Morality and Biblical Worldview
By Jay Wegter
To deny that there is a transcendent moral order is to deny that the Almighty Holy God of the universe is Creator and Ruler. That denial is evidence that a person has been taken captive by the world’s philosophies (Col 2:8). Holy Scripture affirms that the transcendent moral order (God’s law) is just as real as the non-transcendent physical order we see in our universe. It is impossible that we should have a Holy Almighty Creator and NOT be living in a moral universe. By ‘moral universe’ we mean that moral law is built into the very fabric of creation. God’s laws are not arbitrary or the result of social conditioning—in fact God’s laws are just as much in force on earth as anywhere else in the universe. If we traveled to a planet in some other galaxy, God’s laws forbidding murder and adultery would be just as universal.
Unbelieving men deny that this is a moral universe due to their antipathy toward the holy character of God and due to their resentment that they are accountable to Him. They resent the fact that they owe God moral perfection. Man’s transgressions cause him to live with his back to God—in defiance of his Maker’s rightful claims upon him. The reality that this is a moral universe is sometimes called natural law—meaning that God’s laws are the very furniture of the universe—and therefore are self-evident. By self-evident we mean it is inescapably obvious that ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ is ethically superior to hate your neighbor and lie in wait for his blood. Virtue and nobility is the polar opposite of living by animal passions. We know instinctively that theft, murder, rape, adultery, and slander are wrong. The Word of God tells us WHY we know instinctively that those actions are wrong— we know they are wrong because our Creator’s moral mark is upon us—written upon our consciences (Rom 2).
Why is a 14 year old runaway teen enslaved in prostitution in New York City a terrible tragedy? The answer is: because of self-evident morality. We know instinctively that she was created for something infinitely better than to sell her young body to lusting older men. When one opens the Holy Scriptures, a work of correspondence takes place. What is written on the heart and conscience of man (God’s transcendent moral order) is written on the pages of Scripture. This is the reason why that sin and judgment is such a pervasive theme in literature from antiquity to the present. We cannot escape the plot of crime and punishment—virtue and evil. Crime and punishment bear an undeniable relationship to one another which we refer to as justice—and the reason why— because this is a moral universe.
Because this is a moral universe; ideas have consequences. The term ‘moral value’ is actually a misnomer. The reason why is that morality is not a matter of personal preference (what a person chooses to value or devalue). Morality is anchored in divine truth. The more accurate term (instead of moral value) is moral truth. Moral truth is a superior term because God has spoken authoritatively concerning what is true; real; right; and wrong. Thus, what is true about God, man, man’s moral boundaries, and man’s place in the universe issues from the immutability of God Almighty. Morality finds its objective source in the answers to the following questions: Who is God? What is man? What is man’s purpose? Is this an open or closed universe?
By the term ‘closed universe’ we mean that those who hold to this view believe the universe made itself and is self-sustaining and self-interpreting. An analogy is helpful at this point: to believe in a closed universe means that all existence is in a ‘box’ we call the universe. And, those who hold to a closed universe explain what’s in the box by what’s in the box (including the explanation of man). This view is known as naturalism or materialism. By contrast, the open universe view proclaims the non-negotiable truths of biblical theism—that our transcendent Creator acts upon the created universe from outside of it—He is not a part of it. It is dependent upon Him; not the other way around. God’s self-revelation, the Bible, is God’s authoritative word from outside time/space/mass. In the Scriptures God is telling things we could not have known apart from His revelation. The Bible defines reality as God Himself and His relationship to what He has created. God has direct control of what He has made. He owns it; upholds it; directs it; sustains it. He invaded history in the Person of Jesus Christ. But when Christ returns in glory; it will not be as suffering servant next time. He will return as Conqueror to subdue every enemy of God.
Only the Word of God can answer with absolute objectivity and authority what we call ultimate questions. Science cannot answer even one ultimate question anymore than the bug in a jar can explain the boy holding the jar. An extremely important ultimate question is: What is sin? How big of a disaster is sin? What are the consequences of sin? What has God done about sin? God declares through Christ (the sinless one) that man is not fit to diagnose his own case (Jn 3:19-21). But why does Jesus make this statement? It is because sin kills moral objectivity. For man to accurately diagnose sin he would have to step outside of it entirely. That would be like a scientist saying: “In order to study the element oxygen accurately we will abstain from using it personally for the entire duration of the experiment.” Part of man’s dilemma is that he cannot transcend his moral condition. His ethical existential situation is that he is part of a horribly fallen human race. The goldfish in his bowl does not know he is wet. Wetness is all he has ever known. Sin is all we have ever known—we do not know experientially what perfect holiness is.
God alone knows the true nature of sin in all its ugliness. The Word of God is comprehensive treatment of the subject of sin. Jesus made this perfectly clear. No one can be objective about his sin (and the human moral condition) until he acknowledges that sin kills moral objectivity. Repentance is intellectual as well as addressing outward ethical behavior. To repent is to abandon our cherished erroneous ideas about man and God and sin—and then to abandon the false notion of autonomy and autonomous reason. The repenting man brings his mind under the mind of God as revealed in the Bible; the Word of God. This is absolutely essential if a man is to be ruled by God (and thus moving from a fugitive to a willing subject under God’s moral government). God and His Word are one. Just as you cannot know another human well apart from his words—we know God by His Word. God’s Word is where his moral truth is authoritatively revealed. God’s moral truth is backed up by divine authority.
