By Kalvin Budiman.

To the unbelieving Jews who were questioning his teaching, Jesus gave this challenge, “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?  If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?” (John 8:46).  This, in a nutshell, is what I mean by “moral apologetics.”  I’m not referring to an abstract moral argument or a moral theory in apologetics.  I’m here talking about the visibility of Jesus’ moral life. This kind of moral apologetics is much more powerful than any types of rational apologetics.  It is powerful because it offends sinners and provokes their oppositions.  Indeed, the challenge that Jesus gave reminded the unbelieving Jews of their own sins.  But moreover, this kind of moral apologetics is powerful because the messengers communicate their message not merely by describing the truth, but by making it present.  The messenger himself or herself makes the truth visibly present.  When Jesus asked the unbelieving Jews to prove him guilty of sin, he was not describing his teachings, but rather making present his teachings.  Jesus’ moral life is a challenge to his opponents because it makes present the truth itself.  Jesus makes abstract truths become palpably present.  His life becomes a conveyor of his teachings.  Rather than just a reminder, his life manifests the truth.

I believe that is what Jesus meant when he also gave a challenge to his disciples, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20).  Does it mean that we have to lead an unblemished life and be perfect in everything we do?  To a certain degree, that might be what Jesus wanted because in other part of his sermon he also said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  But I also believe that the kind of perfection that Jesus demands here is not the kind of perfection exemplified by the Pharisees, which is, in Jesus’ own words, “like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean” (Matt. 23:27).  The Pharisees lead a holy life by separating themselves from the commoners, even by looking down at sinners.  They think highly of themselves and are proud of being more religious than others.

Contrary to the Pharisees’ religiosity, what Jesus asks of his disciples is simple.  Jesus asks his disciples to be the salt of the earth (Matt. 5: 13) and light of the world (Matt. 5:14).  That is what moral apologetics means for us.  We are here in this life in order to season God’s created earth so that people are able to taste the redeeming love of God.  Our lives are to make God’s love tastefully present and shinning.  In order to fulfill these tasks, we cannot live like the Pharisees.  We have to surpass them by simply becoming who we are in Christ and by living in this very world among other sinful human beings—exactly the very thing that the Pharisees would not and could not do.  This way of life is a gift from God; a gift in the sense that we do not seek and learn to become salt and light.  Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth and you are the light of the world.”  The moment we believe in Jesus wholeheartedly, we are ready to do moral apologetics.