Biblical Faith and Morality

I was reading Rob Bell's "Jesus Wants to Save Christians" this morning and as he reflected that the 10 Commandments were given in such a way that Israel was supposed to remember their deliverance by God and thus act towards others and God himself out of that remembrance, these thoughts occurred to me:

Biblical faith is rooted in Jesus and his actions on our behalf. But in a sense, Jesus' actions are a microcosm of the macro-faith of the entire bible. We're instructed to act like Jesus, to take on his priorities and values, in short, to connect our lives to the already-performed action of God.

But it's always been like this throughout the entire bible! God has always instructed his people to act in such a way that how God first acted towards his people will be seen in how his people now act towards others. This goes all the way back to the deliverance from Egypt and the giving of the 10 Commandments and the law, governing how God's people are to remember and worship God and act towards others, especially "foreigners," "widows," and "orphans."

Our struggle now is to keep our morality rooted in this covenantal perspective so that we don't separate our actions from this deep faith. This is the danger in blindly following commands and seeking a Christian morality among those who don't hold Christian faith. Christian action must be understood and transmitted within the context of God's Story, going all the way back through Jesus to our ancestors in faith.

So their deliverance is our deliverance. We act benevolently towards others not only because God in Jesus was benevolent to us but also because God was benevolent to our ancestors. That is their story and it is our story. We live out this story in our lives when we live by faith. To focus on Christian morality apart from this story makes the morality empty from a faith perspective, even though the moral action may be just and right from a philosophical-moral point of view.

Pay attention to the bible and God's story as you learn it in the bible. Pay attention to your faith, and recognize that your faith and actions tell a larger story and that you are a major player in God's drama of salvation and redemption.