While living
on what the singing group The Temptations called this “ball of confusion” most
every day, people hear the term “moral outrage” carelessly thrown around,
usually in the context of moral mud fights broadcasted on both news and social
media. The irony of those fights, however, is that even while people are
fighting and debating about ethical issues, ethical ambiguity continues to
litter our cultural landscape like confetti on a football field after a Super
Bowl victory.
After all, in
the words of the Buffalo Springfield song For What It’s Worth,
“nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong.” Right? Or wrong? Or can anyone really say
(or protest!) what is right or what is wrong?
Despite existing in this moral malaise, regardless
of all the ethical infighting in this post-Genesis 3, fallen, ethically
discombobulated, and confused world, the good news is that Scripture reveals a
place where a Bible-believing Christian finds clear insight into anti-Christian
ethical thinking. Tucked away in Genesis 3:5, there is a verse revealing the
foul fountain from which all the polluted streams of wrong ethics and ethical
theories flow. The better this basic dastardly dynamic of anti-Christian ethics
revealed in Genesis 3:5 is understood,
the more clarity Christians will have when discussing any ethical
issue.
What is that
basic dynamic? This article considers the context, basic questions, and
underlying dynamic of ethical decision making so that Christians will be better
equipped to cut through the fog of daily modern ethical pronouncements people
make and see with greater clarity what is really going on
whenever anyone, anywhere makes any kind of ethical statement like, “X (this
action/belief/disposition) is right/wrong/good/evil (or any other moral
designation).”
THE CONTEXT
OF ETHICAL DECISION MAKING
In Genesis 2:16, the Lord God offers Adam a
gracious, generous invitation: “You are free to eat from any tree in the
garden.”Then, He posts a “No Trespassing” sign by adding a straightforward,
clear command and warning: “But you must not eat from the tree of
knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it, you will surely die.”
Like the
amazing, wise Heavenly Father He is, God clearly communicates His gracious
generosity, sets the standard, and sounds the siren warning to Adam about the
consequences of disobeying His command. This context of God giving gracious
gifts with moral instructions about how to enjoy the blessings He gives
continues throughout Scripture. God locates His commands in the context of His
grace.
In Genesis 3, the “father of lies” combines an
outright lie, “You will not surely die” with a half-truth, for God
knows that when you eat of it (the tree God commanded not to eat of), your eyes
will be opened and you will be like God” (Gen. 3:4–5a).The strategy employed by
the devil of combining lies and half-truths continues unabated from Genesis
3 until this present day.
After all,
since it works, and it works well, it is a safe bet that the devil will persist
with his successful strategy. And, the strategy he employs enjoys a
media-friendly status. As Mark Twain famously observed, “A lie can travel
halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
THE BASIC
QUESTIONS OF ETHICS
When
encountering Genesis 3:5, one
fundamental question to consider is this: How will the man and the woman
(they were with each other in the garden: 3:6) be like God? Surely not in their
essence. No part of what God has created can or ever will slide up some “scale
of being” and graduate into godhood. Attaining godhood would be impossible,
especially considering the Creator-creation distinction revealed throughout the
Bible, beginning in Genesis 1:1.
People can,
however, as the image-bearers of God, exercise one godlike prerogative. Verse
3:5b reveals how mankind may be tempted to do what only Godshould do:
“knowing good and evil.”
Another
fundamental question to consider is this: HOW does God KNOW good and evil? Was
He taught it in a University Ethics 101 class? No. Did He discover it in a
book? No. Did He consult a public opinion poll? Again, no. In verse 5, when
it comes to what God does, to “know” something is to determine it.
In other
words, God Himself DETERMINES what is good and evil, out of love, by His grace
and for the good of His image-bearers. That is the way the Bible
applies the idea of “knowing“to God. To “know“means
to “determine” (Gen. 18:19; Ex. 3:19; Jer. 1:5).
In the Bible,
another nuance of “knowing“ties into the idea of determining
good and evil. In 1 Kings 3:9, to
“know”carries the idea of functioning like a judge deciding for oneself what
is good and evil. The fundamental idea is that when a person decides or
determines what is good and evil, that person assumes a prerogative that
belongs to God and God alone.
Moreover,
this autonomous decision involves a selfish, inward-turned dynamic on the part
of those who bear the image of God—a dynamic of distrusting Him and denying
that when it comes to the issue of determining the right and good thing,
ultimately, Father Knows Best.
