God-Lite, the Moralistic God
By Douglas Groothuis
[This is the fourth part in Dr. Douglas Groothuis’s series on true and false ideas about God. For earlier installments, see part one, part two, and part three.]
A less dramatic and less dynamic antithesis than Islam to the living God revealed in the Bible is a Christianity-lite or moralism. However, moralism is equally dangerous as a false gospel, however insipid and harmless it may seem, since it, too, denies the gospel. Moralism takes many forms, but they all center on the ability of man to please God through good works. It is the default position of many Americans who believe in God and have some acquaintance with Christianity, but not with the living God and his gospel. The theologian H. Richard Neibuhr (1894-1962) memorably described theological liberalism (one form of moralism) in 1937 this way: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.”[1]
Moralism assumes that God exists and has a moral standard. That is correct. However, moralism incorrectly teaches that God’s moral standard is within our ability to reach, which is wrong. Moralism takes Jesus more as a moral example than as Savior and Lord. He is the great teacher of morality. Some claim that true Christianity means to engage in social justice on behalf of the downtrodden. Leaving aside the questionable politics of such folk,[2] although we should care about “the least of these,” as Jesus said, this is not the basis of our standing with God, but an outworking of it.
Jesus is the greatest teacher of morality, but infinitely more: he is the divine-human Lord and Savior. Moralists may justify their lives by saying, “I try to live by the Sermon on the Mount,” and be done with it. But God is not done with it, since no one can do this. But if you read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), you must realize how far short you fall of that standard. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). How is that working for you? It is only the work of Jesus Christ, the perfect One, that bridges the chasm between a perfect and holy God and us. Good works evidence a true faith, but can never substitute for it in salvation. A “person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:19). Good works are as “filthy rags” before a holy, holy, holy God if relied on for redemption (Isaiah 64:6). We need a Mediator to make peace between us and God, and we have one! “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5; see also John 14:6).
Notes
[1] H. Richard Niebuhr, The Kingdom of God in America (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1988), 196. The classic critique of theological liberalism is J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism (Cannon Press, 2020). It was originally published in 1923. On a recent form of liberalism, called progressive Christianity, see Alisa Childers, Another Gospel: A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Elevate, 2020).
[2] See Douglas Groothuis, Fire in the Streets (Washington, DC: Salem, 2022), Voddie Baucham, Fault Lines (Washington, DC: Salem, 2020), and Owen Strachan, Christianity and Wokeism (Washington, DC: Salem, 2021).
— Douglas Groothuis is University Research Professor of Apologetics and Christian Worldview at Cornerstone University and is the author of twenty books, including, most recently, Beyond the Wager: The Christian Brilliance of Blaise Pascal (InterVarsity-Academic, 2024) and Christian Apologetics, 2nd ed. (InterVarsity-Academic, 2022).
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Excellent article! I like the term 'God-lite' because it describes how a large number of people view God. As long as He fits into their way of thinking about morality they're good with that. Moralism is one of the enemy's most powerful lies and far too many people have swallowed it. It's as if many 'Christians' have never read the Bible. There is no way they could believe in moralism if they had read it carefully and thoughtfully. God's One and Only Son came from Heaven to earth to suffer and die for our sins because we were lost and without hope. How does that fit into 'moralism?' It doesn't.
Interesting article. I raise two challenges to it here: https://elliottcrozat.substack.com/p/moral-standards-and-the-possibility
In short, how can we be morally obligated to do the impossible? Doesn’t obligation entail possibility? And what is the proper interpretation of the Sermon?