I’ve had a heightened awareness of the emptiness of my generation since I began college. While some of my peers seem to have purpose in their life, many others appear empty.
The world has sold us the bill that we can live for ourselves. As a culture, we bought it. But our self-focused lives have a high price tag. We’ve become self-consumed, only to realize that we are not big enough to satisfy our hearts’ longings.
Morality matters.
My head cocked to the side, I tried to focus on what my teacher was writing.
“This term,” he explained, “is what we think of as moral law. The other one is legal law.”
He had my interest piqued as he continued. “For example, suppose that a law was made that murder is no longer wrong. We certainly hope that such a terrible thing would never happen! But suppose it did. We would still know in our hearts that murder is wrong. That is moral law.”
A moment of sight
That is when time seemed to freeze. I almost felt as though I was no longer in my classroom. There is a law that murder is OK. The enormity of what is happening in the Western world hit me with a horrid solemnity.
The strange thing is, I couldn’t see that anyone else in class recognized our predicament.
I saw in a moment the thousands of babies who never lived outside the womb. They were not just tissue; they were precious, uniquely-created lives. Some lived longer than others before their lives were snuffed out.
Call it what you want, the truth is that these babies did not die of natural causes. They died of human intent. That is why people who protect the abortion industry labor to refer to these precious children as anything but living individuals—tissue blobs, health threats, a choice. But these little ones certainly cannot be a life… because if they were, ending that life would be an unthinkable crime.
What is happening?
We wonder why our country is running off course. We wonder why society seems to be going crazy.
We wonder why our own souls are so empty.
I am not suggesting that abortion is the root of America’s ills. Rather, I am suggesting that abortion is indicative of the larger problem. We are allowing legal laws and even our own selfish desires to drown out moral law.
Is there an answer?
Surprisingly, after all, my talk about moral law, I am going to say that moral law is not the answer. However, moral law does help lead us to the answer if we let it.
Moral law convicts us. It tells us that we have done wrong, and ultimately it is supposed to show us that we cannot stop doing wrong, even if we try.
God built moral law into each one of us (Rom. 2:14-15). Moral law reveals our need to be rescued from our empty, sinful selves. God has provided that answer.
Only when we exchange our lives for Christ’s Life imparted to us can we find our purpose (Rom. 6:16, 19). Jesus alone is true Life (John 14:6).