THE BASIC,
CONSTANT DYNAMIC
The basic
dynamic of non-Christian ethical decision making hasn’t changed since that dark
day in Eden. The tune of the temptation may change, the recording equipment may
be more high-tech, but the song remains the same. Every day, people are tempted
to be like God, determining good and evil for themselves rather
than trusting the ethical directives He has revealed—His Absolute, unchanging
Standards—as the final authority for what is good and what is evil.
In their
fallen condition of mistrust and self-determination, people forfeit many
opportunities to live the good and full life prescribed and promised in
Law-Word of the Lord (Deut. 32:47). In fact,
fallen, sinful people living in a post-Genesis 3 world establish their own
laws, norms, and standards.
With their
ethical decisions and pronouncements, fallen humanity demonstrates an
unwillingness to be bound to any ultimate reference point beyond themselves. In
modern ethics, mankind becomes the measure, not God. Autonomous ethical
decision making constantly manifests itself in fundamental expressions of
selfish, inward-turned love.
THE ORIGINAL
SIN, PLAYED IN A CONTINUOUS LOOP
The original
sin of mankind, then, was (and still is) to distrust God, to disobey the clear
command of God, and to determine good and evil for themselves. Every day, many
times a day, the descendants of Adam and Eve (all people) make autonomous
ethical decisions rather than living under the authority of the Law God has
given to them.
By This Standard: The Authority of God’s Law Today
Addressing the authority of God’s Word, the words of Christ and the New Testament apostles and overall ethic standards, Dr. Bahnsen defines in common language the application of God’s law in everyday life.
By This
Standard: The Authority of God’s Law Today
Addressing
the authority of God’s Word, the words of Christ and the New Testament apostles
and overall ethic standards, Dr. Bahnsen defines in common language the
application of God’s law in everyday life.
Even in their
rebellion against the Law of God, however, people cannot get away from the work
of the Law written on their hearts (they are always in their minds and
emotional commitments)—establishing ethical boundaries and judging others based
on those boundaries. The boundaries fallen people living in a fallen
world set, however, are self-determined rather than divinely
determined by the Law-Word reveled ethical prescriptions God gives (Rom. 2:14–15).
Because of
this original treasonous act of self-determination of good and evil, although
people still bear the image of God (James 3:9), the whole nature of fallen
humanity finds itself ethically twisted and turned away from God. Mankind is, by nature and by the
choices made every day, ethically separated from God because of their ongoing
sin of ethical self-determination (Isa. 59:2).
Therefore, all
people (consistent with their fallen nature) find themselves calling “evil”
“good,” and “good” “evil” (Isa. 5:20). Moreover, the
words “right,” “wrong,” “good,” “bad,” “moral,” and “immoral” have become empty
ethical containers fallen people living in a fallen world fill with whatever
meaning they desire.
Having
rejected the Absolute Standards given by God, selfish, fallen people embrace
their own standards and live a life of ethical relativism, in opposition to
God.
THE “BOTTOM
LINE” QUESTION FOR ETHICS
In light of
the sin of ethical self-determination, when dealing with a non-Christian, or when
discussing ethics with an ethically inconsistent professing Christian, a
question needs to be asked: “By what standard do you make the ethical
evaluation / judgment / pronouncement you do?” In other words, “WHO says action
“X” is good or evil?” When the “who” question is answered, the answer
reveals the bottom line of ethical decision making.
Ultimately,
either finite, fallen, fallible people determine what
behaviors are good and evil or the infinite, infallible, totally good God
Himself makes that determination. The answer to the “who says?” question
reveals the bottom line of ethical reasoning.
Christians
being renewed in the image of God (Eph. 4:23b–24; Col. 3:9–10) are called by their Creator,
Redeemer, and Law-Giver to align their ethical decision making with His determination
of good and evil rather than playing God and self-determining good and evil for
themselves (Psalm 1). After all, ultimately, the determination of good and evil
is a call God alone is qualified to make!
Those who desire to follow their own ethical
self-determinations and rebel against the Lord God would do well to repent
(change) and follow His determinations. Otherwise, moral mud
fights will remain the order of the day, people will continue to function as
their own little gods, and ethical reasoning will just become muddier!