Miley Cyrus, Bashar Assad, and Natural Law

            Sometimes I read things in the news that are almost unbelievable in either their ridiculousness or their heinousness.  On the ridiculous side we have a 20 year old Miley Cyrus performing (?) or dancing like she has lost her mind. Her father has to be real proud of the way she has been acting lately.  Then on the heinous side we have a Syrian regime under Bashar Assad who is using chemical weapons to kill their own people.  How sad to live in a country where the government will use weapons of mass destruction on its own people.  I could sit here all day listing news events that make us shake our heads in utter disbelief that someone would dare think these actions are acceptable choices to make.  Do these people know better?  Yes, they know better and yet choose to do what they know is wrong.  Let’s think about how they know better.

  

          Someone will inevitably ask the question, what makes these things wrong?  Why is it wrong for Miley Cyrus to dance around almost nude and then make vulgar gestures on a public forum viewed by millions of people?  Why is it wrong for a government to kill innocent men, women, and children who are not military combatants?  One of the reasons we know these things are wrong is called natural law.  Natural law is the recognition that some things are inherently wrong.  For example, we inherently know that child molestation is wrong.  We don’t need a written law to inform us that child molestation is wrong, we know intuitively that harming a helpless child or person is wrong.  We inherently know that stealing someone else’s property is wrong.  We inherently know that murder, genocide, and or ethnic cleansing is wrong.  Natural law is written in the heart of man.

            We might then ask, where did this natural law come from and is it a credible standard to live by?  Natural law is one of the evidences that we are created in the image of God, also known as Imago Dei.  The natural law in man is an emulation of God’s moral character and attributes.  The apostle Paul said the law of God is written in the hearts of man and it bears witness to us through our conscience (Romans 2.15).  Theologians from the middle ages declared natural law to be an extension of the eternal law of God.  The reality is, we all have a conscience over the things we choose to do which is more than enough evidence to prove natural law.

            Two thoughts of application; First, the fact that there is a moral law leads to the doctrine and principle of accountability.  Since there is overwhelming evidence that there is a God, it is then reasonable to understand we are accountable to Him as the creator and originator of all moral law.  We have a conscience about right and wrong by way of natural law.  The knowledge that we have broken God’s law leads to the feeling of guilt and the certain expectation of having to pay the penalty for our wrong choices and actions.  If this principle seems too grand, simply consider that it is the principle of law we live under every day.  If you speed and get caught, you get a ticket, you have to pay for breaking the law.  The difference with God is He sees and knows all things so to break His law is to always be caught.

            Secondly, there is coming a day when all the sin of the world will be dealt with by God.  There is no free pass when it comes to sin.  Miley will have to answer to God for her indiscretions just as Bashar Assad and his regime will have to answer for murdering so many innocent people.  The only answer to our sin is Jesus.  Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for our sin so we might be forgiven.  There is a day of judgment on the horizon of human history.  Those who reject Jesus and continue in their sin will one day face a God who is even now angry over sin.  God loves us, but He will not overlook our sin.  The only path to forgiveness is by faith in Jesus.  What does your conscience tell you?  The natural law in your own heart, what does it tell you about the way you live?  Jesus is the answer, come to Him and be saved while there is opportunity.