Hello Aaron, today I got curious about the topic moral excellence and found your article. I really appreciated the advice you pointed out referring to helping people in need and donating. I also liked how you depicted the discrepancy between the desire to do good and the actual reality which is often the opposite. You drew the conclusion that reaching moral excellence is actually easy to achieve, you just have to really get involved and want to do it. I cannot agree with that though, and here is why:
My general question is: How do you define moral excellence ? Or better: Which morals are you referring to? Where do you get them from? If we took a closer look at those people you claimed to be full of integrity, generosity and kindness, then we could see, that they are not even close of being morally excellent. Deep down we all hide aspects of our life or of our personality we do not want people to see. Moral excellence is flawlessness, without any sin. At this point I like to point to the 10 commandments, also called the moral law.Try to answer the following questions with pure honesty:
Have you ever lied? (White lies count too!)
Have you ever stolen something? (Even if it’s small, like a pen)
Have you ever used God’s name in vain? (Ever used ‘OMG’?)
Have you ever committed adultery? (By the way: Jesus said: Whoever looks at a woman and lusts for her committed adultery with her already in his heart. So, have you ever looked at a woman with lust? (Yep, watching pornography counts too!))
Have you ever murdered someone? (Now you might say “No, for that one, I’m sure I haven’t done it”. But did you know that if you hate a person, it is like murder in the eyes of God?)
So, we just looked at 5 commandment, what is your score? How many did you break of them? To be honest, I broke all of them. And I know, you broke at least one of them too because the Bible says: “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10).
That is why I can tell you that no one on earth is morally excellent. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), Scripture says.
There is only one that is morally excellent and that is God, for He is just and right. So taking this whole argument to a further point: On Judgement Day we would all be guilty. The wages of sin is death, God cannot accept sins. Which is why He punishes it with death. That means we are guilty AND will go to hell…
When you are in a court room and the judge says to you: “Aaron, you robbed a bank and killed two police officers. You have to go to jail!”, the judge won’t change his mind, if you tell him ‘Yes, but judge, I have helped so many elderly people and I have that forum about altruism online. Please let me go’.
God won’t look over your flaws just because of the ’good deeds’ you have done in your life. God is just. So it seems to be a hopeless case here, right? But it isn’t.
God knew we wouldn’t be able to keep all His commandments, so He came down on earth, became human and died on the cross for our sins. Everybody knows that. But here is what not many know: The last three words of Jesus were “It is finished!”. It means that He took our punishment and paid the fine. He, who really was flawless, took our punishment. He died for us, resurrected after three days and gave us eternal life. We have sinned against God, but Jesus died on the cross and cried out “It is finished”. Isn’t that amazing? We are saved by God’s eternal mercy and by grace! Now all we have to do is, repent from our sins and trust in our Lord Jesus as our personal Saviour!
By doing so, the Bible says, we will bring fruits which are love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness and temperance (Galatians 5:22,23a). And that is maybe what you see in other people’s life. You see the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
Concluding there is to say, that there is a need for a clear definition of moral excellence, which comes from the Bible. By looking at the moral law (or the 10 commandment) we realised that moral excellence cannot be achieved by human beings. There is only one who is morally right, and that is God. We have to repent and put our trust in Jesus, so we can have eternal life in heaven and bring fruits.
Now, I already want to thank you, Aaron, for reading my comment and and I want to thank you for writing this article which really made me dive deeper in the truth of the Gospel and the necessity to share it with others. Please take into consideration what I wrote, even if it sounds stupid at first. If you want to know more, I highly recommend you to start reading the Gospel of Matthew or John.
Hello Aaron, today I got curious about the topic moral excellence and found your article. I really appreciated the advice you pointed out referring to helping people in need and donating. I also liked how you depicted the discrepancy between the desire to do good and the actual reality which is often the opposite. You drew the conclusion that reaching moral excellence is actually easy to achieve, you just have to really get involved and want to do it. I cannot agree with that though, and here is why:
My general question is: How do you define moral excellence ? Or better: Which morals are you referring to? Where do you get them from? If we took a closer look at those people you claimed to be full of integrity, generosity and kindness, then we could see, that they are not even close of being morally excellent.
Deep down we all hide aspects of our life or of our personality we do not want people to see. Moral excellence is flawlessness, without any sin. At this point I like to point to the 10 commandments, also called the moral law. Try to answer the following questions with pure honesty:
So, we just looked at 5 commandment, what is your score? How many did you break of them? To be honest, I broke all of them. And I know, you broke at least one of them too because the Bible says: “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10).
That is why I can tell you that no one on earth is morally excellent. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), Scripture says.
There is only one that is morally excellent and that is God, for He is just and right. So taking this whole argument to a further point: On Judgement Day we would all be guilty. The wages of sin is death, God cannot accept sins. Which is why He punishes it with death. That means we are guilty AND will go to hell…
When you are in a court room and the judge says to you: “Aaron, you robbed a bank and killed two police officers. You have to go to jail!”, the judge won’t change his mind, if you tell him ‘Yes, but judge, I have helped so many elderly people and I have that forum about altruism online. Please let me go’.
God won’t look over your flaws just because of the ’good deeds’ you have done in your life. God is just.
So it seems to be a hopeless case here, right? But it isn’t.
God knew we wouldn’t be able to keep all His commandments, so He came down on earth, became human and died on the cross for our sins. Everybody knows that. But here is what not many know: The last three words of Jesus were “It is finished!”. It means that He took our punishment and paid the fine. He, who really was flawless, took our punishment. He died for us, resurrected after three days and gave us eternal life. We have sinned against God, but Jesus died on the cross and cried out “It is finished”. Isn’t that amazing? We are saved by God’s eternal mercy and by grace! Now all we have to do is, repent from our sins and trust in our Lord Jesus as our personal Saviour!
By doing so, the Bible says, we will bring fruits which are love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness and temperance (Galatians 5:22,23a). And that is maybe what you see in other people’s life. You see the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
Concluding there is to say, that there is a need for a clear definition of moral excellence, which comes from the Bible. By looking at the moral law (or the 10 commandment) we realised that moral excellence cannot be achieved by human beings. There is only one who is morally right, and that is God. We have to repent and put our trust in Jesus, so we can have eternal life in heaven and bring fruits.
Now, I already want to thank you, Aaron, for reading my comment and and I want to thank you for writing this article which really made me dive deeper in the truth of the Gospel and the necessity to share it with others. Please take into consideration what I wrote, even if it sounds stupid at first. If you want to know more, I highly recommend you to start reading the Gospel of Matthew or John.
Be blessed!
Jessica