by Karla Perry

Created on: June 02, 2009

The nature of morality seems to be an ever present hot topic of discussion especially amongst the philosophically minded as well as the popular culture at large. There are a lot of misconceptions regarding the Christian view of morality that has created a web that needs untangling to provide some clarity.

All people of all cultures, tribes, nations, societies, have a moral infrastructure within their nature. Everyone has what Francis Schaeffer terms "moral motions" and C.S. Lewis often calls "the moral ought." We all feel obligatory to some form of ethics and morals even if it is subjectively our own system of what we think or feel are the best course of conduct. Granted while there are great similarities the world over in particulars there are also many variances between cultures and within cultures. Even between families and down to differences between individuals. We all have different particulars of what we see as right or good.

In addition to this, we have the revealed laws given from God to man as recorded in Scripture which include the famous Ten Commandments. Some of these reveled laws would be in line with what is commonly figured out by man naturally, but others are somewhat different to what would seem natural and yet often we see the goodness in them and sometimes we just have to trust that it is good. The Scriptural revealed morality is not exhaustive and it is not intended to be. The Old Testament law had a purpose in helping men through an external law to do what is good for them and it had a primary purpose of showing mankind our fallen state and our need for God's salvation by grace. The law was setting the stage for the next phase of humanity that would soon open the door to freedom from a life lived in subjection to external laws. God was providing a way to heal the heart so that the laws become unnecessary for out of the heart a man acts if the heart is restored to righteousness the actions will follow.

Let us go back to discussing morality outside of a revealed law. Let us consider the people who have never seen any revealed laws or do not seek them for their moral instruction. These people still have a moral understanding. They feel they know the difference between right and wrong and know they "ought" to do what is right. Their idea of "right" may be skewed, the particulars may be wrong, but the idea that one "ought" to do what is right if only we can figure out what is right is universal. No one says they ought to

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