Moralism is a Lie!
by Rev. Richard A. Bolland
as published in the Pagosa Springs Sun

        Christian ministers of all stripes can easily fall into a terrible trap!  It happens all the time.  The trap, (like all good traps), looks inviting, looks right, but looks can be deceiving!  The trap to which I refer is the trap of becoming a moralist. 

        A moralist speaks, writes and focuses his energy on telling people how they should live. 

        Moralists present a theology of good works and imply that if a person does enough of them, then God will be happy with them.  Lots of people will applaud moralists and moralistic teaching.  Some ministers will even resort to making people think that God tells us that if we behave better then, and only then, will He love us.  The problem is, of course, this totally misrepresents the Christian faith!

        If all we needed in the face of God’s perfect Law (summarized in the Ten Commandments), was to pull up our bootstraps and behave better, then Jesus Christ need never have come.  Indeed, if it was within human power for us to measure up to God’s expectations, then Christ’s death on the cross is completely meaningless!

        What are God’s expectations for human behavior?  That’s easy.  Jesus in Matthew 5:48 sums it all up quite clearly, He says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  You see, we simply can’t behave well enough to please God!  He wants only Holy people to populate heaven!  Unfortunately, absolutely none of us have the potential to be holy, blameless, or without sin, (Romans 3:20).  Our every inclination is to do what is in our own self-interest, not what’s in God’s interest.  We prefer our own agenda for life and often could care less what God’s will is.

        The terrible trap of moralism has misled countless people into thinking that their hope for this life and the next resides within themselves and can be produced by our own efforts.  Moralism is a lie!

        What matters is not what we have managed to do, but what Christ has accomplished for us.  It was precisely because we could not live well, that God sent His only begotten Son – God in human flesh – to live life perfectly for us.  The very perfection of Jesus Christ is a free gift given to those whose trust is solely in the accomplishments of Christ! (Romans 4:4-5)  What’s more, since we have absolutely no ability to scrub off the stain of the sins we have committed, and wanted to commit, it is Christ again who offers Himself as a sacrifice for our sins.  In other words, Jesus pays our penalty of death and hell for us!

        Now you’ve got the picture!  Jesus gives us His own resplendent life as our own.  Jesus suffers our hell and death itself so that we can live!  It’s what He has done that matters, not how well we behave!

        Now this doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care how we live.  Indeed, St. Paul writes in Romans 6:1-4, “What shall we say, then?  Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means!  We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?  Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

        It is precisely because we have been redeemed by Christ through His merits and sacrifice that we now can and want to live a life that reflects Him!  Our good works are by no means a way of currying favor with God, but are God at work in His people to do His will.  Once again, it is God’s grace at work in the life of a believer!  It is grace upon grace! 

        Moralism only points people away from Christ and to man’s efforts.  The true Gospel of Jesus Christ only points to Christ and the salvation that He has brought to mankind.  Moralism entices us to look inside ourselves to measure how well we are doing.  When we succumb to that temptation, we will only find within, doubt and fear because we so consistently fail.  The true Gospel of Jesus Christ points to the cross of Christ, the divine payment rendered for human sin, and the perfect righteousness that was given us through faith in Christ Jesus.

        So, if even Christian ministers can fall into the trap of moralism, so can everyone else.  Cling to Jesus Christ alone as your hope!  All other paths to self-improvement will completely disappoint.  Moralism offers only an illusion of hope.  Christ alone offers salvation!