Tuesday, November 12, 2024

The Morality Of Sacrificing Oneself For Others

No one is morally required to sacrifice their convenience to hold the door open for an able-bodied person behind them, to sacrifice their life for someone else's in a natural disaster or wartime conflict, or to sacrifice their moral freedom for the sake of another person's preferences.  These could all be loving acts that reflect a concern for the fellow people made in God's image, yes.  They are nonetheless not moral necessities (Deuteronomy 4:2) like executing kidnappers (Exodus 21:16), avoiding unnecessary labor on the Sabbath (Exodus 35:2), loving God wholeheartedly (Deuteronomy 6:5), or abstaining from lies (Leviticus 19:11).  The ramifications are massive.

Spanning everything from a civilian rescuing others in dangerous situations to a mother giving up her life (in lethal circumstances) to better ensure a safe birth for her baby, there are many scenarios where sacrifice is good on the Christian worldview, since to selflessly prioritize others over oneself in this way is to do something that honors the value of each person (Genesis 1:26-27).  At the same time, there is no selfishness in refraining from doing any of this.  One cannot be selfish without disregarding a logical truth or caring more about one's own personal preferences than moral obligations.

What about Jesus, some people might think?  The sacrifice of Christ's life, a voluntary and good thing (John 10:11-15), is an act of mercy rather than justice, so there is no error of any kind in never choosing the former over the latter.  No, the crucifixion of anyone is never justice, but an abomination (Deuteronomy 25:1-3), yet dying for others is also not a right anyone can legitimately demand.  While someone can freely offer his or her life for someone else's, it cannot be obligatory because this being the default would be unjust even in the case of Christological sacrificial atonement (Deuteronomy 24:16).  Without the voluntary aspect, the death of Jesus would have been evil for God to approve of even aside from the unjust forms of torture that led to it, an impossible thing since only God's nature grounds morality at all to start with.

Jesus absolutely did not have to die on behalf of fallen beings.  Perhaps there would have been no salvation for them, but mercy is never obligatory.  By nature, it can only be shown when true justice is both deserved and withheld either out of love, out of pity, or out of hope for repentance on the wrongdoer's part.  It is logically impossible for mercy to be anything more than this.  Thus, since the death of Christ was something that occurred because of divine mercy and sacrificial willingness to redeem beings that deserve annihilation (Ezekiel 18:4), of course no one should be like Christ in this regard.  It is a mere permissible option should they desire it.

We are not required to imitate Christ in this regard, as noble as it is to voluntarily perform such good but non-obligatory feats (Deuteronomy 4:2).  Avoiding the unnecessary endangerment of human life is mandatory (Leviticus 19:16); giving up one's own life or wellbeing to ensure the survival of other people is by no means something one should do, only something one is free to do if there is genuine sincerity in it.  What all people would be obligated to do is to treat others, including themselves, justly and to be utterly prepared at every moment to sacrifice their convenience to fulfill the actual duties to reason, God, other people, animals, and the environment.  There is no obligation to give up one's life, hence why it cannot be sinful to abstain from this.

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