Biblical Conduct - Part 11 What is the Source of Character?
By Ben Quine
**This article is part of a series written by Ben Quine that takes us through the whole of Scripture to discover what God has to say about how we as believers in Jesus Christ should conduct ourselves both inside the church and outside in our public and private lives. You will discover that the Word of God has much to say about our conduct.
New Years' Resolutions are one of the purest expressions of what we humans would like our lives to be. We’d like to exercise more, eat healthier, and lose weight. We might also want to spend more time doing things that will have lasting value, remove a negative character trait, or develop some particular skill. So if we desire to do these things, and if we solemnly promise ourselves that we will indeed do them, why do most of us give up on our Resolutions in less than a month?
New Years’ Resolutions are a reflection of a person’s character, and also often deal with a hoped-for change in character. For secular people, the source and nature of human character is a mystery. Books like “The Character Gap: How Good Are We?” bemoan the fact that people aren’t as good as they should be, and the thoughtful secular person is often shocked by the comprehensive lack of integrity that can be seen all around us. We all generally acknowledge that humans are supposed to be virtuous and upright in character.
But where does good character come from, and how can we create more virtue in more people?
Christians, we know, are commanded by God to abide by a set of principles related to virtue and righteous character. But are believers supposed to dig down deep, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, and exert super-human willpower as we try, try, try extra hard to follow God’s Law? Can we find a way to tune our lives to Christ in order to produce good behavior?
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)
Jesus, ever the truth-teller, doesn’t mince words: we cannot bear godly fruit apart from him. The prophet Isaiah said our righteous acts are nothing but filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)
Believers in Jesus are constantly under pressure from the world — outside pressures attempting to push and squeeze us into conformity with sinful man. Laws, educational programs, psychological manipulation, and peer pressure are just a few of the external forces designed to change us from the outside. But thankfully, this is not the way God operates.
Instead, God wants to change us from the inside-out. In God’s design, we would remember His great love for us, drink deeply from His Word, choose to offer our lives to Him every day, and then He Himself will transform our character from the inside-out!
“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:38-39)
Because of Christ’ work on the cross, all Christians have been set free from spiritual death and we are now spiritually alive in Jesus. Now God wants us to experience this spiritual life. He wants this inside-out transformation to set us free from the sin that marked our previous way of life. He wants each of us to be like a river which brings life to everything in its path.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
Notice where the Christian witnesses’ power stems from. Heart change can never be accomplished in our own human strength. We simply do not have what it takes to live a life of righteousness (John 15:5). Only God can produce godliness.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature… (II Peter 1:3-4)
Our culture is becoming increasingly marked by degeneracy. But this is merely the consequence of our choices: we have torn down the Biblical foundation for godly conduct and have embraced the Secular Worldview, which is diametrically opposed to God and His Word. Modern philosophy, theology, and education have all rejected God and abandoned the Bible.
This is why character and morality are failing all around us. Without God’s presence, the moral direction found in His Word, and the transformational power of the Holy Spirit, neither technique nor effort can create good character. It is folly to expect a godless worldview to produce godly virtue, and without virtue, no society can survive.
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. (Romans 7:18)
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:19-23)
Notice the contrast between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. In our flesh, we have the power to produce sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, and all those other evil things that we hate. These are all inherent in our sinful nature, present from day one. The result of being born spiritually dead.
But how do we produce love? Specifically, how do we produce the kind of love that is perfectly patient and kind, that does not envy or boast, that is never arrogant, rude, irritable, or resentful, that does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth? How do we secure the quality of love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things? (I Corinthians 13:1-13)
Do you think if you just tried harder, that you could consistently accomplish this quality of love in your own strength? No! That perfect love is not the fruit of my greatest efforts or your greatest efforts. It is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, alone.
The first great miracle of the Christian life is regeneration, when we are “born again”, spiritually alive – saved from eternal judgment, and reconciled to God. The second great miracle of the Christian life is sanctification, the process of being changed to become more and more like Christ Jesus. God Himself comes to live inside us through the person of the Holy Spirit, to teach, convict, empower, guide, and direct a whole new kind of life! Scripture teaches us that true virtue does not come from intellectual training (which was the Ancient Greek view) or from psychological conditioning (the Humanist view), or from coercion (the Statist view), but through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, alone.
“Godliness is not the consequence of your capacity to imitate God, but the consequence of His capacity to reproduce Himself in you. It is not self-righteousness but Christ-righteousness, the righteousness that is by faith – a faith that by renewed dependence upon God releases His divine action to restore the marred image of the invisible God.” - Major Ian Thomas
God Himself is the standard for good behavior (His own character defines what is right and what is wrong), and we are unable to live the life God calls us to live on our own power.
It is the Holy Spirit living in us that enables a believer to finally become what God intended: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27). A life of full dependence on the Holy Spirit is a life of great adventure, a life of faith, an abundant life (John 10:10).
It alone is the source of righteous character!