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Are you a Christian or a moralist?

Traditional Christians whose faith is based on the Bible, who believe that the way to salvation is through Jesus Christ, who believe that there is such a thing as sin and such a thing as hell, are often viewed as intolerant, overbearing fanatics. As a result, they frequently have trouble being understood, much less getting their message across.  Unwittingly they turn people off and are labeled as self-righteous.

But maybe the problem isn’t that they’re too Christian, as their critics might say, but not Christian enough. That’s one of the central themes of Dr. Timothy Keller’s book, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism.

Dr. Keller is the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, a hugely successful church which now has over 5,000 members and numerous “daughter churches” around the world.

The Reason for God is WORLD magazine’s 2008 Book of the Year, in part because, as the magazine puts it, the book “boldly takes aim at smug self-righteousness….Keller’s anti-moralism allows him to respond creatively to the denigrators of Christianity.”

Intrigued by what “anti-moralism” means exactly, I spoke with Dr. Keller about it. He told me that “one of the keynotes of the ministry at Redeemer is stressing the difference between the gospel and a moralistic approach to religion. The gospel is that God saves you by grace and then you obey out of joy and grateful love.” He draws a distinction between “religion” and the gospel. “We would say religion is ‘I obey therefore God accepts me.’ The gospel is ‘God accepts me through the work of Jesus Christ and therefore I obey.’ Those are two completely different impulses and they create two different kinds of people.”

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Dr. Keller is no New Age spiritual guru.  His message is orthodox, Bible-based Christianity.  He spells out Redeemer’s basic doctrines in the book: “the deity of Christ, the infallibility of the Bible, the necessity of spiritual rebirth through faith in Christ’s atoning death.” But he believes that the way he and other Christians get their message across is critical.

“If your heart has been changed by grace, the tone, the attitude, the response, in all sorts of ways you will speak differently. And people will see it and sense it. I think there are so many people in church pews who are moralistic in the way in which their hearts function that the way they treat people around them has turned a lot of thoughtful people off. If you’re a person who really believes you’re saved by grace, it comes out in your demeanor.”

Dr. Keller is not suggesting that Christians should not lead moral lives. He is quick to point out that there is a difference between being moral and being moralistic.

“If you believe God accepts you because you believe the right things and refrain from the wrong things, you’re a moralist. If, on the other hand, you believe and refrain from the wrong things because you’ve been saved by sheer grace having nothing to do with your works at all, then you’re not a moralist. At the behavioral level, moralists and Christians tend to live pretty much alike. But their attitude, their voice, their approach to people who differ with them is radically different.”

In Jesus’s day, the Pharisees were moralists. They believed their behavior made them right with God, which led to feelings of superiority. Believing that God’s acceptance and love are based purely on grace is, as Dr. Keller puts it, “profoundly humbling.” Humility and charity are recurring themes in the book.

Christians are by no means alone in taking a moralistic approach to the world. For example, the issue of homosexuality is an especially sensitive one for many people. I know people within my close circle of friends and family who would call me a fanatic for believing that the practice of homosexuality is a sin, no matter what approach I took. Dr. Keller told me he could relate. He believes that some people are “so defensive, so hardened and self-righteous in their own view that they will write you off, no matter how gracious you are, no matter how kind you are, no matter how gospel-oriented you are.” And just as he believes Christians should not be ungracious to unbelievers, churches should not be criticized for maintaining standards in accord with their beliefs.

Another misconception Dr. Keller believes many Christians hold is that they have a monopoly on goodness. According to the teaching of “common grace,” Keller writes that “every act of goodness, wisdom, justice, and beauty is empowered by God….He casts them across all humanity, regardless of religious conviction, race, gender, or any other attribute to enrich, brighten and preserve the world.” Having been on the receiving end of criticism from readers who object when I quote or refer to non-Christians in a positive light, I have a special appreciation for that teaching.

The Reason for God answers a host of questions for believers and non-believers. Dr. Keller addresses the issues of suffering in the world, the doctrine of Hell, moral relativism, and how loving God creates a desire to be obedient.

At the end of October, Dr. Keller’s next book — The Prodigal God: Christianity Redefined Through the Parable of the Prodigal Son — will be released. It concentrates specifically on the difference between moralism and the gospel by examining the famous parable it’s named for. Dr. Keller told me that the word “prodigal” doesn’t mean wayward; it means recklessly extravagant. “The idea is that God’s extravagant love is necessary to deal with the gravity of our sinfulness.”

I’m looking forward to reading it.

After ten years as a producer for CBS News, forty-something years as an Episcopalian, and fifteen years as a mother, Marcia Segelstein (mvsegelstein@optonline.net) considers herself a reluctant rebel against the mainstream media, the Episcopal Church (and others which make up the rules instead of obeying them), and the decaying culture her children witness every day. Her pieces have been published in “First Things,” “Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity,” and “BreakpointOnline,” and she is a contributing editor for Salvo magazine.

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