Christian Ethics

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. ( Romans 6:12-14 )

What are the moral or ethical implications of the doctrines of grace?  If God has saved us all of His grace-and in no way contingent on what we think or do-are we then logically free to live in sin?  This abominable idea seems to lie at the heart of Paul's critics who falsely charged him with believing "Let us do evil that good may come."  ( Romans 3:8 )  No doubt Paul is confronting that acrimonious charge in the sixth chapter of Romans.  Instead of agreeing with the criticism-he rejected it as a slanderous misrepresentation of his teachings in that verse-Paul here affirms the true implications of grace in the life of one whom God has so saved, the only way anyone can be saved.

Rather than viewing himself and the Romans as being passive robots in the hands of a puppeteer deity, Paul urges the Romans to specific action.  "Let not…" is not a passive phrase, but rather an imperative, a command.  In the language of the New Testament the verb appears in the present tense.  The action called for requires present immediate response from the Romans.  It is in the active voice, meaning that Paul expects the Romans to do something, not merely sit by passively while God or outside forces orchestrate them to action.  Finally the verb is in the imperative mood.  Paul is commanding the Romans to do something.  The analogy that he draws through the subsequent verses exemplifies the active role that he expects-commands- the Romans to pursue as a result of his teaching.  He draws the dual analogies of soldier and servant.  A soldier equips himself with armor and presents himself to his commanding officer, ready to follow commands and to actively engage the enemy on the field of battle.  A servant doesn't ignore the instructions of his master, merely choosing to do as he pleases, when and how he pleases.  He "submits" his will and energy to his master and applies all of his efforts and energy to the task assigned by the master.

Paul applies this dual analogy to the Romans in a focused and convicting manner.  When a soldier "yields" his life and armor to his commanding officer, he pledges loyalty to that officer as the army engages the enemy in combat.  First century warfare was not nearly so remote and impersonal as much of twenty first century warfare is.  Essentially all the major activities of warfare involved some form of person to person, hand to hand combat.  Thus Paul applies his teaching to the Romans to this "down-and-dirty" personal, in-the-trenches kind of strategy.  In keeping with Paul's analogy, it would be as logical for a Christian to equivocate between righteousness and sin as for a first century soldier to change sides in the midst of a hand to hand battle with the enemy.  The moment you submit to the authority of your commanding officer you commit to his army and pledge faithful service-life and limb-to him in battle.  Can you imagine the utter chaos involved in a first century military campaign if the soldiers were constantly moving back and forth between sides, one moment fighting for one army and the next minute fighting for the opposing army?  For Paul such chaos is the equivalent of a child of God one moment yielding his life and body to sin and the next moment submitting to righteousness.

The service of the faithful Christian is a voluntary and willing-joyfully willing-service, not a reluctant, compelled, or manipulated service.  "Yield" repeatedly appears in this context in the form of a command, not merely a passive or involuntary act.  Paul's critics seemingly failed to understand his teachings on the sovereignty of God in salvation.  Based on Paul's interaction with them leading up to his rejection of their charge as slanderous in Romans the third chapter, it appears that they charged Paul with believing that he was a mere puppet in God's hands, merely doing what God programmed him to do.  Paul's analogies in the sixth chapter of Romans follow his logical rejection of their charge in the third chapter.

From the first chapter of Genesis, Scripture consistently affirms that God's creation of humanity was wholly unique and distinct from His creation of all other forms matter or of life for that matter.  Inorganic matter was created under divinely instituted laws of physics and chemistry.  It consistently responds to various environmental factors in ways wholly consistent with the natural laws that control and govern it.  Based on the laws of gravity, if you release a coin from your hand, it will fall to the ground.  Inorganic matter has no intelligence and no moral conscience.

God also made man-Adam and Eve initially-altogethe r different in quality and character from other forms of life.  Neither plant life nor animal life possesses a moral conscience.  What does Scripture intend by the various statements that God made mankind in his image and after his likeness?  Some Christian scholars will appeal to the Trinity and affirm that God made humans in His likeness in that He made mankind with a tri-unity of essential constitution; body, soul, and spirit, while some equally respected Christian scholars reject this view, holding that mankind is essential dichotomous, consisting of two components, material and immaterial.  Those who embrace the human constitution as something of a "trinity" often appeal to this similarity in man as the image and likeness of God.

Christian scholars offer various similarities between God and human composition as the basis for the Biblical idea that man is the uniquely and sole "life form" made in the divine image and likeness.  As God rules over the universe, so He appointed mankind to rule over Planet Earth as His steward, a point that is reasonably supported by such passages as Psalm Eight.

It is my belief that the quality of moral discernment is one of the major points in which humans are made in the image of God.  Other forms of life operate in quasi-moral ways (for example, a mother animal instinctively protecting her young), but their conduct seems more based on instinct than on moral conscience.  Aside from angels-God's immaterial created life form-humans stand alone in their possession of a conscious moral conscience.

This moral quality of humanity-created in us by our Creator God-sets us apart from all of God's creation as made in His image.  If we build our view of God's spiritual family, His new creation in Christ Jesus, on similar logic, we may logically conclude that those who are born of God possess a unique sense of God's moral nature and character that sets them apart from other humans.  Various passages that draw analogies between the new birth and God's law written in and on the immaterial part of our being are one example of this point.  Paul's analogy of circumcision of the heart ( Romans 2:28-29 ) even more specifically affirms that in the new birth God not only adds a new life principle to us, but that He also in some significant way alters the life principle that existed in us prior to regeneration.  The idea that a regenerate (born again) individual retains his/her old depraved nature, effectively untouched and unchanged by the new birth cannot stand in the face of the various Scriptures that describe the effects of the new birth such as those mentioned above.

The moral nature of man, especially the higher moral nature of a regenerate elect, forms the basis for the consistent Biblical exhortations to God's regenerate elect to actively, consciously, and willingly engage Christian actions-soldiers in the King's army and servants in the Master's house.

In our conscious, willing, and active commitment of service to God, Paul in these dual analogies affirms that we effectively place our lives in the hands of God as prepared and efficient weapons to be used by Him as He directs in the Christian warfare against Satan and sin.  The analogy of warfare and servants is divinely chosen and inspired of God.  Both soldiers in an army and servants in a wealthy household must actively, consciously, and willingly engage their duties, but they must do so under the direction and supervision of the commanding officer or the master of the house.

…as those that are alive from the dead.  Paul advances the analogy.  We are not mere inorganic and passive bricks in God's building, or inorganic swords or spears in God's hands.  We are "living weapons" whose spirits and bodies are jointly committed to God and to His cause in the battle-or service-of life under His banner.  The moral character that God created in humanity precludes any deterministic view that man acts out his life apart from a willing, conscious, and voluntary perspective.  Paul urges us to live responsibly, consistently, and faithfully, as soldiers and servants who are accountable to their commanding officer or to their master.

For Paul there is no logical or moral basis for the believer in Christ to continue living in sin.  The dominion of sin was not only legally broken at Calvary , but it was experientially and effectively broken in us at regeneration.  We live with two conflicting natures, a conflict that Paul will develop in the next chapter of his Roman letter, but the dominant moral and spiritual factor in our lives now is God, so Paul urges-commands- us to live out our lives in harmony with that life principle.  In the sixth chapter of Romans Paul lays the foundation for the seventh, but he does so in a carefully crafted form that will not allow any rationalization of sin and its ethical breach of God's moral law and character.