4/12/76; 3/28/79; Spiritual Dynamics 4, 7/4/92
A. Definition.
1. The believer must learn to distinguish between the spiritual life and morality and at the same time to understand morality’s relationship to the Christian life.
2. Morality is defined as right conduct and excellence in the practice and function of the laws of divine establishment. Morality is conformity to the rules of right conduct as delineated in establishment principles, such as, what the Scripture teaches about establishment, Rom 13:1-10. Morality is conformity to the laws of divine establishment, the duties and responsibilities toward establishment principles. Morality pertains to the character, conduct, ethics, motivations, and integrity related to the laws of divine establishment found in the word of God. Morality is the doctrine of the duties and responsibilities of all mankind in the direction of establishment.
a. Morality is virtue in sexual matters, or chastity. Hence, morality is right conduct related to divine institutions.
b. Morality is right conduct in marriage as a divine institution.
c. Morality is right conduct in family function; for the family is also a divine institution.
d. Morality is right conduct in conformity to the laws of a nation, since nationalism is a divine institution, Acts 17:26; Rom 13:1-10.
3. Since divine institutions such as marriage, family, government are for both believers and unbelievers alike, morality is for believers and unbelievers alike. Conformity to the principles of morality as stated in divine institutions is the heritage of both believers and unbelievers. Both believers and unbelievers must recognize that morality belongs to the human race. Morality is the only way we can live together and at the same time have our privacy and our freedom to fail or succeed in life. In order to perpetuate the human race during the angelic conflict, God designed a set of laws to guarantee privacy, freedom, property and the perpetuation of the human race. These laws are called establishment. Morality is the basis for the function of the laws of divine establishment for both believer and unbeliever.
4. The believer is mandated by the word of God to be a moral person and to fulfill his obligation of right conduct within the framework of the national entity. Jesus emphasized the fact that believers have moral obligations and responsibilities when He said, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.”
5. In order to perpetuate the human race in the postdiluvian civilization from Noah to the Second Advent and in order to fulfill the divine purpose in the creation of mankind, morality was designed for compatibility with establishment principles.
B. Morality and Christianity.
1. The believer is mandated to be moral on the one hand, but on the other hand he is mandated by the word of God to live in a realm much higher than the system of morality found in establishment. He is mandated to a higher responsibility and purpose for a life that is not only dealing with mankind but also with billions of angels who are watching as part of the angelic conflict. Since the unbeliever can be and often is extremely moral, obviously the Christian should be able to match the morality of the unbeliever. Anything that the unbeliever can do is not the spiritual life. Anything the unbeliever can do is not the Christian way of life. The unbeliever can be moral but not spiritual. The unbeliever can be very moral and very wonderful. The spiritual life is the monopoly of the believer. The believer does not reject morality, but has a higher calling. Morality belongs to the entire human race. The spiritual life is given to every believer at the moment of salvation as a part of our portfolio of invisible assets.
2. There are three basic problems for believer as he faces the morality issue.
a. Morality is not the way of salvation, nor is morality the postsalvation spiritual life of the believer.
(1) Morality is a lifestyle, but it is not the way of salvation. When morality is adopted as the way of salvation, then there is no salvation; for only faith in Jesus Christ can provide eternal life.
(2) While morality is not the way of salvation, it is related to our spiritual life through the doctrine of hamartiology. The first danger is related to personal sin, many of which also violate the laws of divine establishment as it relates to morality. Since the power of the spiritual life is the filling of the Holy Spirit, and since any form of sin on the part of the believer removes that power and control in our lives, violation of morality principles related to sin is, therefore, destructive to our spiritual life. For example, when the believer violates the morality principles of the Mosaic Law, he is in a state of sin, which destroys his spiritual life unless corrected by the principles related to rebound and keep moving.
(3) Sexual sins, criminal sins, chemical sins, etc., result in sin nature control of the soul, antinomianism, reversionism, Christian immoral degeneracy. Any of the overt sins described in the Mosaic Law are a destruction of our spiritual life. While morality is not the spiritual life as such, lack of morality destroys the spiritual life as such.
b. Just as salvation is by grace through faith in Christ, so the spiritual life is based on postsalvation grace from God in which God provides more grace; He provides the spiritual power to fulfill and to execute God’s plan for our lives. This power exists for every believer in two categories: the power of the filling of the Spirit and the power of the word of God—metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness of the right lobe of the soul.
c. The third danger has to do with legalism. Morality and the works of the Mosaic Law have a way of squeezing out grace, leaving a pulp of arrogance and the sins of the soul. Morality without humility produces a subtle form of arrogance, which is destructive to our very own spiritual life. God makes war against the arrogant believer, but He gives grace to the humble believer, Jas 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5.
(1) Your spiritual life can only function under grace orientation. Therefore, your spiritual life is related to doctrinal orientation, metabolized doctrine in the stream of consciousness.
(2) When the believer becomes proud of his morality or uses his morality as leverage to manipulate others or to enter into the function of Christian activism and civil disobedience, that believer has destroyed his spiritual life through the violation of morality code of the word of God. Civil disobedience violates Rom 13:1-10.
