Notes in Ethics: Theist's Explanation of Moral Obligation's Binding Force

1. GENERALLY, ALL MEN HAVE the moral experience of feeling obligated.

2. The “binding force” and “overriding character” of the moral obligation are attributed to God who is man’s creator and thus the cause of man’s moral dimension.  

3. This idea is consistent with the meaning of religion itself (Latin re and ligare meaning “to bind back”).

4. There is a bond that exists between man and his Creator. This bond is the feeling of being morally obligated to live up to some moral law that is the expression of the commands of God and that presses down on everyone.

5. Morality is “something above and beyond the ordinary facts of men's behavior, and yet quite definitely real—a real law, which none of us made, but which we find pressing on us” (The Case for Christianity, p.17).

6. It is absurd to suggest that this moral thing just popped into existence, or just assembled itself. When we admit a moral law, we also affirm a moral lawgiver.

7. Someone made that moral law and it is not just a disembodied principle. This explains the moral force of the moral law—when we break the moral rule, we feel that we offend that Someone who Himself made the rule. He urges us to do right and makes us feel responsible and uncomfortable when we do wrong.