Who Decides What Is Right?
Because the moment I make myself the standard of truth, I have placed myself where only God belongs.
When We Become Our Own Standard
Part 1 — Who Decides What Is Right?
Have you ever noticed how easy it is to convince yourself that something is right simply because you want it to be right?
We can be pretty creative when it comes to justifying what we already want to believe. Even when we know something isn’t right, we can find a reason to make ourselves comfortable with it.
That raises this question: How do we actually know what is right or wrong?
If right and wrong are nothing more than personal opinions, then my definition of good is no better than yours. What I call evil, someone else can call acceptable. What one generation considers immoral, another can celebrate.
But we instinctively know there is something more going on.
When we call something evil, we are saying that there is a moral standard beyond ourselves. And if there is such a moral standard, there must be an authority behind that standard. That means that there is a moral Lawgiver that determines what good and evil are.
For the Christian, that Lawgiver is God. That brings us to God’s Word.
Wise Christians throughout the centuries have understood that one of the most important questions we can ask is not, “What do I think?” or “What does our culture say?” but “What has God said?” This is an important distinction for the church.
In “A Christian Manifesto”, Alistair Begg said that Jesus’ teaching is not merely advice for us to consider. Christ is Lord of His church, and His Word establishes how His people are to live. The church isn’t called to reshape Christ’s teaching to fit the culture. We are called to shape our lives according to Christ’s teaching.
That’s where the push comes because if God’s Word disagrees with me, I have a choice. I can change my thinking or I can try to change the meaning of God’s Word.
The first requires humility. The second requires nothing more than a wave of my hand, justifying everything I want.
That is why Scripture continually calls us back to God’s Word. The question isn’t, “What do I believe is right?” But “Am I willing to let God tell me what is right?”
Because the moment I make myself the standard of truth, I have placed myself where only God belongs.