(3) Christian activism adopts the anti-morality concept that the means justifies the end. Therefore, Christian activism destroys property, life, abolishes privacy and all principles of human freedom. Most detrimental is self-righteous arrogance and the legalism of Christian activism which totally ignores the mandates and objectives of the spiritual life.
(4) When the sin nature takes control of the moral person, the sins of the soul plus the lust pattern of the soul take complete control of that believer’s life. The sins produced include jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, vilification, malice, revenge motivation and operandi. The sins of the emotional complex also surface— fear, worry, anxiety, panic, irrationality, dissociation, denial, projection, animosity, self-pity, the guilt complex. The sins of the lust pattern become pseudo motivation for life—power and approbation lust, social and sexual lust, pleasure and chemical lust, greed, avarice, criminal lust, crusader lust, lust for revenge, malice, inflicting suffering on others.
3. The illustration for this is forgiveness.
a. The morality of forgiveness has problems; for it is often used as leverage, causing manipulation by guilt or justifying wrong conduct.
b. The function of forgiveness in the spiritual life avoids these distractions. The warning to the spiritual life regarding forgiveness is given in Eph 4:30-32, “Stop grieving the Holy Spirit, the God by whom you have been sealed to the day of redemption. All bitterness both anger and wrath both quarreling and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. Become kind [grace orientation] toward one another, compassionate [impersonal love], forgiving each other, just as God also by means of Christ has forgiven us.” God blotted out our transgressions at the moment we believed in Christ. Forgive and forget is spiritual forgiveness. We are to forgive without reaction later on, without accompanying sins of the soul, such as bitterness.
4. Morality is for believers and unbelievers alike, while the spiritual life is for believers only. This does not imply that the spiritual life rejects morality but adds a dimension related to regeneration.
5. Christianity is not morality but a relationship to God through Christ, 2 Cor 5:17. However, in the Christian way of life, morality is the result, not the means of living the Christian way of life. When filled with the Holy Spirit, you are moral. Morality is not Christianity, but a by-product of the function of any adult person under the laws of divine establishment. Morality forbids fornication in the spiritual life, Eph 5:3, “But fornication and all licentiousness or insatiable erotic desire should not even be mentioned by you as is protocol for the saints.” This is passage is directed toward believers even though the subject is morality. While the plan of grace does not give the believer a license to sin, nor does the Bible condone antinomianism, nevertheless, morality has no spiritual dynamics in the Christian way of life.
6. Morality is a part of Christian modus operandi along with, and not in contradiction to, your spiritual life.
C. The Limitations of Morality.
1. Morality cannot provide eternal salvation, Tit 3:5; Gal 2:16, 3:2; Rom 3:20, 28.
2. Morality cannot produce the spiritual life, Gal 3:2-3, “This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish that having begun by means of the Spirit, you are now trying to be perfected by the flesh?”
3. Morality cannot advance the believer in the protocol plan of God. However, immorality can hinder the believer from executing the plan of God, because immorality puts him out of fellowship.
4. Morality cannot produce the enabling power of the filling of the Holy Spirit.
5. Morality cannot provide maturity, escrow blessing, or evidence testing, which glorify God.
D. The true dynamics of Christianity is virtue, not morality.
1. Experiential sanctification and/or Christian maturity constitutes the true dynamics of Christianity.
2. Experiential sanctification is a combination of the balance of maximum metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness and the enabling power (filling) of the Holy Spirit in the divine dynasphere. This combination exists when the believer has cracked the maturity barrier through the daily momentum of metabolized doctrine applied during momentum testing.
3. While the mature believer and growing believer are moral, Christian dynamics, while including morality, exceed morality greatly.
4. The virtue-love, honor, and integrity produced by personal love for God and impersonal love for all mankind inside the operational divine dynasphere are far greater than any morality which man might produce.
E. The Present Purpose of Morality.
1. Morality is designed for the function of freedom, making evangelism possible in every generation of human history. Morality protects human freedom, i.e., the Ten Commandments. Morality guarantees that human freedom whereby the local church can function in providing Bible Doctrine for spiritual growth.
2. Morality is designed for client nation function as well as freedom to resolve the prehistoric angelic conflict. Morality is designed by God for survival and the perpetuation of the human race in the angelic conflict. Morality is designed by God for the function of human freedom in relationship to the issues of the angelic conflict, i.e., salvation, spiritual growth, divine blessing. Morality creates the environment of freedom for you to be saved and take in doctrine.
3. Morality fulfills the divine institutions of volition, marriage, family, and nationalism and demands the believer be a participant in any fight against tyranny.
F. The Sources of Morality. There are two sources of morality: the old sin nature (the area of strength) and the filling of the Holy Spirit.
See Ephesians #264 and #265 for a discussion of morality versus virtue. The context is Elihu’s speech in Job 35:4-8 on how neither immorality nor morality affect God; they only affect man. Therefore, in God’s plan, virtue is the issue.