In our study of the doctrine of freedom. John 8:32: Gal 5:1; We noted that positive volition to any aspect of God's Word of truth creates freedom because God imputes grace through the divine decree to positive volition wherever it is found.
Positive volition to Divine Establishment provides for temporal human freedom, positive volition toward the Gospel creates spiritual freedom and positive volition to Bible Doctrine creates experiential spiritual freedom.
We are presently looking at the doctrines of morality and virtue and the correlation between morality and virtue and freedom because when truth is applied to life and circumstances it becomes morality and virtue that are a sine que non for freedom.
We noted that the moral person may or may not be spiritual but when a person is spiritual they are always moral because morality is a subset of spirituality. Spirituality goes way beyond morality because the product of spirituality is Integrity Love. John 13:34-35;
Morality is defined as right conduct and excellence in compliance with the laws of divine establishment that are defined in the Mosaic Law. Morality is conformity to the rules of right conduct as delineated in establishment principles, such as, what the Scripture teaches about establishment, Rom 13:1-10.
Morality is conformity to the laws of divine establishment, the duties and responsibilities toward establishment principles. Morality pertains to the character, conduct, ethics, and integrity related the establishment principles found in God's Word.
Morality is the doctrine of the duties and responsibilities of all mankind, both believer and unbeliever under the principles of divine establishment.
Morality is virtue or chastity in sexual matters. Morality is right conduct in marriage as a divine institution. Morality is right conduct in the family as a divine institution. Morality is right conduct in conformity to the laws of a nation, since nationalism is a divine institution, Acts 17:26; Gen 10:5;
Since the corporate divine institutions of marriage, family, and nation are for both believers and unbelievers, morality is for believers and unbeliever. Conformity to the principles of morality as stated in the Mosaic Law regarding the divine institutions is the honor code that God gives to both believers and unbelievers.
Both believer and unbeliever must recognize that morality belongs to the entire human race. Morality is the only way we can live together and at the same time have the privacy and the freedom that is necessary to use our free volition to succeed or fail in life.
In order to perpetuate the human race during the angelic conflict, God designed a set of laws to guarantee privacy, freedom, and property. These laws are called divine establishment. Morality is the basis for the function of the laws of divine establishment for both believer and unbeliever.
Based on this we can easily understand why freedom is rapidly being lost in our nation. Freedom is being lost in direct proportion to the rejection of divine establishment principles and has resulted in the lawlessness from those with amoral arrogance as well as the legalism and judgmentalism from those with moral arrogance.
The negative volition of amoral arrogance is also destroying freedom by demanding "equality" of result without regard to the immutable consequences of their negative volition. Hosea 4:6; Gal 6:7;
They are trying to use guilt to manipulate those who have been the beneficiaries of God's blessing from compliance with divine establishment by denigrating God's blessing and referring to it as "white privilege."
God's Word mandates that the believer be a moral person and to fulfill his obligation of right conduct within the framework of the national entity.
Jesus Himself recognized the fact that believers have moral obligations and responsibilities when He said, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's." Mark 12:27;
In order to preserve the human race in the postdiluvian civilization from Noah to the Second Advent of Jesus Christ and in order to fulfill God's purpose in the creation of mankind, God gave divine establishment principles with the objective of establishing the morality necessary to keep the human race from destroying itself.
The believer is mandated to be moral but at the same time he is mandated to live in a realm much higher than establishment morality. He is mandated to a higher responsibility and purpose for a life that is not only addressing mankind but is also addressing the billions of angels who are watching mankind as part of the angelic conflict.
Since the unbeliever can be and often is extremely moral, the Christian can and should exceed the morality of the unbeliever but without the arrogance, legalism and judmentalism that those who are moral often exhibit.
Anything that the unbeliever can do is not the spiritual life. Anything the unbeliever can do is not the Christian way of life.
The unbeliever can be moral but cannot be spiritual. The unbeliever can be very moral with the result that they have very good human relationships but the spiritual life is the monopoly of the believer under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit as they deploy their portfolio of invisible assets.
Since morality is not the way of salvation, nor is morality the post-salvation spiritual life of the believer the believer must understand how morality and spirituality are related.
Morality is not the way of salvation but it is a lifestyle. When morality is adopted as the way of salvation, then there is no salvation because only faith in Jesus Christ provides eternal salvation and eternal life.
While morality is not the way of salvation, it is related to the spiritual life through the doctrine of sin because many personal sins that believers commit also violate the morality that is mandated in the establishment code of the Mosaic Law.
Since the power of the spiritual life is the filling of the Holy Spirit and Bible Doctrine, and since any form of sin removes the function of that power and control in believer's lives any sin that is also the violation of the morality principles of the establishment code of the Mosaic Law also destroys the spiritual life
When the believer violates the morality principles of the laws of divine establishment the believer is in a state of sin so the power of the spiritual life is destroyed until the sin is addressed with God's provision for sin, PSD #1 (rebound and keep moving.) 1John 1:9; Phil 3:13;
Rebound resolves the believer's spiritual problem with God but does not necessarily resolve the consequences that have accrued as the result of the violation of the laws of divine establishment because there are generally temporal consequences for sins that violate the laws of divine establishment.
Sexual sins, criminal sins, and chemical sins result in antinomianism, reversionism, and Christian immoral degeneracy because of sin nature control of the soul and they also inevitably have temporal consequences related to failure to comply with divine establishment morality.
Any of the overt sins described in the Mosaic Law result in the destruction of our spiritual life so while morality is not the spiritual life lack of morality destroys the spiritual life and may also result in temporal punishment of some kind.
Just as salvation is by grace through faith in Christ, so the spiritual life is based on post-salvation grace that is deployed from God to the believer through the divine decree.
God provides this additional grace that He targets to His Word in the believer for the execution of the spiritual life. God provides 100% of the spiritual power that is necessary to fulfill and to execute His plan for our lives.
This power exists for every believer as the power of the filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit and the power of God's word or metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness.
The opposite of arrogant Christian immoral degeneracy that is characterized by antinomianism is arrogant Christian moral degeneracy where believers who are moral reject grace because they don't understand it and become legalistic and judgmental.
In this case morality and the works of the Mosaic Law form self-righteousness that rejects God grace from ignorant arrogance setting up the arrogant complex of sins where the individual thinks they are superior to others.