Journal: Reformation and Revival
Volume: RAR 05:4 (Fall 1996)
Article: The Heart of Christian Ethics
Author: George M. Bowman

RAR 5:4 (Fall 1996) p. 19

The Heart of Christian Ethics

George M. Bowman

Many years ago in China a student approached the missionary he had just heard preaching the Gospel and asked, “Do I understand you correctly, Sir?”

“What do you mean?” asked the missionary.

“Here in China,” said the student, “we have a hard time getting people to do what they ought to do. If I understand you correctly, the Gospel of Jesus Christ makes people want to do what they ought to do. Is that right?”

In those few words the Chinese student pointed up the folly of legalism and revealed the heart of Christian ethics. Legalism is not the road to ethical living as some teach. It did not work for the children of Israel and it doesn’t work for Christians. Under the ethics of the old Law covenant God commanded obedience to His laws with strong threats of punishment (including the death penalty) for disobedience. That is why, in 2 Corinthians 3, Paul called the law “the ministry of death” and “the ministry of condemnation” whose glory was not to be compared to the glory of “the ministry of righteousness” in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Great Motivator

Israel failed miserably to comply with the Law covenant because the biblical ethic was not merely an external obedience; it had to come from an inner moral force that only God could provide. God provided this inner morality in the new covenant of the Gospel of His redeeming grace in Jesus Christ. Under the ethics of that new covenant God sends His Spirit to indwell the believer so that he is enabled to obey the Lord, not by compulsion, but by impulsion. The mature believer does not see Christian ethics as a system of abstinences, but as a positive godliness that emanates from his regenerated spirit. By using the new birth to implant a new life principle within us, the Holy Spirit gives us the desire and the ability to believe in Jesus Christ for

RAR 5:4 (Fall 1996) p. 20

salvation and to repent of our sins.

That act of regeneration also plants the seed of love for God and our neighbors. That love is the great motivator behind the Christian ethic. “If you love Me,” said Christ, “you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). The clear implication in these words is that a genuine love for the Lord Jesus Christ includes a sincere desire to keep His commandments.

Christ’s major contribution to Christian ethics was His love for sinners as demonstrated in His willingness to die for them that they might have a new life of obedience to God. That is what the Christian religion is all about. The Bible...