Reading Quotes: Christianity Is Not Morality, by Jim Fowler

Christianity asserts that God alone is autonomous, independent and self-existent. Everything and everyone else is dependent and derivative.

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We can only really know what good is by knowing God through Jesus Christ. But, again, knowing God and His goodness is not just cerebral, theoretical or academic; such must be living and personal.

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The knowing of God's goodness is not to be solidified, objectified, codified in law-form (Law) or a static written record (Bible), nor formulated and systematized in a static belief-system which becomes "dead letter" (II Cor. 3:6,7; Rom. 2:29).

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The revealing and the knowing of God's goodness is by an ever-dynamic personal revelation of God as to how He desires to express His goodness in us uniquelly and novelly; a new, fresh, spontaneous and living expression of His goodness which can never be contained or explained. God's goodness is knowable only as He reveals Himself.

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Only God can actively express His goodness. It is not a commodity to be distributed. It is not a moral pattern to be imitated. God's goodness can be expressed within His creation in human behavior, only by His own energizing, empowering and enabling, i.e. His grace.

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The expression of goodness in human behavior is always contingent upon God's generating expression of His own character (grace), and the derivative receptivity of God's activity by man (faith).

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God is essentially, inherently, intrinsically, constitutionally, absolutely, perfectly, ultimately, singularly, autonomously, independently, exclusively, supremely, sovereignly, totally, wholly, uniquely, personally, eternally, really good.

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When we say that "God is good," we do not mean that God belongs to a class of "goodness" or that God conforms to a "standard of goodness." Nor do we mean that God symbolizes "goodness" or is to be classified, categorized or characterized within a category of "goodness."

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If "God is good" because He serves a purpose, then the purpose is higher than God. If "God is good" because He conforms to a moral standard, then the standard is higher than God.

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Another subtle mistake is to say that "God is good" because He does good. Divine activity then becomes the objective basis of determining God's character. God's goodness would then be based on His performance.

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Christian theology must commence with who God is, not with what God does; not His plan, His purposes, His decrees, His sovereignty, His actions. It is a subtle form of idolatry to allow the conduct of God to supplant and supersede the character of God; the performance of God to be the basis of the Person of God.

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Morality destroys the freedom to be and do whatever God wants to be and do in us. The rigid chains of moral inflexibility allow for no novelty, newness, no spontaneity of fresh expression of the Spirit.

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Jacques Ellul notes that

"morality is the means whereby the Christian dodges death in Christ and fashions a living way of his own. It is the worst of all illusions."

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Morality is a religious inevitability. Wherever you find religion you will find morality? They are always "coupled" together. Why? Because religion is a man-made, satan-inspired, social organization that requires morality standards to give it external form, to give it raison d'etre, to cement loyalty and conformity, and to keep the guilt payments coming in. As people perceive their inability to please and appease God by their inadequate moral behavior, they seek to buy off their sin in "indulgences."

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"...the Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. ...the Christian thinks that any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him."

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"The container never becomes the contents."

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Paul's explanation of Christian behavior is that of "the manifestation of the life of Jesus in our mortal bodies" (II Cor. 4:10,11); not by any human imitation of Christ's behavioral goodness. Christian living is not "monkey see, monkey do," the parrotting or apeing of reproduced external behavior.

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This gracious personal revelation of His goodness in and through us as Christian is ever-new, novel, unique, fresh and spontaneous. It cannot be explained in ecclesiastical rules and regulations. It cannot be contained in codifications of conduct. It cannot be retained and restrained in repetitive rituals. It cannot be objectified into Biblical blueprints. It cannot be made static. God's expressions of goodness cannot be put in a box!

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Jesus allows us the freedom to express His goodness in our behavior.

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The religionist only understands freedom as freedom from something rather than freedom to God's intent. He seems only to conceive of freedom in the context of law, rather than freedom of function. So there is nothing that frightens the religionist or moralist more than freedom from the legal standards of good behavior that have been posited in place of God. They reason, "If man is free from the law, free from moral codes, free from the religious manipulation thereof, there is no telling what man might do. It would be chaos!" It is thereby revealed that they have not taken God into account; they only understand "goodness" in the idolatrous context of conformity to behavioral law codes.

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Behavioral goodness is a fruit of the Spirit of Christ... It is not that we produce or manufacture goodness or perform goodness, but we bear the fruit of goodness derived from the dynamic of God's divine character. Jesus says, "I am the vine; you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).

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Most of the New Testament is an exposé of religion; an explanation of the dichotomous difference of Christianity from all religion, especially from the religion of Judaism. Throughout the gospels Jesus exposes and disposes the Pharisees. His parables are poignant pictorial parodies of the religious premises and practices of Pharisaical Judaism. The book of Acts is an historical narrative of nascent Christianity breaking free from the religion of Judaism. Paul's letter to the Romans explains that righteousness is not in religion, but only in Christ. The letter to the Galatians explains the dichotomy of the gospel and religion. The letter to the Hebrews explains that the new covenant in Christ forever obsoletes and abrogates the old covenant of Jewish religion. So with every other book of the New Testament.

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Despite this gloriously liberating reality of the Christian gospel, the natural, religious man does not like "grace" and "freedom;" it takes away all his "control."