How Can I Develop A Christian Conscience? (Crucial Questions, #15)

by R.C. Sproul

cf. 1 Cor 8:7-11

If we can’t legislate morality, we can’t have laws against murder, against stealing, against false weights and measures, or against reckless behavior in public because these are all moral issues. Of course, if you think it through, you realize that moral issues are at the heart of all legislation. The question is not whether the state should legislate morality. The question is what morality should the state be legislating?

Now the standard for a law is not eternal truth, or eternal principle, or the character of God, but the wishes and desires of the most powerful or most vocal majority. It’s what the special interest group is able to legislate that becomes the law of the land,

cf. 2 Cor 10:12

The first issue is to know what the good is, to understand with the mind what God requires and what pleases Him. But let’s suppose that we have a clear and sharp understanding of God’s law

It is not enough to know the good if we lack the moral courage to do what is right.

cf. Solomon

Solomon's wisdom

cf. Pharisees

Calvin said that all sins are mortal in that we deserve death from them but that no sin is mortal in the sense that it can destroy our saving grace.