The Failure Of Natural Law: Part Two
© 09.22.09 By D. Eric Williams
Last week's article demonstrated it is impossible to arrive at a fixed universal ethic apart from God. Even Adam was not autonomous prior to the fall. To suggest Adam was capable of arriving at a true definition of right and wrong apart from God is to excuse his behavior. Indeed, it is to say Adam's action was a work of self emancipation, a ground-breaking act that set him free from the parochial morality of God's law. However, the truth is very different. Adam rejected right and wrong as defined by the Creator and so laid the groundwork for every subsequent attempt to define law independently of God. Thus, natural law theory is nothing more then Adamic rebellion against God.
History tells us godless law eventually ends in an ethic of "might makes right." This sort of morality is whatever the one with the biggest stick says it is. Although we like to believe we are a long way from that predicament the facts say otherwise. Consider the State sanctioned mass murder of babies in this nation since 1973.
Another example of "big stick morality" is provided by a New Hampshire court ruling earlier this month; district court judge Lucinda V. Sadler, ordered 10-year-old home schooled Amanda Kurowski to attend the local public school because in her opinion the girl's "vigorous defense of her religious beliefs ... suggests strongly that she has not had the opportunity to seriously consider any other point of view." In other words, according to the ethic of might makes right, Amanda's strong commitment to the Christian faith is reprehensible and steps must be taken to rectify the situation. Law divorced from a biblical standard is always free-floating and dependant upon the whim of the one who has the power to wield it. Remember, it is never a matter of "law vs. no law" but "whose law?" A nation that looks to man's law as its standard of right and wrong will eventually end in tyranny.
How then may we move toward the freedom and security of a society ordered according to biblical law? Are we to adopt the strategy of the ungodly and impose morality on people through a top down bureaucracy? Obviously not.
As I have mentioned in previous articles, biblical principles work their effect in the community from the bottom up. God's Word becomes the standard of right and wrong in a society as individuals come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and began to work out their salvation according to the biblical blueprint. Neighborhoods, cities, states and nation's change as individual believers bring their arena of responsibility under the authority of Jesus Christ. As more and more people come into the kingdom, these spheres of influence began to overlap and the salvific effect of the kingdom becomes evident on a broad scale. According to the Bible, a majority of the world's population will one day confess Christ (Isaiah 2:1-4, 11:9, Ezekiel 47:1-12 etc.), and come to the conclusion that what works for the Individual, the Family and the Church will work for the State as well. In other words, since the Bible provides blueprints for all of the primary institutions - including the State- those blueprints should be implemented for all the primary institutions - including the State.
In the mean time our job is to live a life pleasing to Jesus Christ. We must do our best to demonstrate His lordship in all we do. We must bring our thoughts, our words, our family, our work, our voting habits, our recreation, and our political action - everything - under the rule of the Messiah. The results are up to Him.
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