What We Can’t Not Know
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
Romans 1:18-20
There has been much talk recently about a return to common sense. There has been a reaction toward radically unreasonable and deeply immoral cultural shifts. The idea that basic things are known by all, or the idea of ‘common sense,’ is a biblical concept which is important to think about. Let’s walk out this thinking.
Human beings are created in God’s image, and as such are created as rational and logical beings. Humanity on the whole makes rational and logical decisions every day. Such decisions preserve life, allow for the accumulation of goods, and societal order. We naturally make decisions that logically make sense. For example, we recoil from decisions that will cause us physical harm. Logically we know that touching a hot stove will not be good for us. Jumping off a building will cause great harm. We should put a coat on before going out on a very cold day. We combine tools and parts logically to build things. We combine ingredients and follow instructions to bake pastries and cakes. We follow the scientific method to advance technology and medicine. These are all global examples of the reasonable and logical nature of humanity.
Beyond this, all human beings also have a resident moral sense that cannot be quenched. This base level moral sense transcends time, cultures, and races. It is the rational mind overlaid with a moral sense. This is natural law. Van Engen states that natural law is, “a moral order divinely implanted in mankind and accessible to all persons through human reason.” Natural moral law is essentially to do good and avoid evil (Matthew 7:12), and the second part of the ten commandments (Exodus 20:12-17). Across all time and nations there has always been, and continues to be, a profound sense that stealing someone else’s possession is wrong. A sense that murdering someone because you hate them is morally wrong. That marriage between a man and a woman is right and sacred, and to dishonor the marriage vow through adultery is wrong. That telling lies may get you what you want for a period, but over time truth will prevail and there will be a moral price to pay for the lies.
Natural moral law is a thing we can’t not know. The return to ‘common sense’ in our day is the rising up of natural moral law. It’s an appeal to the basic moral sense of all people. In the study of theology, natural moral law is closely related to natural revelation. Natural revelation is spoken of clearly in the verses quoted from Romans 1 above. Apart from scripture and the personal ministry of Jesus Christ, God has generally made His person and character known to the world. Sinful people everywhere have a sense that God exists and that they have a soul. Those same people feel real guilt and condemnation in their souls for their daily sinful actions. Even though they work to shape their own morality, they continue to run into the pillars of righteous character established by God.
J. Budziszewski writes, This “reality poses a constant problem for fallen man. He wants to acknowledge some of the truth which presses on him, but taken together it points too strongly to other truth which he resists with all his might. In the end he must deny so many obvious things that the work is just too much. He is like a man in a bathtub, surrounded by dozens of corks, trying to hold all of them down at once. Whenever he pushed one down, another somewhere else pops right back up.” Sinful people everywhere cannot effectively suppress the reality of God and the moral conviction in their hearts that they are guilty before God. Sinful people cannot effectively redefine objective reality or morality. God has established the world and the moral nature of life, and it cannot be moved.
For people, in mass, to reach such an irrational and immoral place as a culture that they recoil back to a position of logical and moral ‘common sense’ is good. However, that position is not the gospel. General revelation will awaken a sense that God exists and that there is right and wrong but does not lead anyone to salvation. The natural moral sense becomes the touch point, or basis upon which we begin to appeal to the conscience more specifically through Scripture. It is because of logic and the common moral sense, that we can know the biblical gospel message of repentance and faith will resonate with the soul.
Through this common ground, many in our day have recoiled from positions of atheism and hedonism as it took them down roads that became impossible to reconcile. However, this is theism, not Christianity. This is moralism, not the gospel. Let us agree with this new moral sense that evil has deeply encroached around us. Let us speak to people about the sin that is resident in their own hearts, but we must press on to clearly proclaim Jesus as Savior! J. Budziszewski writes, “One begins with what people know or intuit already, and one builds on it … One cannot convince people of what they grasp already; one can only draw it out.”
All people need Jesus. Everyone needs a Savior! I am convinced that awareness is already in the heart of every person alive. May we minister the truth of God’s Word and the gospel of Jesus Christ to those around us that they might know clearly who Jesus is. May the moral awakening that is taking place in America lead to a spiritual revival!
May the name of Jesus be lifted up and proclaimed!
Pastor Vic