How Important Am I?

In the Vice-Presidential debate held some weeks ago I was struck by a comment from one candidate on the issue of taxation. This candidate made the comment, “Where I come from, it’s just plain fairness.” In reflecting on this comment in the days following the debate several questions popped into my mind. Fair to whom? Who decides what is fair? Is it fair where I come from, everywhere, or just where the candidate came from?

Fairness is a moral issue and similar to other moral issues like goodness, right and truth. These moral issues are only significant if they are anchored on an overarching absolute moral framework. My collegiate studies and current profession is in the field of structural engineering and structural steel fabrication. In the majority of constructed facilities the only thing you see is the façade. Brick, stone, EIFS or other materials cover the exterior of the building. Drywall, tile, plaster or carpet cover walls, floors and ceilings cover interior spaces. These facades make the facility look attractive, warm, inviting and give designers a palette on which to reflect personal style and creativity. Ever-present and underlying all these coverings is a stable structural framework supporting each element. Framing members must support not only vertical gravity loads (floors, ceilings and the like) but also lateral forces like wind and earthquake that would move the frame side to side and produce a catastrophic collapse. If the supporting framework is weak, or if the lateral bracing is inadequate then no amount of decoration can prevent a systemic failure of the entire system. We also put a great deal of faith in this structural framework. Think of the number of times you walk into and out of any type of facility on a daily basis (home, office, bank, gym, grocery store, etc.) Morality is much the same. Without an absolute moral framework to support our lives, we are mere decoration and façade, devoid of moorings and destined for collapse.

If each of us can decide for ourselves how things ought to be then life, and by extension our relationships with others, becomes absurd. Fairness, goodness, right and truth become subjective; whether someone smiles at you or punches you in the face makes no difference as long as they felt it was the right thing to have done. If however, something outside ourselves sets in place how things ought to be, then we have an objective moral frame on which we can hang our standards of fair, good, right and true. So, do I attribute the highest level of importance and decision-making to myself, or to someone outside myself?

I would humbly submit that Jesus Christ is the embodiment of the absolute moral framework. On our own, it’s not just difficult to figure out the right thing to do, it is impossible for us to know. Emil Brunner in “The Divine Imperative” puts it this way, “Only he who sees at the Cross of Christ knows evil in its vast extent. Only he who there sees his own guilt condemned, takes it really upon himself; and he alone knows that in his guilt he is united with the whole of humanity…And at the same time the despair engendered by the sense of guilt, which always means impotence to achieve the Good, is removed. For the word of the Cross is the word of reconciliation and forgiveness, and as such is the foundation for, and the source of, a new active existence.”

The psalmist says, “Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” Jesus tells Thomas when asked about the way, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:6) I cannot decide what is true, right or good on my own because there is nothing good in me. In Isaiah (and later in Romans we read), “There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God…Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are evil thoughts; ruin and destruction mark their ways.”

If we take the time to think about morality and its origin we ultimately have to choose: absolute or relative, humble or prideful, obedient or disobedient, God or man. Either God is God and He establishes an absolute moral framework on which I am to base my life; or I make myself to be God and decide for myself what is fair and good and right and true. How important am I?