There Is One Lawgiver

There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another? James 4:12

Who decides what is right and wrong? Is there a grand Designer who decides, or is mankind left to make our own decisions on what is acceptable and what is not?

We Christians know that there is a God and that the Bible is His word (2 Tim. 3:16). The Bible is our instruction manual on how to live. It contains the moral guidelines for us to follow - it is our moral compass, which God has constructed for us.

However most people do not believe in God. They think that God is a man-made superstition and that the Bible is a piece of fiction. These worldly people trust in themselves and make themselves lawgivers: deciding what is right and what is wrong. They create a subjective morality. These people deny God’s existence and often quiz Christians on how God can exist - questions are offered with bias and without desire to truly consider the answers provided.

I was listening to a radio program where a religious person was participating in a Q&A. He gave an interesting illustration.

The man was asked how God could exist and allow such evil to take place. The man responded with a question, “What is evil?”

He continued by saying that “realizing that there is evil implies that there is a God.
If there is evil, it is assumed that there is good.
If there is good and evil, it is assumed that there is a moral law to distinguish between the two.
If there is a moral law, it must be assumed that there is a lawgiver.
That lawgiver is God.”

If there is no one truth, deciding what is right and wrong, then there is no right and wrong. Nothing would be good or evil. It wouldn’t matter what anyone did. Killing, stealing, and any other evil act would be alright.

But there is a moral standard - God’s standard, which is found in the Scriptures. As we can read in James, there is one Lawgiver. There is only one who decides what is right and wrong, and that is God.

                -- John Thrower Jr.