We somehow have an unchanging standard of right and wrong that we all seem to recognize, and that standard of justice is written on our hearts. We cannot know or define evil unless we know what is good, and vice versa. Without a moral law, there is no standard of truth and no unchanging standard of justice. Without an unbiased standard, each person would create his own, and good and evil would become nothing more than matters of personal opinion.

The Holocaust was not a matter of opinion; it was evil of the worst kind. If there is no God, then the atrocities of the Holocaust were not necessarily evil—they were simply a matter of opinion. If it is wrong to steal a car and run over the owner and her three children, then evil exists, and if evil exists, then God exists.

Morality is not relative; it is absolute. There is a real moral difference between good and evil, right and wrong. Without justice, injustice is meaningless. Without moral law—divine law—we would have no way to measure moral differences.

Hitler enjoyed killing innocent people because he was power-mad—he became all-powerful in his own warped mind. Mother Teresa devoted her life to helping others. Hitler hated Jews. Mother Teresa loved people. Unless there is a moral standard above both Hitler and Mother Teresa, then neither was right and neither was wrong. Yet we instinctively know this is false. When we compare Mother Teresa against Hitler, we appeal to an absolute moral standard beyond both of them. A standard that measures two different things must itself be different from either. There is indeed a higher source, and that source is God.

If you agree there is an objective moral code, then you are also admitting there is a God who wrote a universal, unchanging morality on our hearts.

We all react a certain way when we see injustice—when innocent people are harmed. Yet we all fall short of the very laws we recognize and enforce. We know the law says, “Do not,” yet something within us says, “Do it anyway.” Our human nature contains both good and evil. It is these divine moral standards that point us to God, whose very nature is perfect righteousness.

If we believe society is getting worse, then we are comparing society to what it once was and, ultimately, to moral standards beyond ourselves. Yet society has increasingly turned its back on God. Humanity denies its own faults and blames God for the failures and injustice produced by human sin itself. Without God in our thinking, innocent people suffer, society decays, and eventually humanity destroys itself.

Humanity must rise above itself to discover the true meaning of life, which is found in the transcendent God. Without God, life has no lasting meaning beyond the present moment. God has planted eternity in the hearts of humanity, and those who seek what is highest and best will find fulfillment in Christ.

We are free to do wrong, but is that what freedom is for? We are free to love and serve our neighbor—and everyone is our neighbor.

True freedom, found in Christ, means the believer is set free from the law, the curse of the law, and the fear of death (Romans 3:13; 4:3; 6:7,18; 7:6; 8:2; Colossians 2:20; Hebrews 2:15).

Liberty is not license. The greatest experience of liberty is found in willing bondage to Christ.

In the flesh, unbelievers often understand freedom in grace as antinomianism—a license to sin. In the Spirit, believers understand freedom as liberty to follow Christ, serve others, and love their fellow man.

The same freedom is viewed in two completely different ways: one according to the flesh and one according to the Spirit. The flesh sees freedom negatively, as self-rule and indulgence. The Spirit sees freedom positively, as release from sin in order to walk with Christ.

God’s mercy and peace are given through grace by means of the cross. The fruit of the Spirit flows from grace, while the works of the flesh are manifestations of the sinful nature.