Now in our supposedly progressive world, moral relativism and moral confusion reign—and are moving us to the brink of destruction because we have lost our moral minds through the deceits of secular humanism. Manmade philosophy has justified living by animal passions—morality has been reduced to personal preference. The created purpose of man has been intentionally lost. The reality of the human soul has been amputated by false philosophy in the name of freedom and progress. This is a death wish; a death spiral; a staircase to hell. Ideas have eternal consequences because this is a moral universe ruled by God. Man is smashing himself against God’s immovable laws. How much of a disaster is sin? Only on judgment day will the gravity of the disaster sink in fully. Then on that day, history will prove to be the record of the honoring and dishonoring of God and the consequences of each. Error will someday be forever hung on the gallows and displayed in all its wretchedness. God tells us that history will prove to be a mighty object lesson to the rational universe.
How much of a disaster is sin? It is a disaster of such proportions that to remain impenitent is to deny the purpose for the creation of the human race—that purpose being to love; obey; know; serve; and enjoy our God forever. The very purpose of our existence as those made in the image of God is to exalt the beauty of God’s moral majesty. The universe exists for this reason. Of course the realization of man’s created purpose is absolutely out of reach apart from the grace of God. To love the God of holiness is impossible for mankind apart from forgiveness through Christ Jesus.
What men are by nature due to sin expresses itself in hostility toward God and His law (Rom 8:5-8). By man’s stubborn commitment to retain enmity toward God, he winds up opposing himself and his own highest good (Rom 2). Sin is spiritual suicide. When men choose to remain in unbelief; it is an act of self-destruction; there is no greater folly. God’s gracious offer (the command to receive eternal life)—to be right with Him by Christ is the greatest of all conceivable gifts.
No man knows God until that man has been forgiven of his sins. And no man can be forgiven of his sins until he says the same thing about his sin as God does. And this is what God says about your sin: it is rebellion; lawlessness; pollution; alienating; ruinous; and deserving of hell. And, no man will say this about his sin until he has been cross-examined by God’s law. Only then can he be cross liberated.
God’s law is the polar opposite of arbitrary. For God’s law is His eternal holy character in code. This is the source of our ethics in this moral universe. Thus, to rail against universal moral absolutes is to attempt to mock God—it is to defy God’s immutable holy character. Man was created to be the image of God—the reflection of God in the creature. Conscience tells me that this is so. It tells me that God will examine my life someday. For the conscience generates subpoenas on a regular basis. The conscience is a little annex of God’s ultimate courtroom. The conscience of man is a place of verdicts. The reality of a busy defiled conscience is very real for one great reason: man was created to be the moral image of God—that is to reflect God’s moral beauty and perfections in our relationships.
Even atheists agree that if every single person lived by The Ten Commandments, we would have heaven on earth. But man’s pride and self-love will not allow him to admit the depth of his fallen-ness. How far did Adam fall? He fell much further than we can possibly imagine. But no man will accept God’s remedy for this disaster until he accepts God’s diagnosis of the man’s horrific dilemma. The majority of the human race is traveling upon the broad road which leads to destruction. If a person is on the broad road to destruction; he will regard God’s diagnosis of his moral condition to be a conflict of interest. In other words, he will reject God’s plain testimony concerning the human condition. He chooses to live his life in denial of his true moral state in God’s sight.
Why do unbelievers do this? Why do they reject God’s testimony concerning their moral state in His sight? Why do they assert that absolute moral truth is unknowable and therefore non-existent? They remain in this state of denial because of their deadness by sin. They cling to the rebellious illusion that they are autonomous and that there is a reality greater than God Himself. Therefore they have zero sentiment to live for God’s honor and glory. Only the power of God in the gospel can reverse this. Only the gospel has the divine power to restore the glory of God to us and allow us to recover our love and passion for God’s glory. The gospel has the power to drive out the ancient lie which has darkened every man’s heart. When a sinner sees the glory of God in the face of Christ; only then does that sinner understand the beauty and desirability of God’s glory. For God’s glory is joined to the wonder that Christ has borne the reproach of all who would believe.
How spiritually dead is mankind? John Piper answers this question brilliantly, “One of the unsettling things about the new birth, which Jesus says we must all experience in order to see the kingdom of God (John 3:3), is that we don’t control it. We don’t decide to make it happen any more than a baby decides to make his birth happen. Or even more accurately: We don’t decide to make it happen any more than dead men decide to give themselves life. The reason we need to be born again is that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. That’s why we need the new birth, and that’s why we can’t make it happen. This is one reason why we speak of the sovereign grace of God. Or better; this is one reason why we love the sovereign grace of God” (John Piper, Finally Alive, pg. 77).
Naturalism has no hope of providing the “ought to” for morality.