Beyond Morality

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Zacharias, Ravi. The Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials for the Heart and Mind. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019. [E-Book] Chapter 18: Beyond Morality

Opening Thought: It would be difficult for me to summarize this chapter well, if you have the means to acquire a copy of this book, Zacharias’ words will properly articulate the idea of what lives beyond morality. One of the more dynamic and challenging portions of Zacharias chapter is the following, “It is not that we are immoral, but that a moral life alone cannot bridge what separates us from God. Herein lies the cardinal difference between the moralizing religions [most other world religion] and Jesus’ offer to us: Jesus does not offer to make bad people good but to make dead people alive.” As someone who find the beauty of salvation in how it transforms people to be more ethically and morally healthy individuals, moving beyond morality for me is a tension that I am very intrigued over.

The devotional begins with: Matthew 10:38-39

“Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”

Second Thought: There is something we are being call to beyond morality. Sure, discovering and living to morality is apart of it, but our calling is much more imperative. How could something be more important that morality, well the source of morality, the very reasons for all things. If you think about Jacob in the bible, who was renamed as Israel. Israel means the one who wrestles with God. It may seem counter intuitive, but wrestling with God is a wonderful expression of what it means to believe in God and have faith in God. You take on the burden of what God is. Let us put it this way, if you wanted to become a mathematician, you would be deciding to take on the wealth of knowledge, the diligence of study, and the skill of practice. That means that things in your life will be displaced to serve this particular in your life. What you would otherwise become is sacrificed or displaced to make room for the breadth of mathematics. When Jacob wrestles with God, God displaces his hip, but Jacob holds on and insists that he be blessed. Jacob knows that in the pursuit of God there is a part of you that will be displaced, a part of yourself that must die, but in this you will be reborn. This is beyond morality, because the longing for God, is an internal disposition of choosing God over all other options. The beauty of it all is that God has chosen us first, so by turning towards God, and welcoming the wrestling, the bridge between us is met, and in that God can work to restore you through Christ Jesus. In this exchange we move towards morality because we are wrestling with the source of morality, one cannot resist moving in that direction if they truly hang on to God at all costs.   

Continual Work: Ask yourself if you have ever felt that you were truly wrestling with God, what would you face or be willing to let go of to acquire a blessing?

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: As my given name is Jacob, I have always enjoyed the stories of Jacob in the Bible. Maybe that is why I enjoy theology so much; I get to wrestle with God every day. The wrestling for me is part and partial to the blessing in itself.  

Rev. Jacob’s Scripture time: Genesis 32:28

Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

Do not forget that in our faith lives we will face transformation, in the bible we see things like, changing of clothing, changing of names and baptism (ceremonial washing). This tells us that we, as created creatures, have the ability to transform internally. If you can find your way to a genuine faith, the transformation will be stunning and it will leave you wanting to know God more, and less reliant on the material impulses of life. I will offer another quote from Zacharias’ text to affirm this point. “I do not know of any Christian at death’s threshold who exercised self-control yet wished he or she had been an atheist or had lived an indulgent life. But I have known many in the reverse situation.” Going beyond morality is also resting in the faith, when you really discover that we are meant to be completed by a communion in God, the contentment of heart and spirit will truly be life giving, which mean death has no power over us.

Prayer for your day: Lord, wrestle with us, help us feel Your reality. We long to hang on as Jacob did, seeking Your blessing and Your gift of renewal, by name, by clothing, by baptism.  In all ways we look to become new in You. Amen.   

Artistic Close: Could there be any other image today.