{"id":967524,"date":"2016-05-20T08:13:55","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T13:13:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/?p=967524"},"modified":"2019-03-13T14:43:32","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T19:43:32","slug":"moralism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/?p=967524","title":{"rendered":"Moralism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"woods\"In many ways, graceless moralism is further removed from God’s kingdom than outright immorality. That’s because moralists often\u00c2\u00a0see no need for God’s grace in themselves.<\/h3>\n

To the upright pagan moralist, Paul argues in Romans 2:1\u00c2\u00a0that such a person who judges another is actually more guilty than those they presume to condemn.<\/h3>\n

Then\u00c2\u00a0Paul uses a direct form of speech: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Therefore you have no excuse, O man\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/h3>\n

In this Greek form of argument known as a diatribe<\/em>, Paul seems to be talking to people who are closer to his own circles of life\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 these are moral pagans, religious Gentile moralists, and it also includes the unsaved Jews.<\/h3>\n

In Romans 2:3 he asks, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Do you suppose, O man\u00e2\u20ac\u201dyou who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat you will escape the judgment of God?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/h3>\n

Paul is\u00c2\u00a0not saying that the moralist has necessarily committed the specific sins they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re condemning, but that such a person is nonetheless guilty because by judging other sinners, he proves that he has an informed moral conscience.<\/h3>\n

The moralist\u00c2\u00a0further demonstrates that he has a standard of righteousness that is something other than God’s standard. His\u00c2\u00a0false standard allows him to condemn others while acquitting himself.<\/h3>\n

And added to this blindness and hypocrisy is the greater sin of pride.<\/h3>\n

Self-righteousness is the spiritual manifestation of pride. The moralist feels superior to other sinners because God is not his standard. He measures himself by other sinners.<\/h3>\n

And speaking of hypocrisy, notice that the sin of hypocrisy isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t once listed among the catalogue of Gentile sins back in Romans\u00c2\u00a01, verses 18-32.<\/h3>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a very interesting observation.<\/h3>\n

The outright pagans\u00c2\u00a0in that<\/em> group are presented as openly depraved and openly wicked, but they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t usually pretend to be virtuous or better than other people.<\/h3>\n

However, the Gentile moralist in chapter 2 is guilty of the same sins he condemns in others to one degree or another, but then he adds the sin of hypocrisy<\/em> by pretending to be more virtuous. He thinks the gospel is for bad<\/em> people, but not for him.<\/h3>\n

Hypocrisy tends to be more easily committed by moralists than by outright pagans. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something inherently hypocritical about moralism.<\/h3>\n

In Romans 2:2-5, this pagan moralist argues that God should judge vile sinners, but not him because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s better than those people. These are the self-conscious pagans.<\/h3>\n

He insists on being saved by his own good works; he thinks that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a fair trade, not realizing that his most righteous deeds are but filthy rags in God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sight.<\/h3>\n

If this describes any aspect of your present life, confess it to God as sin and repent of it today. Repentant moralists and hypocrities will be forgiven.<\/h3>\n

But do it today before it’s too late.<\/h3>\n

With love in the Truth,
\nPastor Kevin<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

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.<\/span><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In many ways, graceless moralism is further removed from God’s kingdom than outright immorality. That’s because moralists often\u00c2\u00a0see no need for God’s grace in themselves. To the upright pagan moralist, Paul argues in Romans 2:1\u00c2\u00a0that such a person who judges another is actually more guilty than those they presume to condemn. Then\u00c2\u00a0Paul uses a direct … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Moralism”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":967074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967524"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=967524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":967697,"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967524\/revisions\/967697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/967074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=967524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=967524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=967524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}