word from it's Shepherds.

Are you feeling weary in this culture battle? Then maybe it's because we've been wielding the wrong weapon.

Pastors preach the word in season and out of season.

Church, get back to the purpose in which you are still here. Go and preach the gospel and pray for the lost like their lives depend on it…. because their lives do depend on it!