In The Image Of A Moral God

At some point, some injury or insult, some violation of custom, standard, or law will occur and that will cause us to lose our cool and our righteous indignation will burst forth like a volcano. This is universal. We differ on when happens because of own values and priorities. But everyone’s got that point because we are creatures of moral judgment. We can’t deny it. We really were made that way. 

God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). And so He did. “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen. 1:27). He made us with a deep moral sense. He made us as makers and keepers of standards, even if we are deeply imperfect at it.

We use this sense every time we praise what we approve and condemn what we don’t—whether audibly, or with a nod, or even with an eye roll. We wrestle within ourselves dealing with our conscience as it “accuses or excuses” us (Rom. 2:15) for what we did or didn’t do. All this reflects the moral nature of God who made us like Him. 

This moral quality gives us the choice to do good or ill. Even though our choices are not always informed, or are diminished and constrained by prior choices and circumstances, they're still our choices that we must reason through and deal with. And we know our decisions often have long-lasting consequences. Let us use the moral reasoning that God gave us for His glory and for our good, choosing the way the prophet Amos said, “Let justice roll down like waters, And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24).