“Are these things right because God commands them or does God command them because they are right? [...] God neither obeys nor creates the moral law. […] God is not merely good, but goodness; goodness is not merely divine, but God.”
Lewis’ statement first confused me. But when I reread this paragraph and thought about his point, I found it to be very insightful. In order to come to a better understanding of Lewis’ statement, I had to think back to creation and the nature of God. God is relationship because he is the Trinity; this means he is perfect love and perfect goodness. Out of the abundance of his love he chose to create the world; the world was therefore created out of the essence of who God is. Just as a piece of art bears the mark of the artist, creation bears the fingerprint of its creator. Therefore man, part of God’s creation, bears the moral law (which reflects God’s goodness) in his heart.
God did not “create” the moral law. My first reaction to this suggestion was surprise. God created everything in existence; nothing came about apart from God. Yet, 1 John 4:8 says “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” God is not only loving, just as Lewis says that God is not merely good. God is love. He is goodness. And God is eternal. He has always existed. He did not create goodness or love, because goodness and love are the essence of who God is. The moral law which Lewis is discussing stems from goodness and love. This then also means that the moral law reflects the essence of who God is.
The notion that God is love is incredibly powerful to me. The highest command we were given is to love God and love our neighbor. We live our life craving for love in any way we can receive it. As we have talked about concepts such as longing and our desire to be united with the beauty that we see in this class, the concept that God is love is greatly powerful. We seek to receive love from people and from God throughout our lives in our lives. Yet ultimately what we long for is not only to engage with those who are by nature human (or other) and by characteristic loving, we long to be united with love itself. We long to be united with God.
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Amy, you beautifully articulate the reason I am a Christian: God is love. I appreciate that you reach the heart of the matter without writing on the "traps" of politics, or denominational hype. I would not be a servant of God if he was love, justice, and righteousness. I long to be united with that kind of divinity. God's essence is the beauty which I see glimpses of all the time and there is no other factor that drives me more.
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