Euthyphro’s Dilemma

Does god command things because they’re good? Or are they good because he commands them?

God commands things because they are good:
If goodness exists independently of God, then why worship God? Let’s just follow the Good. Good would be independent of God. This falsifies the Christian worldview in my mind.

It’s Good because God commands it:
If something is good merely because God commands it, then goodness becomes raw divine will. If God commanded cruelty, would cruelty become good? If yes, then “good” no longer means good. It only means “whatever power says.” It’s might makes right in my mind.

So, neither answer works. However, there is another possibility that Euthyphro did not seem to contemplate.

God does not command goodness because goodness exists above Him, and goodness does not exist below him being made good by His arbitrary command. God commands what is good because He is good. It is His very Nature. God’s commands flow from Him. It is the moral expression of who He is.

And if Christian values are expressions of God’s nature, then removing God from Christian values is like removing the sun from sunlight and the composer from music.

We may still experience fragments of the thing by removing its source. We may still admire the warmth and the melody. But we have lost the source, meaning, authority, and telos.