Permit me to drop this bombshell, God is not a Moralist. Yes, he is a holy, just and righteous God but He is not a moralist, has never been and will never be. God’s primary goal for man is not to turn men to moral people but to make them righteous. Now, what does it mean to be righteous or what is righteousness? According to scriptures, Righteousness is a right standing with God without any sense of guilt and shame. I put it this way, Righteousness is standing before God without feeling guilty like you have done nothing wrong. Roms3:23-24(AMP)- “Since all have sinned and are falling short of the glory of the honor and glory which God bestows and receives. All are justified made righteous and in right standing with God, freely and gratuitously by his grace (His unmerited favor and mercy), through the redemption which is provided in Christ”.
The word “JUSTIFIED” in the Greek means to declare someone not guilty or to declare someone righteous. We grew up thinking righteousness is living right, well, living right is one of the result of righteousness but it is not righteousness by itself. Righteousness is right standing before God and it gives birth to right living within the course of time as a fellow keeps believing in the reality that he is standing before God without guilt. Now, a moralist can live right and do all things right but if he refuses to believe Jesus and receive the righteousness of Christ, he can never be called a righteous man. In fact, he will go to hell. An example of a moralist is the story of the Pharisee and the publican. The Pharisee who we can consider a moralist was rejected by God even with all his moral qualification. But you see, the publican realizing his sinful state and acknowledging only God can save went Justified, that is, he was declare righteous. Beloved, God is not a moralist. This can be seen in the story of Cornelius. With all the moral works done by Cornelius, giving arms, praying etc., God still told him to call Peter to show him the way. This way, is the way to be righteous and the way to be saved. Let’s get this, if Cornelius had died before meeting Peter, he would have gone to hell but our just God was merciful enough to show him the right path.
Righteous is far from being moral. Rom4:5 AMP- But to one who, not working (by the law), trusts (believes fully) in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited to him as righteous (the standing acceptable to God). My God! Did you see that, ‘one who does not work’ To a moralist, it will be “one who works”. But you see, man’s work to be Righteous (to be acceptable before God) is a filthy rag. That scripture also said God justifies the ungodly. Ungodly there means “a wicked man or a sinner”. He declares a sinner who believes in him as righteous,
The reason why God still called Abraham a prophet even after he lied (Gen20:1-7), was because Abraham has already been declared righteous by Faith. Your righteousness is not tied to what you did in the past, what you are doing now or will do in the future. It is tied to what Jesus did for you on the cross. 1corin1:30 say’s “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who is made us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption”. Christ is now your righteousness, your holiness which means sanctification and the price he paid is for your justification and salvation.
Now, I conclude with this, because God is not a moralist does not mean he doesn’t hate sin, he hates sin and that’s why he punished all our Sin (past, present and future) in the body of Jesus, so that we will never be punished for sin any more. He destroyed the power of sin and brought man to the place of “NOT GUILTY”. Beloved don’t try to be a moralist, all you need is to be righteous and the good news is that you have already been made righteous because you believe in all that Jesus did on the cross. Hope this blessed you? Remain blessed.
Written by Oladotun Gbolagunte
