The Moral Foundations of Life

The first appeal was to conscience, and could be expressed in this way: “Follow Him, He is Thy supreme Lord.” The presentation of Jesus Christ always awakens that desire, the presentation of abstract ideals never does. You can present morality, good principles, the duty of loving your neighbour, and never arouse a man’s conscience to want anything; but when you present Jesus Christ, instantly there is a dumb awakening; a want to be what He would like me to be. It is not conviction of sin, but an awakening out of the sleep of indifference into a want.

There are some things that are without meaning for us. For instance, to be told that God will give us the Holy Spirit if we ask Him, may be a dead proposition; but when we come in contact with a person filled with the Spirit of God we instantly awaken to a want. Or again, if you tell half a dozen clean-living, upright, sterling men that God so loved them that He gave His Son to die for them, only their good breeding will keep them from being amused—“Why should Jesus Christ die for me”? It is not a living proposition to them, not in the sphere of their life at all. Their morality is well within their own grasp, they are clean living and upright, all that can be desired; they will never be awakened in that way; but present them with Jesus Christ, or with a life that is like His life, and instantly there will awaken in them a want they were not conscious of before. That is why Jesus said, “If I had not come …, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.” You can never argue anyone into the Kingdom of heaven, you cannot argue anyone any where. The only result of arguing is to prove to your own mind that you are right and the other fellow wrong. You cannot argue for truth; but immediately Incarnate Truth is presented, a want awakens in the soul which only God can meet. Conscience is that faculty of the spirit which fits itself on to the highest a man knows; and when the light of Jesus Christ is thrown on what is regarded as the highest, conscience records exactly and the reason is startled and amazed (cf. Acts 26:9).