Beyond Morality: Living by Christ’s Revelation

Introduction: A Question for the Christian Life

I hear Christians talk about morality all the time, as if it is the central part of the Christian walk. Don’t get me wrong — living rightly matters. But after reading Peace Child and reflecting on Jacques Ellul’s writings (To Will and to Do, Living Faith), I can’t help but wonder:

Is God actually calling us to something even higher?

What if morality, as we usually think of it, isn’t the main point? What if Christ invites us to a life shaped not by human ethical systems, but by His living Word, revealed fresh each day?

Let’s explore this — through real-world cultural examples and Ellul’s radical challenge to move beyond human morality into daily reliance on Christ Himself.

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Setting and Context: Peace Child and the Sawi

In 1962, Don and Carol Richardson, Christian missionaries, arrived in what was then Netherlands New Guinea to work among the Sawi people — a headhunting, cannibalistic tribe living in deep isolation.

The Sawi culture glorified treachery and violence. Friendship was often a tool for betrayal, and the highest virtue was to deceive an enemy with trust before killing him. When the Richardsons shared the Gospel story, the Sawi shockingly admired Judas Iscariot — praising him for successfully betraying Jesus.

Communicating Christ’s message of sacrificial love seemed almost impossible.

The breakthrough came when the Richardsons learned of the Sawi’s “peace child” tradition.
To end tribal wars, villages would exchange a child — offering him to live among the enemy as a pledge of peace. As long as the peace child lived, peace endured.

Richardson seized this custom as a bridge to the Gospel:
Jesus Christ is God’s ultimate Peace Child — sent to reconcile a warring world to Himself.

This connection deeply resonated with the Sawi.
Many embraced Christ, tribal violence diminished, and a vibrant church took root among a people once enslaved to betrayal and bloodshed.

Understanding this context sheds light on the profound truth:
Christianity did not simply introduce a new moral code to the Sawi.
It revealed a new life — Christ Himself, speaking into their world with transforming power.

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Cultural Morality: A Tapestry of Contrasts

Reading Peace Child stunned me. Among the Sawi people of Papua New Guinea, treachery was considered a moral ideal.

A warrior who could befriend an enemy only to betray and kill him was celebrated as a hero. In contrast, Western cultures often view betrayal as a grave sin, valuing loyalty and trust. This stark difference shows how morality is not universal but culturally defined. The Sawi’s eventual embrace of peace through the “peace child” analogy for Christ illustrates not a shift to a new moral code but a transformation through divine revelation.

In our world, morality is often shaped by culture, history, and survival.

And the Sawi’s eventual embrace of peace — through the stunning ‘peace child’ analogy for Christ — wasn’t a shift to Western ethics. It was a transformation through divine revelation.

Other examples show the same pattern:
– Polygamy in Traditional African Cultures: Among the Zulu and Maasai, polygamy is morally acceptable — a sign of wealth and provision. Western Christianity, meanwhile, holds up monogamy as the ideal.
– Honor Killings in Certain Middle Eastern Societies: In some conservative Middle Eastern communities, honor killings are seen as a moral duty — a way to restore family honor.
– Ritual Scarification among the Karo Tribe of Ethiopia: Scarification is celebrated as beauty and strength among the Karo, while in the West it would likely be seen as self-harm or mutilation.

Each of these examples reveals something crucial: morality is profoundly cultural and subjective — and thus limited and fallen.

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Moving Deeper: Ellul’s Challenge to Morality

Clearly, morality twists and shifts with culture — just look at the changes in American society over the past 30 years.

But does Christianity offer something different — something unchanging and alive? Jacques Ellul believed so.

For Ellul, morality is a burden humanity bears, a flawed system that varies from culture to culture, as seen in the Sawi’s treachery or the Karo’s scarification.

He argued that morality itself is a product of the Fall — humanity’s attempt to define good and evil without God. As he wrote:

“Morality is part of the condition of the fall. Now endowed with the power to define good and evil…man can no longer renounce this power which he has purchased so dearly.” (To Will and To Do, p. 71)

For Ellul, Christianity is not adopting a better moral system. It is living by a revealed Word — present, personal, and daily.

“Christianity has nothing commensurate with any morality. It is the essence itself of revelation that rules out all ethical systematizing.” (To Will and To Do, p. 86)

In Peace Child, the Sawi people didn’t need Western lectures on loyalty. They needed an encounter with Christ Himself — a Savior who transcended their old moral framework and revealed something altogether new.

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Why Unbelievers Criticize Christian Morality

It’s no surprise that unbelievers often question a believer’s morality — just as they questioned Christ’s.

When people don’t know the life of Christ, all they can see is behavior. They naturally default to judging Christianity by external standards — expecting conformity to visible rules they themselves don’t fully understand.

But Jesus Himself described the futility of these human expectations:

“They are like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.” (Matthew 11:16-17 KJV)

They played the flute, and Jesus did not dance. They played a dirge, and He did not mourn.

He would not be controlled by men’s expectations of morality or culture. His mission was to call us higher — to reveal to us a spiritual kingdom and a new way of living that cannot be confined by human categories.

Just as Christ lived by the Father’s revelation, He calls us to do the same — not by the world’s ever-changing standards, but by the Spirit of God within us.

“Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

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Grace, Not Moral Imposition

Ellul also warned Christians never to demand that nonbelievers behave like Christians:

“One of the essential rules of the Christian life is never to ask a non-Christian to conduct himself like a Christian…” (To Will and To Do, p. 104)

When we impose morality, we risk presenting God as merely a condemner.

The Gospel is not about conforming to Western norms or rules. It is about encountering the living Christ, who transforms hearts.

This is why Don Richardson’s approach with the Sawi worked. He didn’t impose foreign morality; he revealed Christ within their own cultural language — the ‘peace child.’

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A Higher Calling: Living by the Spirit

For Ellul, the Christian life is not a list of moral commands. It is a dynamic, Spirit-led walk:

“Each situation, like each person, is novel. The command of God is not a general rule…it is always particular for a person at this moment, in this situation.” (To Will and To Do, pp. 201-219)

This is the beauty of life in Christ. It’s not about ticking moral boxes. It’s about hearing His voice today — and following Him.

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Doctrinal Anchor

It must be clearly stated: moving beyond morality does not mean abandoning righteousness.

God’s law reflects His nature, and that standard does not change.

But the New Testament reveals something greater—not a lowering of the standard, but a new source:

“Christ… is made unto us… righteousness” (1 Corinthians 1:30)

The believer is not called to produce righteousness independently, but to walk in union with Christ, in whom the righteousness of the law is fulfilled:

“That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Romans 8:4)

The issue is not whether righteousness matters—but where it comes from.

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Conclusion: Trusting Christ Over Morality

Across cultures — from Sawi treachery to Karo scarification — morality proves itself to be human, fluid, and fallen.

But Christ is unchanging.

“There cannot be a Christian ethic. The whole of revelation is against it…every attempt to construct such a morality, no matter how faithful, is a betrayal of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ.” (To Will and To Do, p. 201)

The invitation is clear: Trust Christ. Live by His Spirit. Walk by His daily Word.

“Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2 Corinthians 3:17)

Christianity is not about morality. It is about the Life of Christ living in us — now, moment by moment, shaping us into His likeness from the inside out.

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