This is about gray. And black and white. And red and green. Gray is what people often try to color that which God defines in black and white.
God says, “Thou shalt not.” That is black and white. But humans often attempt to rationalize sin by fudging and smudging black and white into gray. We say things like: “Well, God probably just meant that doing this is not particularly helpful.” Or “The Bible was written a long time ago.”
Moral relativism has been around since Genesis. It often shows up in even the most unlikely of places. “High Lonesome” is a paperback western published in 1962 by Louis L’Amour. A violent outlaw by the name of Considine is the story’s main character. But this is what L’Amour says about him: “… as men go, Considine was better than most. Spanier knew that no man could be judged except against the background of his time. The customs and moral standards of a time were applicable only to that time and Considine was a man who left big tracks. He was an outlaw, but so far as Spanier knew he had been honorable except in looting stages and rarely banks or trains.”
So here is a man who occasionally loots banks and trains. How then is he still “honorable” in any way? And he’s “better than most?” So what?
Search the entire Bible and you’ll never find a shred of evidence that God is going to judge men on a curve or excuse sin because it’s only occasional. That’s gray talk.
Some folks may say, “Well, some offenses are only minor. They’re probably no big deal to God.”
But God Himself never talks about little white lies, venial sins, or minor infractions. That’s the language of man. That’s gray talk. Before a holy God, sin is sin. And according to Scripture, all sin is a major deal with God. “The soul that sins, it shall die.”
Perhaps the great surprise for some people when they stand before the Righteous Judge of the universe will be the fact that He is not going to go soft on sin. All sin is a serious matter with Him. The Bible says that “the wages of sin is death.”
Joseph Fletcher (1905-1991) authored more than 10 books and hundreds of articles during his lifetime. Early on he professed faith in God and was even ordained to the priesthood. But something went wrong and he later turned from it all. Then he advocated for abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, and cloning.
Fletcher claimed that all morality is ultimately relative and dependent on an individual’s unique circumstance in society and life. His most famous book, “Situational Ethics,” was published in 1966 and defined his views in detail.
Situational ethics claims that the end can justify the means. But as one insightful individual observed, “If values and morals are relative then they do not even exist.”
Think about that. If morality and values are not absolute and universal, or if they are dependent on anything other than the Sovereign Being who has determined and applied them to humanity, then they are also ultimately arbitrary and meaningless.
Such is increasingly the case in our age. God has been pushed aside and man is left with no certain base for truth or morality. At a national awards ceremony the entertainer Prince said, “Everything you think is true.” How profoundly false.
Not long ago Barna Research conducted a national survey. People were asked if unchanging moral absolutes exist. By a 3-to-1 margin adults said, “No — truth is always relative to a person and his situation.”
Sin-fallen men and women continue to be tempted to blend black and white into shades of gray — but we do so at our own peril. God says, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:18).
How much better to acknowledge as sin all of what God calls sin, to confess that sin, and to turn to Him for forgiveness and cleansing. (1 John 1:9-10).
Red and green are the colors of Christmas. Christmas is the story of God’s grace to all of us in Jesus. “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.” (The
Message).
The Rev. Daryl E. Witmer is founder and director of the AIIA Institute, a national apologetics ministry, and associate pastor of the Monson Community Church. He may be reached via the Web site AIIA.ChristianAnswers.Net or by e-mail at AIIAInstitute@aol.com. Voices is a weekly commentary by Maine people who explore issues affecting spirituality and religious life.