THE BEAUTY AND ELEGANCE OF THE MORAL LAWS

Moral laws are like physical laws. When we violate them, we suffer. If we jump from a building, thinking that we can fly, we will learn a painful lesson. It is the same way when we violate moral laws. When we hurt others, we suffer. Instead, when we help them, we feel good about ourselves. In light of this, the late Christian philosopher, C.S. Lewis had written:

·       Moral rules are directions for running the human machine. Every moral rule is there to prevent a breakdown, or a strain, or a friction, in the running of the machine. That is why these rules at first seem to be constantly interfering with our natural inclinations. (The Joyful Christian, 11)

Therefore, when I exaggerate a point beyond the allowable evidence or use a verse incorrectly to make a point, I subsequently feel badly, and I’m glad that I do. These painful feelings are my instructors. Therefore, I want to be in touch with my conscience, however uncomfortable this may be.

On the positive side, I find beauty and experience psychological integration when I live in harmony with the implanted moral laws.

However, there is a danger when we are content with just learning addition and subtraction. Without multiplication and division, we are very limited and might even come to the wrong conclusions. It is the same way when we merely follow the external lessons of the moral law. By stopping there and suppressing the weightier moral lessons taught by our conscience, we become self-satisfied, self-righteous, and even arrogant about our moral attainments. We will be inclined to think, perhaps subconsciously, “I just contributed one million dollars to build a child care center. Therefore, I am better than other people.”

This danger seems to have been a preoccupation of our Lord, especially in regards to the religious leadership of His day. They had mastered addition and subtraction but had left the weightier matters of the Law undone. With tough love, Jesus sought to expose their moral corruption:
 

·       “They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.” (Matthew 23:5-7)

Jesus had wanted to humble them, but this is the last thing in the world that they wanted. Instead, they were very content to excel at addition and subtraction and had no inclination to take the moral law to the next level to examine their conceit.

What lessons were to be learned at the next level? Above all else, humility and the knowledge that we cannot truly keep the Law! Instead, the Law was given to teach us that we fall far short of even the moral demands of our conscience. Consequently, Paul had written:

·       Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:19-20)

Paul had argued that the main purpose of the Law was to elicit feelings of shame by showing us our moral depravity and, in this way, to lead us to the mercy of our Savior (Galatians 3:22-24).

When we face the facts that we have done wrong and confess our moral failures, we know that we have done the right thing and feel relief, even when the offended party refuses to forgive us. But how much more freeing it is to know that God accepts our apology, forgives, and entirely cleanses us from the resulting filth of our sins (1 John 1:8-9)!

Interestingly, God’s imprinted moral law demonstrates intelligent Design, similar to the laws of science. These laws written upon our conscience might be harder to see and to measure, but we can directly experience them, and, with some practice and instruction, we can even perceive their gracious workings.