Jonah 2:9 - “Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
Are you a moralist or a relativist?
Moralist: one who trusts in a moral life as his/her hope.
Relativist: one who lives according to their own standards and desires.
A good example of both is given to us in the familiar parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32 . The elder brother is the moralist: “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command.” The younger brother is the relativist: “ . . . he squandered his property in reckless living.”
Both brothers were using something against the father to stay away from him in order to control him. The younger brother was using his immorality, and the elder brother his morality. The unbeliever lives by one of these two paradigms. They have not sought to humbly submit to the Father’s care and turn from their rebellion by trusting that Christ has paid for both their ‘bad’ behavior as well as their supposed ‘good’ behavior.
At one time or another, or even in one hour or another, we who profess Christ also swing between the two paradigms forgetting that Christ has paid for both sets of sins. Sometimes we live like a relativist running from God declaring our independence. At other times we run from God in our moralism thinking that we are getting this Christian life right and deserve God’s favor.
Whether you are an unbeliever or a believer, you still need Christ.
Jonah was a believing moralist who needed to see that neither his ‘good’ behavior, his family line (Jewish), nor his religious practice merited any more salvation from God than the evil practice of the worst of relativists (Ninevites) de-merited God’s salvation. Salvation, through and through, belongs to the Lord. He draws us to trust in His Son and He continues to grow those who trust in Him. With patience and long suffering He reveals our heart of continued distrust so that we might trust Him more.
No comments:
Post a Comment