God IS the standard.

What is the standard for morality? Is it arbitrary, did God create it, can he change it? I was mulling over how I would answer these questions this week. I knew that I would want to explain that true righteousness can only be found in Christ. That morality is not arbitrarily what God “decides it should be”. Why can I say this so confidently? Because God IS the standard of morality. He IS Righteousness. As the sermon on the mount puts it, when we hunger and thirst for righteousness we are satisfied. We are satisfied not because of a law or a code that is found, or decided upon, but because to be filled with righteousness is to be filled with God. The living, powerful God Who has no beginning or end. The unchanging (immutable) God. Since He is eternal and immutable, then all that is truly Good and Perfect also does not change and did not begin; because He was, and is, and is to come. The world’s standard changes with the whim of pop culture, with the urges and desires of man, but God remains unchanged and Holy. God is the standard of morality.

All that is in opposition to Who God is, His Purity, His Holiness, is therefore in opposition to God himself. That is why God describe those who have their minds set upon satisfying the very urges that oppose Him, as His enemy.

The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
Romans 8:7-8

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
James 4:4

This is kind of scary, I mean every time we decide to indulge the desires of the flesh we are literally taking a stand against God. Against THE God of the universe who determines are very breath and life.

However, when we choose to submit our mind and bodies to Him, we are taking a stand against the ruler of all that opposes God as James 4:7-8 says

Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

I was thinking about this even further, I mean there has been times in my life where although what I was doing was “technically” or “legalistically” (in a religious sense) acceptable I knew that God did not want me to do it. He was calling me to trust Him and obey Him. Although I could be justified before man, I couldn’t before Him because it was not God’s will for my life. What then? If it is in opposition to God’s will, it is in opposition to Him. Disobedience, or to violate/fail to respect and comply with God’s will, is therefore immorality in and of itself. It is immoral, or wrong, to oppose what is perfect and pure, to oppose God.

How are we to know what God’s will is for our life? Romans 12:1-2 has the answer:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

In other words, as our minds are transformed by the Spirit we begin to have discernment and are able to better hear God’s voice. To better see the way God has for us. But, in order for this to happen we must repent and give up, or sacrifice our sinful ways. We must submit to God so that His Spirit can be in control, instead of our own desires.

God calls us to do this now, while we still have breath, before our soul passes outside of time, into eternity. He sits upon the law in a seat of mercy. Christ’s perfect blood has been shed to pay the price for sinful opposition and to protect all who come and bow before Him, the Holy One. Death has been defeated so that in God’s great mercy life can be restored to those who were at enmity with the Author and Giver of Life. Not because of anything done on the part of the enemy, but because God IS Love, unconditional love.