Religion & Ethics

Jonathan Leonor Religion & Ethics Report # 5 Erickson’s Chapter 5 Dr. Woodrow Whidden

An Alternative Approach

Erickson, in this section of his Relativism in Contemporary Christian Ethics, describes several points that are an alternative approach to understand the will of God for his people. He has several topics, but the ones that caught my attention were the

Ontological Basis of Moral Judgment, and the Need of the Law.

The Ontological basis of Moral Judgment talks about how we use the word good and what does it really mean. One uses the word good whenever talking about something that is nice, pleasant, or absence of evil. Erickson brings a point that made me realize the meaning of the word good. Everything derived from God, so basically the word good derived from God. God is the only being that deserves to be complimented with such word. Good is everything that is not evil, if one weights it with moral principles. Jesus himself said in Matthew that there is only one good, and that is God.

Erickson brings another interesting point about the will of God. What is the will of God, and what is his will for my life? That is the question that I’ve been asking my self for a long time now. Looking at what Erickson had to say I kind of understood in way what His will is for me. This relates to what talked about above with the word good.

“Good is that which God wills (Erickson).” This, according to Erickson, means that God does not will something because it is good; for if this was true then that means that God’s will is just a dependant factor on anything that is good. God, however, if something is good then his will, will be done. God’s will is expression of who he is and his nature.

That’s why things are good because he wills them.

The second interesting topic that got my attention was the need of law. It is because of man’s failure at the beginning of time that rules and laws were made. It is the corruption of man’s nature that led to such rules. God did not make these rules to make us suffer, but to keep us from suffering. That is the one thing that people don’t seem to understand. The rules are there to protect us not to destroy us. God loves us so much that he made rules in order for us not kill each other into extinction, but rather love each other and learn from each other. There is a vast majority of people who think that the Bible rules and laws are too strict, but they don’t realize that the reason for these rules to be so strict is because of their own sinful actions. God has, is and will continue to find ways to protect us because we are his loving creation. That is the character of the God we serve.

The law is needed to helps us realize that we are sinful creatures that need repentance, redemption, justification, sanctification, and Salvation.