Ask Pastor Mike Live

Mike Fabarez: All right, Curtis asked the question. If you have a question, by the way, about the Bible or the Christian life, give me a call at 877-913-5357. He says, "I have a friend on Facebook who many atheists perceive as a Christian. However, in our discussion, he comes across more as a moralist than any Christian I'm familiar with." My question is, "Can you explain the difference between a moralist and a Christian?"

Yes, I can, and I can also talk at length about how the word "moralist" has been abused in discussions about Christians who are nothing more than Christians concerned about upholding the truth and authority of God's word and wanting people to respond rightly to it. Many people are called moralists simply because they point to the Bible and say, "This is what's right."

But if I'm going to boil it down to what the problem would be, if I'm going to look at it as to how I'm going to understand the word—and it should be understood and shouldn't be used beyond this—it's someone that thinks that Christianity is simply being moral. If it's simply being moral and keeping rules, and of course they can come from the Bible, I'm just saying that's not Christianity.

Christianity is understanding that we're all sinners. We need to throw ourselves on the mercy of God in Christ, putting our trust in Him and seeking forgiveness, and therefore in response living for Christ. Here's the word that used to be used in a generation previous, and that is "legalist." They used to say, "If you're out there quoting scripture and telling me I can't cheat, lie, or steal, well you're just a legalist."

Moralist is used in the same way to try and turn the volume down on someone saying, "Here's what the Bible says you ought to do." That is pushy, that's preaching, that's moralism, that's legalism, which of course is not what it means. Legalism technically—only used once and some form of the word is used—is the word that Paul, as he gives his testimony in Philippians 4, says as to legalistic righteousness.

Talking about his Pharisaical life prior to Christianity, he said, "I was faultless. I was doing everything the Pharisees expected me to do. I was keeping the rules." Real legalism, if I use that understanding or I look at Romans chapter four and I think about what it means to understand the grace of God, it's not keeping the rules that makes me right with God.

In some sense, you could look at a moralist who says, "Well, that's what constitutes my Christianity. Keeping the moral rules of God, that makes me a Christian." Well, of course, that's a complete, utter perversion of the gospel of Christianity. Of course, we are supposed to come to Christ knowing that none of our righteousness could ever earn a place in God's family or ingratiate ourselves to Him.

What we're doing is throwing ourselves as sinners at the foot of the cross and saying we need the atonement that comes through Christ. That is what we must do. Therefore, our good works are not in any way trying to earn God's favor. They are something I do in response to God's favor. If that distinction is rightly understood, you can have plenty of people who might be called legalists or moralists simply saying, "If you love Christ, you ought to keep His commandments."

I'm quoting the words of Christ. We ought to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We ought to obey Jesus. As 1 John says, you'll know that you even know God if you keep His commandments. Sometimes Christians tell each other to keep the commandments, and that's the right thing to do—the moral law of God, the moral commands.

Circumcision, the priesthood, and all the other ceremonial laws no longer matter. The Bible is clear about that in the New Testament. The church does not have to keep those ceremonial laws, nor should we. But we should keep the moral law of God, and that's an expression of our gratitude for the saving grace of God.

If that's the case, think this through. If that's the case, then you need to understand that those who are saying, "Do it," they're not legalists, nor are they moralists, even though they're saying moral things and they're saying legal—relating to the word law—you should keep the law of God, the moral law of God. But for what reason?

This always gets down to motive. What is the motive of the quote-unquote moralist quoting the morals of scripture? Or what is the legalist's motive in quoting the law of God? If the question is, "He loves God, cares about scripture, he has a high view of God and a high view of scripture, and he wants people to keep God's word," if they're Christians, and even if they're non-Christians, it would be better if non-Christians kept His word.

We don't want to, as Romans 2, have our non-Christian neighbors piling up judgment for the day of God's judgment. Even if they're going to reject Christ, I want them to be law-abiding citizens. I want them to pay their taxes and be faithful in their relationships. Of course, I want that. That would be good for all things in society.

Righteousness is a blessing, an advantage, and an asset to any generation, any nation, any group of people. But we cannot think because you're doing something moral as opposed to some other neighborhood or other country or other city that you are somehow right with God. So it all comes down to—this is a really good question, Curtis—it comes down to what is the motive of someone quoting the scripture and telling me to keep it.

If an atheist is saying, "Well, that guy looks like a Christian because he's spouting off the moral law of God," well, there's a time to spout off the moral law of God for two reasons. The old theologians liked to talk about it; it came through the German seminaries, but they talked about the three uses of the law. You see it a lot in certain facets of evangelicalism.

The idea of the law leading us to our sin is very important. We teach the law to show people they fall short of the glory of God. The only way to know that is to measure our morality against Christianity. So there is a use of the law in that regard, and therefore I want someone quoting the morals and the law of God. It doesn't make them a legalist or a moralist.

There is certainly something that lets me understand what it is to please God. I want to please God as a Christian because God loves righteous deeds, it says in the scripture, Psalm 11, verse 7. So if someone's quoting the law of God or the morals of God so that we might please Him, absolutely. But that's all post-conversion.

We recognize the need for us to put our trust in Christ because our law-keeping or our morality will not earn that favor with God. We're never going to get to heaven by keeping the rules. That's what the grace of God is all about.