There have been a lot of articles in the news lately
concerning a recent Pew Research Center poll concerning the necessity of believing
in God to be moral and have good values.
Before this question can be answered, you have to define what is good
and moral. As a Christian, I hold firmly
to the truth that only God has the authority to define those terms; and He has
done so in His word, the Bible. No one person
or group of persons has/have the authority to make that decision for others. They may come together to form governments or
institutions etc. and establish laws that make things legal or not, permissible
or not; but that doesn’t mean that those laws define what is good or moral in
the opinion of others. If one dismisses
a higher authority than man, every man is free to make such determinations on
his own. Only God, as our Creator, has
that authority.
God has sovereignly chosen to give men the freedom to make
their own choices concerning whether to accept Him as LORD or not, whether to
choose to live in accordance with His truth as established in scripture. Are
there unsaved people in the world that choose to live in a manner that basically
aligns with many of the morals established in scripture? I believe so.
If you ask them why, they will
probably answer that it is because they want to do good, all the while
rejecting the truth that God is the arbiter of what is good. Are their people who profess salvation that
choose to ignore the morals of scripture in areas of their life? Yes.
If you ask them why, the only honest answer they can give is that they
haven’t yielded their lives completely to the LORD; they are more concerned
with what pleases them instead of what pleases God. Important to note, however, is that if that
person can continue in such sin without guilt or shame, I would wonder if their
profession was sincere. If one sincerely
realizes the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross on his/her behalf to make
it possible to become part of His family, you will want to show your love to
Him.
So, the phrasing of the question is important to framing an
answer. Can an unsaved person do good
and moral things? The answer is
yes. Can an unsaved person be defined as
a good person? No. It is only through the new birth in Christ at
salvation that one becomes good or righteous.
2 Corinthians 5:17 & 21 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all
things are become new…. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him.”
Just had to
get that off my chest.
