SortingBeans

Popular culture can have a tendency to wear on the Christian so as to fade his or her colorful faith that most evidences itself—I think—in his or her visible moral framework.

Moral Framework and Christian Identity

Please understand that I do not suggest here that moral framework alone constitutes for Christian identity, but a Christian identity necessitates a moral framework.

To be sure, Christians are convicted by and large through their moral framework. This moral framework comes from their Biblical worldview, which states that they are to behave though the filter of a transcendent moral framework because they are children of the transcendent God (Romans 8:12-14).

Being a child of God, though, does not come by observing a moral law, but instead by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit (John 1:12-13). What is then produced as a result of this regeneration is then the desire for moral obligation.

Therefore, their sense of awe and gratitude of their salvation gives them a continual reminder that their adoptions as sons and daughters of God had nothing to do with their own efforts or “goodness.”

This gratitude then drives them to the humility of their Savior (Phil. 2:7-9) and the desire to honor Him with their lives. Thus, a moral framework is realized and becomes visible to the world.

Relating this to Pop Culture

Ironically, this is the very same message that Popular culture ought to hear⎯that God is willing to save in spite of one’s own moral condition.

But in God’s willingness to regenerate hearts comes the adherence to a moral obligation transcendent of one’s own preferences.

While moral behavior and regeneration must be distinct from each other, in that the former does not necessitate the latter, it must be clear that regeneration spawns moral behavior.

It may be better understood that once regeneration occurs, God gifts the believer not with behavior, but moral goodness that enables the behavior to follow.

By this moral goodness, the regenerated heart now has the desire to live righteously, which is something it had not possessed prior to regeneration.

Moral behavior or Moral goodness: Yes

Therefore, it is important to teach in a morally bankrupt culture that regeneration spawns moral goodness, but moral behavior alone justifies no one before God. This way the hearer of this message is able to differentiate between behavior modification and Gospel regeneration, as well as understanding the importance of the followed moral behavior.



How has Gospel Regeneration and Moral Obligation made sense in your mind? How do we relate this to our culture? Drop some thoughts below.

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