clarification concerns itself with a denial of lapsing into the
second and third premises of moralism.
When we become Christians and receive the Good-One,
the God-One, Jesus Christ, into our spirit, this is not to
imply that we have now been invested with the inherent
ability to know what is good, or the inherent capability to
do the good. Ellul explains that the Christian does not have
"any intrinsic capacity to do by himself the good which God has
set forth. There is no permanent transformation of his being which
would consist in this ability to perform the will of God by
Himself." 17This is precisely where so much of the teaching of
Christian religion has jumped track into the second and
third premises of moralism. For centuries the gospel has
been typically presented as the Good-One, the God-One,
Jesus Christ being incarnated as a man, and living out the
good-life perfectly, "without sin" (Heb. 4:15; II Cor. 5:21).
Accurate history. Accurate theology. What usually happens
then is that the historic "presentation" of perfect goodness
in human behavior in the life of Jesus Christ on earth is
made to be the "standard" to which those who assent to, or
receive, Jesus Christ are expected to look to in order to
know good (second premise) and conform to in order to do
good (third premise). Such is the tragic "sell-out" of the