We know from Scripture that man was created in the image and likeness of God. It was God Himself who breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, thus giving him a spirit that elevated him above the beasts of the earth. The spirit in man enabled him to interact with his Creator and to have fellowship with Him. The fall has spoiled all this, and sin has degraded man morally to the point where Scripture tells us that “man that is in honor, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish” (Psa. 49:20). His character, morals, and behavior eventually become little better than that of the lower creation, who do not have a God-conscious aspect to their being.
Appreciation for
Moral Uprightness
However, even in his fallen state, man appreciates moral uprightness in others, even if he does not display it himself. His conscience is still there, and his soul and spirit are exercised by contact with moral dignity. When a world leader recently acted in a manner beneath the dignity of his position, a TV host remarked, “When you are actually powerful, you don’t need to be petty.” The French phrase “noblesse oblige” (nobility obligates) conveys a similar thought, for the world holds to a higher standard those who are in positions of respect and honor. This is where Christian testimony comes in, for it is our walk before the world that has the greatest effect upon it. Man may deny the believer’s message, but he cannot deny a walk that is on a morally high plane. It was so with our blessed Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, in His walk down here. The world hated Him because He testified to it that its works were evil (John 7:7), yet was compelled to admit that “never man spake like this man” (John 7:46). Their anger at His preaching might provoke them to try to throw him headlong from the brow of a hill (Luke 4:29), but they also “wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth” (Luke 4:22). The believer today is called to walk in that same moral elevation that characterized the Lord Jesus.
Life and Walk
We may well ask how this is possible, in a world full of sin and pollution of every kind. First of all, it is important to see that repentance before God and a new life in Christ are absolutely necessary if there is to be any moral change in man. Such things as philosophy, culture, education and government may curb man’s natural tendencies for a time, but they can never rise higher than their source, which is fallen man. Mixed with all these will be the same degradation as before, although perhaps with a veneer of respectability. Man must turn away from his sin and have a new life in order to be morally elevated.
Second, now that he is a believer in Christ, there must be a walk with God. God desired this fellowship with man from the beginning, but all was spoiled by sin, so that man hid himself from God. Fellowship with Him is now restored, and on an even higher level, through the work of Christ. The hymn expresses it well:
“Though our nature’s fall in Adam
Seemed to shut us out from God,
Thus it was His counsel brought us
Nearer still, through Jesus’ blood.”
Now the believer, having new life in Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, can walk with God and display all the character of that new life — the same life as Christ Himself.
Privilege and Responsibility
This is at once a wonderful privilege and also a great responsibility for each one of us. Every believer possesses a new life, and “he that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked” (1 John 2:6). In the walk of our blessed Lord, there were two things that were kept in perfect balance. On the one hand, he always walked in the consciousness of who He was — the One in whom dwells “all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). He could openly challenge His adversaries as to that walk, asking them, “Which of you convinceth Me of sin?” (John 8:46). Truly “in Him is no sin” (1 John 3:5). This perfection was manifested in all the varying circumstances of life, for Christ was the same, whether in the street, in the temple, in a private home, or with His disciples. There was divine perfection in His every act.
On the other hand, the Lord Jesus did not insist on the place that was rightfully His. He submitted to all the insults and hatred of man, while speaking to man’s conscience all the while. More than this, He endured even the ignorance and lack of courtesy to which He was so often subjected, saying nothing unless the glory of God demanded it. He did not complain when the Pharisee failed to show Him the common courtesies of the day, such as washing His feet and anointing His head (Luke 7:36-50). But when that same Pharisee dared in his heart to condemn the poor woman who anointed Him, our Lord made reference to this lack of courtesy in order to teach a lesson.
Humility and Dignity
In every situation in our Lord’s life, we see this perfect balance. He displayed a moral glory in His submission to the Father’s will and to all that man could do, while at the same time walking in perfect moral dignity and showing out the character of God. The believer is called to walk in this same path and to show forth this moral glory in a world of sin. There is a beauty in this to which nothing can compare. We get something of the thought in John 17:22: “The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them.” While this surely does allude to the display of glory that will be seen in us in a coming day, there is the sense in which that glory is displayed now in the saints of God in this world, who walk in humility and lowliness, yet in a moral dignity that is fitting to children of God. Surely “it doth not yet appear what we shall be” (1 John 3:2), but one of the strongest testimonies to an increasingly corrupt and violent world is the exhibition of God’s character by the believer.
Another has expressed it well, and with examples from the Word of God:
“There is nothing in morals or in human character finer than this combination of willing degradation in the midst of men and the consciousness of intrinsic glory before God. We see it in some of the saints beautifully. Abraham was a willing stranger in the midst of the Canaanites all his days, not having a foot of land nor seeking to have it, but when occasion served, he would take headship even of kings, conscious of his dignity in God’s sight, according to God’s own counsel. Jacob would speak of his pilgrimage, of his few and evil days, making himself nothing in the reckoning of the world, but he would at the same moment bless him who at that time was the greatest man on the earth, conscious that, under God and before him, he was ‘the better,’ the greater man of the two” (J. G. Bellett).
As believers, we should seek to exhibit this same combination of virtues today. As we have already mentioned, the world is getting worse and worse, while things like moral uprightness and common courtesy are simply not common anymore. More and more, we need to walk in the company of our blessed Master and in the power of the Spirit of God, in order to show that we belong to Him.
W. J. Prost