Right & Wrong?

HOW DO HUMAN BEINGS KNOW THE MORAL
 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RIGHT AND WRONG?

An Excerpt from a course on Natural Law, the Noahide, and the Torah

It is universally accepted among Christians and Jews that human beings were uniquely created in the "image of God."  As it relates to human life this is the most fundamental premise of the Bible as established in the first chapter of the first Book. 

"Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'  God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:26, 27 NASV).

It is also universally understood by Christians and Jews that the image of God in mankind is not physical, but spiritual.  As Jesus (the Incarnation) Himself affirmed, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:24).

While a spirit is incorporeal, it is not without an image.  The Hebrew word "image" as used in Genesis 1:26, and 27 is צֶלֶם (teslem) coming from an unused root meaning to shade.  In other words, we are something of a "shadow" of God's spiritual image - an image that is infinitely holy.

On a practical level, God's infinite holiness is subsumed in His attributes.  Attributes such as justice, truthfulness, grace, mercy, compassion, faithfulness, and loving kindness. 

Holiness can only be observed in the light of its antithesis. The comparison requires a judgment between the two - a moral judgment.  The word "moral" whether defined when it is used as an adjective or a noun comes out about the same.  That is, it is a standard or principle of right and wrong.

Therefore, if we as human beings are a "shadow" of the spiritual image of God, we must be a shadow of His moral image as well (finite to be sure, yet still a shadow).  That image, if created and not manufactured through experience, must be innate (inborn, native, natural, inherent, instinctive). 

While it may be informed, enlightened and matured through teaching, practice and experience, it cannot be informed, enlightened or matured at all if it is not first innate.  Something that is not cannot be practiced, polished or matured.  Stated more concisely, something cannot come from nothing.

The question, "How do human beings know the moral difference between right and wrong?" must then be answered by first acknowledging the image of God in all of us whether we live righteously or unrighteously. Just what is that image of God?  This is the question we will take up in our next post.

For a deeper study, you are encouraged to consider enrolling in our3 credit-hour academic course "THE LAW OF UNIVERSAL RIGHTEOUSNESS:  Natural Law, the Noahide, and the Torah."  You can check out all of our regular academic programs by clicking this link:  PROGRAMS.

Thank you for sharing time with me.  I hope this brief post will encourage you to want to learn more about the laws of universal righteousness, and the manner in which God has implanted the awareness of right and wrong within your own heart and mind.

Dennis D. Frey, Th.D.,