MISCELLANIES 2 and ATTEMPTED AXIOM: On Ethics

This morning I taught from Revelation 1. John has a vision of "one like the son of man" alluding to Daniel 7. This one like the son of man is the resurrected and ascended Jesus Christ. The text says he was

clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

The Lord Jesus is presented here as the final judge of the world, with all power and authority. And how does John respond?

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his hand on me, saying, "Fear not I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades."

John responds to Jesus with reverent, repentant worship. Although he knows that the only thing that makes him acceptable before God is the righteousness of Christ imputed to him by faith, a righteousness that is complete, which he can neither add to nor subtract from, he still responds to Christ with full submission.

Here's a question: Why would he do that? Why not just "be himself" (whatever that means). Why not just shake Jesus' hand, pat him on the back, and call him a righteous dude? Or why not take a moment to decide how he might use his creative abilities in the unique way God has gifted him in order to worship him in a fresh new way? All of these questions really boil down to one question: Why should Christians who are no longer condemned by the law (speaking from the sense of the ordo salutis) be concerned with obedience to it? Or, in other words, if my works of obedience or disobedience do not ultimately add to or subtract from my acceptability before God, why should I obey?

Answer:

There are three possible motivations for any moral decision:

1. To gain what I don't have.
2. To keep what I might lose.
3. Love of true excellence.

The reason Christians should obey God's law is because they love its excellence, which is another way of saying they love his excellence, since the law reflects his character. And we come to behold God as excellent, and thus the law as an expression of God's love, by grace through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6).

When Christians obey to either gain what they don't have or keep what they might lose, they are operating from the basis of legalism. When Christians disobey because their obedience doesn't add to their acceptability before God, they are operating from the basis of licentiousness, which is really just evidence that they love something other than God and his law as more excellent. When Christians obey because they have seen God as truly excellent in the person and work of Jesus Christ (i.e. the gospel), then they operate from the basis of love.

Therefore we may derive this ethical axiom:

Obedience that is not based on the love of God is disobedience.

Or . . .

The one thing that separates Christian obedience from legalism is the love of God demonstrated, received, and reciprocated according to the gospel of Jesus Christ.