In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Judges 21:25
How do we know what is right? If there is something that is ‘right’, then that implies there must be something that is ‘wrong’. If right and wrong exist, then there must be some standard, some moral law, by which the rightness or wrongness of something can be determined. That law must have a source. It must come from a conscious mind.
I can’t prove this formally, but I don’t believe that a person can produce something infused with qualities that they don’t possess themselves. For example, a moral law that is timeless, transcendent, comprehensive in scope, and the very definition of righteousness can only come from an eternally unchanging mind that is beyond the bounds of the material world, possesses all knowledge, and is perfect in His righteousness. This description can only be applied to the God of the Bible, and the moral law He has provided us is an overwhelming proof of not only His perfect character, but His unfathomable love for us.
Then there is us. Our lives are short. We are bound within both the material world and time, and we are quite fickle during even the short duration of our lives. The knowledge each of us possesses is infinitely small compared to the sum of all knowledge that can be known. The only perfect love we express from our hearts is for ourselves.
Given who I am, what kind of moral law am I able to produce? It could never be described as anything higher than ever-changing selfish foolishness. A world in which everyone acted according to what is right in MY own eyes would be quite a mess. Worse, what if no one in my community shared my flawed moral code, but instead each person acted according to their own similarly-flawed morality? Given just a little time, the result would be moral chaos, with the community plunging ever deeper into evil.
Yet, this is what Adam chose. This is what Israel chose during the time of the judges. (They did little better during the time of their kings.) This is what every person of every nation, tribe, and tongue has chosen since the fall. Each of us continues to live out this foolishness every time we sin.
Our only hope is for a King to come who is the same today as He was yesterday and will be tomorrow, who makes decisions based on perfect knowledge and wisdom, who transcends this world in every way, and who proves by His actions that His love for each of His subjects exceeds even His love for His own life. We need such a King to come and unite us around His own moral standard. What an amazing thing it would be to live in such a world!
Thankfully, it grows closer every day. Christ says He is coming soon. Come, Lord Jesus!
Sixty-six books in a year 