Morality, and redemption

The morality which is appropriate for God's own people is expressed in the OT law, and in the person and teaching of Jesus Christ.

Relationship with God is expressed in moral terms

In the moral standards God expects of his people

Leviticus 11:44–45; Matthew 5:48 See also Matthew 5:43–44 parallel Luke 6:27–28; Luke 6:35–36; Ephesians 4:31–5:3; 1 Peter 1:15–16; 3 John 1:11

For I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, because I am holy. You must not defile yourselves by any creature that crawls along the ground. For I am the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt so that I would be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.[’’]

In God's moral laws

Isaiah 51:4; Romans 7:12 See also Exodus 20:1–7; Deuteronomy 6:25; Psalm 119:137–138, Psalm 147:19–20; Proverbs 29:18; Isaiah 51:7

Pay attention to Me, My people, and listen to Me, My nation; for a law will go out from Me, and My justice will become a light to the nations; I will bring it about quickly.

So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.

In God's denunciation of immorality and religious hypocrisy

Amos 2:6–7 See also Isaiah 1:15–23; Amos 5:21–24; Micah 6:8; Ephesians 5:5; Colossians 3:5–7

This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Israel, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the earth; they push the needy out of their way. A man and his father have relations with the same girl and so profane My holy name.

In the life and teaching of Jesus Christ

John 1:14 See also Matthew 5:17–20; John 1:17–18, John 3:19; Hebrews 4:15

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The incentive for moral change lies in what God has done in redemption

In the OT

Deuteronomy 24:17–18 See also Leviticus 19:13–18, Leviticus 19:35–36; Deuteronomy 15:12–15, Deuteronomy 24:21–22

Do not deny justice to the foreigner or the fatherless, and do not take a widow’s cloak as security. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you from that place. Therefore I am commanding you to do this.

In the NT

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 See also Romans 12:1–2

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.

Moral change brought about by God's work of renewal

Ezekiel 36:26–27; 1 Corinthians 6:9–11 See also Romans 8:3–4, Romans 8:11–14; Galatians 5:19–24; Ephesians 4:22–24; Philippians 2:12–13; Colossians 3:8–12; Hebrews 8:10; Jeremiah 31:33

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.