This post is an excerpt from a chapter in my next book titled, “God Is Always Good”. This book should be available for purchase by early December. It is a great tool for discipleship because it will help the reader consider what is involved in having a personal relationship with a supernatural and sovereign God, who does not serve or bow to any human commands. There have been many people who have turned away from the faith because God did not do as they felt He should have done. Some thing that they had done God much good, and that they somehow deserved His servitude. God will grant us what is in His will for us, but we do not get to claim our goodness as a reason why. I hope that you will be challenged and encouraged by this sneak preview of my next book.

Genesis 6:5-6 is one of the saddest Scriptures in the Bible to me. Just five chapters before in Genesis 1:31, God looked upon the earth and was well pleased with what He saw. “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” It did not take sin long to completely corrupt us. Once the awareness of good and evil was revealed to man, evil won out, which led to the punishment of sin through the flood. All that was living upon the earth was destroyed because of the sinfulness of man, except for Noah, his family and the animals God instructed him to bring on the Ark. Sometimes it’s better to not know than to know because it just may destroys you, as we have seen from the fall of Adam and Eve. In our current culture of self-absorbed slang, the terms, “it’s all good” and “I’m good”, are often used. It’s a reflection of man’s deception to self-proclaim himself as good. Who told us that we were good? By what standard is that good compared? What does it even mean to be “good”?

We are not good just because we do things that appear to be “good”. Doing good deeds does not make one a good person. Even Christ acknowledges this in Mark 10:18, “And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.”If Christ would not consider Himself as good, we certainly can not. God is the creator of all things. He is the only one that can be called good because He is perfect. Christ made this statement regarding His humanity. As a man, He had the same capacity as we had to be tempted, yet He never sinned. God can not be tempted to sin. This kind of good means that there is never a desire to do anything else but good. It is God’s goodness that evaluates how we treat others, how we act and react, how we think, and our motives. None of us can claim that type of goodness. However, when Christ enters our lives, God no longer sees us in our humanity or our sense of goodness. He sees us through the righteousness of Christ.

In Christ’s deity He is good. There is nothing eternal that our self-proclaimed goodness can do for us. If God does not see us as good, or our actions as good, then our valuation of good, profits us nothing. I am always astounded when someone replies, that “they are good enough to go to heaven” and does not need the sacrifice of Christ. There is no arrogance greater than a statement like that. Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” It does not matter how “good” one’s think that he is or that he does, if God does not receive that good through a soul that has been submitted to Christ.

Only God can evaluate the value of our goodness. I have been a born-again believer for over 32 years. I followed the Catholic teachings for 30 years, and I too, crowned myself as a good person. I did not cheat people, I did not steal or cuss or drink, or mistreat people. I loved people. But that did not make me a good person. I was a lost to my sin nature and until I submitted my life to Christ and received His gift of forgiveness, I remained God’s enemy and not good. But now that I have experienced the generosity of God’s love, forgiveness, grace, and mercy, I now know what good looks like. I know that from His view of perfect, I fall short, because I am not good, but I have a sinful nature, that Christ has covered on my behalf by His death on the cross. This is the only goodness that I can claim, the goodness that led me to repent and acknowledge how far from good I really was. I understand that God is always good, but I am not. I have no authority by which to claim goodness. I have nothing to compare my goodness too. If one claims that they are good and thereby feels that they are above God’s goodness, the sad reality is that they have only become good fools. Psalm 14:1, teaches us that only a fool believes that there is no God by which they can be judged. God is always good, but we are not. He can give us His righteousness when we submit ourselves to Christ. Contact me to know more about being born-again in the goodness of God’s forgiveness. Think about that. Be Blessed!