Isn’t
it enough just to be a good person?
- If you’re asking that question, you’re one of probably one of the vast majority of people who like to think of themselves as “basically good” – but if we really look at ourselves the way the Bible does we see some of the problems. Even the best people do things that are wrong – even if we try to justify it. “It’s only a white lie.” But more than that, there are the words we say – more often than we’d like, they are careless or hurtful. Then there are the things we let our minds linger on, which are not always helpful or even nice. How would we appear to even our closest friends if they could read all our thoughts? Even when we do good things, we realise that there are often lots of mixed motives in our lives – we’re not usually as good as we like to think.
- How good is good? God is perfect, and His perfection cannot be next to anything that is imperfect. That is His standard, and so the Bible can say, “there is no one who does what is right, not one.” (Romans 3:12) No one but Jesus ever reached that standard.
- We can never reach the standard of perfection that is the only way to stand before a perfectly righteous God – so God Himself provided the way. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father (God) except by me”.
- Most importantly God made us for a purpose – for relationship with Himself. It’s not enough to be “good” but at the same time to ignore, or put in second place, the one who deserves our whole life. The question is – whose side are you on - your own, or God’s?
- In some ways the “being good” argument
is the exact opposite of the truth – when Jesus was criticised for eating
with ‘sinners’ – those who didn’t keep God’s law, His reply? He hadn’t
come to call those who thought they were already good – He’d come to call
those who were sinners, to turn from their ways, and follow Him.
- To follow this answer through go to
the 2 ways to live link