Moral Superiority

Most people believe there is a G(g)od of some sort, that there is good and evil, and some kind of reckoning for what we’ve done. And there is plenty of Christian Scripture to show that God does in fact reward and punish according to the deeds we have done while in this life. Accordingly, most people again, whether in our professing Christian church circles, or post-Christian non-church culture, or of other philosophical/ religious persuasion, believe that if they are going to some reward after death, it will be on the basis of some combination of how good they have been, and a kindly forgiving great spirit. That is so strongly rooted in their minds that the only conceivable alternatives might be that there is a benevolent God who forgives and receives everybody except the most vile, willful perpetrator of atrocities, or that there is no conscious afterlife at all.

So when an Evangelical claims confidence in going to heaven on the basis of faith in Christ’s work on the cross and God’s grace, what is heard is that he must think he is morally superior to most people around him. That very idea is not only repugnant to the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ, it is also disgusting to the non-Christian world, whether they consider themselves to be no worse than the next person, or the vilest of sinners. Evangelicals are so accustomed to the vocabulary of “saved by grace” and “not of works” that it does not occur to them that others are hearing self-righteous arrogance, whether of superior knowledge or of moral character. Even the Evangelical himself must be constantly on guard against unconsciously feeling superior in understanding and good works, despite his claims otherwise.

What can we talk about then? There are the admonitions of John and James, as well as the Lord Jesus, to show our faith by our works, and be more sparing with our words. Christians are seldom faulted for actually doing good works. When we do speak of God, it can be more of his character, and of the truth of the Jesus Christ of the New Testament. When we speak of the sinfulness of man, it must always be “us” and not “them”. When we become aware that we are feeling superior in understanding or in moral fabric to the next person (which professing non-Christians seem to do just as easily as professing Christians) we must confess that to God, and to anyone else that was affected by it, and remind ourselves of what we know to be true. And we can ask God to open the eyes of those around us, as well as ourselves, to the extent of his goodness and our need. –philw