Looking at Manton’s closure of his sermon, he gives us a good comparison between the world’s morals and God’s graces. This daily devotional looks at what the comparison means and how disciples are refined by morals.
Nuggets
- The Sanctification Road takes the good within us and refines us to better reproduce God’s character.
- There is good in each of us because we are all made in God’s image, but God takes what is good and changes the focus.
- We need to take the morals and kick them up a notch to make them graces.
To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.
Devotions in the Moralities Lead to Godliness series
Manton concluded his sermon entitled The Moralities of Christianity by telling us why we need to make sure our morals are intact. He made a statement that kind of set me back at first. He wrote, “Because grace does not abolish so much of nature as is good, but refines and sublimates it, by causing us to act from higher principles and to higher ends.”
Resources
Wow! I have to process that.
Let's Put It into Context
“Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable — if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy — dwell on these things” (Phil. 4: 8 CSB)
The definition of moral, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is “of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior.” Morality, then, is “a doctrine or system of moral conduct.” When it is the plural form — moralities — it is a “particular moral principles or rules of conduct.”
Resources
Our morals determine our character. Character, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is “the complex of mental and ethical traits marking and often individualizing a person, group, or nation.”
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How Do Morals Refine Us?
“Because grace does not abolish so much of nature as is good, but refines and sublimates it, by causing us to act from higher principles and to higher ends.”
Manton didn’t add any verses with this statement, but it is packed. Basically, I think it says that the Sanctification Road takes the good within us and refines us as we strive to focus on His principles.
“Because grace does not abolish …”
A couple of things ran through my mind when I read this. God is not abolishing our essence. Some worldview people may think that our submitting to God means we lose ourselves entirely. No where in the Scriptures does it say there is a complete tear down and rebuild.
Instead, we are told to “imitate God, therefore, in everything [we] do …” (Eph. 5: 1 NLT). We are reproducing His character within us.
That is going to be a gradual process because that is what the Sanctification Road is all about. Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration: gradually changes our nature through the promptings of the Holy Spirit; and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness. Regeneration is the change in us that God brings about when we go from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive. Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God. The perfected state indicates the combination of the graces which, when all are present, form spiritual wholeness or completeness.
Glossary
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
When Jesus comes on His cloud with His sickle, the change that will happen in “… the blink of an eye … (I Cor. 15: 52 NLT) has nothing to do with changing our character. It will change our bodies because “… our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God …” (I Cor. 15: 50 NLT).
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Oh, yeah. We will need to have our sinful nature removed and our true spiritual nature restored. But it will still be us. If I pass Mom and Dad strolling hand in hand down the golden street, I will know them, and they will know me.
Just as Jesus did not abolish the law, God does not abolish us. The law was implemented to show us God’s character and show us that we needed a Savior.
Once this Heaven and earth flees from God’s presence (Rev. 20: 11), sin will be vanquished and no longer an option for us. The law will no longer be needed.
But God will still have His character. “I am the Lord, and I do not change …” (Mal. 3: 6 NLT).
God does not want to totally get rid of us. He will want us to remember how far we have come on the Sanctification Road. That is why, even after death, we have memories.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
“Because grace does not abolish so much of nature as is good …”
There is good in each of us because we are all made in God’s image. We came up with a comprehensive list last year detailing the ways each of us is like Him and how children of God are different from those just created by Him.
- All mankind have a spirit that we get when we are given breath. Disciples also have the Holy Spirit that lives within us.
- We all have an intelligence – we are curious and have abilities to reason. Our godliness accelerates those abilities.
- We all have the free will to make choices for ourselves.
- We all have moral character, but disciples will one day be perfected.
- We all have consciences, but disciples have the Holy Spirit to guide us and remind us what is holy and righteous.
- God has given us authority over animals but not over the earth.
- All of mankind is going to live for eternity. However, worldview people who are spiritually dead will live in hell; disciples who are spiritually alive will live in heaven.
- Mankind is creative, even though some may discount or diminish their talent.
- Mankind are creatures who feel, especially love. However, the worldview definition of love is not as pure as God’s definition.
Glossary
God created us with a lot of good attributes. But they alone aren’t good enough to make us children of God. It isn’t about what we do or don’t do.
It is about making a conscious decision to submit our lives to God. Like we said, God doesn’t tear down the good in us, either.
“… but refines and sublimates it …”
God takes what is good and changes the focus. The refining is what the Sanctification Road is all about. It is about growing from a milk baby to a steak adult.
Dale put it this way. He wrote, “What this higher law is, in all its applications, we have to learn, and we learn it very gradually; it is one of the great subjects about which Christian men should be always learning.”
Resource
But it is more than that. We go from a worldview focus of doing good to doing good to expand God’s kingdom.
For me, it clicked when we talked about worldview morals and Christian graces. We said in How Do Morals Improve our Discipleship? that, if our morals don’t come through our submission to God, they are just worldly morals, not Christian graces.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
“… by causing us to act from higher principles and to higher ends.”
We need to take the morals and kick them up a notch to make them graces. By doing that, we are not performing a good deed to make this world a better place to live. That is our acting from higher principles.
We are showing others God’s love. We are working to introduce others to our Savior and Redeemer. We are working to expand God’s kingdom.
That is our acting to achieve higher ends.
Making the Connections
To me, it is all about our purpose. Disciples want more than just having morals. We want those morals to be graces. That points to God.
How Do We Apply This?
Dale gave us a clue as to how we can apply this — and how hard it will be to apply this. He wrote, “Christ has not given us a complete code, but He has given us specimens of the contrast between this higher law and the common laws recognized by ordinary men. We have to work out the whole code of Christian morals in the light of this teaching.”
Resource
The thing that jumped out at me is that we are to contrast God’s laws with common law. Disciples know that worldview people are quick to judge us by their standards. We need to make sure we follow God’s direction, not the world’s.
It is going to be hard, so it isn’t something we can do on our own. We know without a shadow of a doubt that it will be worth it.
Loving Father. We look to You to complete the code we are to use as spiritual graces. We want to follow all of the laws and commandments You have given us. We will look to You instead of the world to show us expectations and to determine success. We can only kick our worldview morals to be spiritual graces when You lead us there. Amen.
What do you think?
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