The real goods on "Good" People?

Many people today believe that because they are genuinely attempting to walk upright, not seemingly hurting anyone else, doing good for people they see, and keeping out of trouble, that they are “good” people. This self appreciation is especially prominent among Christians who participate in Church, pay tithes, work hard at following the commandments of God, and so on. However, it may surprise us to know that none of us are good.

Jesus put this understanding to a certain rich young man who knelt before Him and asked, “Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus’ reply to this revealed the very condition of mankind (of us all) before God, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good - except God alone.” The whole emphasis is on the fact that no good comes from us. In fact, as human beings, we are not capable of good. Being good requires that there is, for example, no motive behind what we do. There has never been a murder mystery written wherein there was no motive involved. This is because motives are base to our human condition. Often motives are well disguised, but they are still there.

This propensity toward a motive (the old sin nature) goes back to the time of original sin (or perhaps before that). Adam’s sin set it all in motion. The very word “motive” means causing or able to cause motion. Like “sin,” motive is an emotion, desire, physiological need, or similar impulse acting as an incitement to action. The theological definition of “sin” is a condition of estrangement from God as a result of breaking God’s Law. It is no wonder then that Jesus answered the young rich man’s query by saying essentially that to be good means to keep all of God’s Laws. This is something that is impossible to accomplish for human beings.

The reason it is impossible for us to keep all of God’s Laws is that we have “all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” The glory of God is His perfect good manifested. The only One that is able to keep all of God’s commands, and is faithful to it, is God. Therefore, if any good thing comes from our lives, it is not we who produce it, but rather God who is in us. While we are in the flesh, from the beginning of our existence until we die, we are not capable of any good, except that which is manifested in us and revealed by God. We see that our corrupted motives leave us short of any good from early on, in God’s statement to Noah, right after the flood (Genesis 8:21), “I will never again curse the earth because of human beings, because their heart contrives evil from their infancy.” The heart is the inward part of a person as opposed to what is visible, and particularly the flesh (the spirit gives the flesh life Genesis 2:21). The heart is also the seat of our faculties and personality. From the heart proceeds thoughts, feelings, words, decisions, and actions. God knows our heart to the depths, be appearances as they may. With this understanding, Jesus reveals, “You have heard how it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say this to you, if a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

On the issue of being good by keeping all of God’s commandments, I have heard people argue, as did the young rich man, that they do not break the commandments. It is quickly put to these, “You may not have killed anyone, or had extramarital affairs, or stolen anything, much to your favor, but have you ever seen a nice car or something and thought for a moment you would like to have it? Then you have broken the last commandment, ‘Thou shall not covet’.” As you can see, it is so easy to break a commandment, and so difficult to keep them.

God is the only one who is righteous. To be righteous is to be perfect. To be perfect is to be like God, and “God is good.” The Scriptures tell us (Romans 3:10), “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” In the same vain, there is none good, no, not one. Does it seem strange to you that, though Lucifer and a third of the angels are tossed out of heaven, he is allowed to approach the throne of God and make requests? Does it seem odd that Lucifer is even on speaking terms with God and that not even the archangel Michael, while in heated battle with him, calls Lucifer bad? The fact is that, when it comes to sin, all of us have fallen.

So, you might rightly inquire, how can we do "good" in this world, if we are not good. It is recognizing that we are not good that opens the way for us to be used by God for His good purpose. Even a cursory look at people in the Bible shows us that God uses everyone to good. However, the people through which He has been able to do the greatest good are, without a doubt, those who were able to humble themselves and understand how little effect they were without Him. If we have ourselves full of our own good, then we will not be able to accommodate God’s good. Better still, we must learn to be ready and available, abiding with Him, so that we can be ever usable. Once we allow our lives to be filled with His good, we will not be able to contain it. The result is a welling up and an overflowing of God’s good to others. We must realize that this good comes from God and not from us. And, we must always give Him the glory for the same. It is God in us that is good, and nothing of us, that we have to offer others. What is of us tends to corrupt good things. All other thought of doing good is vanity (rooted in pride or iniquity). This is why, as Christians, we must “let [His light in us] shine before men and give glory to God.