I’m Good, Thank you
This is now a common reply when asked “How are you?” It is yet another Americanism that has crossed the Atlantic. A good response is:
“Really?”
This can lead on to a discussion about what it means to be ‘good’. It is a moral quality not a feeling. The Merriam-Webster dictionary definition is
Something that possesses desirable qualities, promotes success, health, or happiness, or is otherwise beneficial
Morally good forces or influences : VIRTUE, MORALITY, INTEGRITY
Can any human being claim to be ‘good’ on this definition?
There is no-one good except Jesus
A young man ran up to Jesus, fell on his knees before him and asked:
“Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Mark 10:17
What a wonderful question for anyone to be asked. But Jesus, instead of answering him, quibbles with the question:
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.” Mark 10:18
Why did he do this? If the young man had understood who Jesus is, he would have replied:
“You are good because you are the Son of God and only God is naturally good or righteous.”
Instead this man considered a person to be good because they have behaved moderately well. Jesus understood this to be his problem so he lists five of the Commandments:
“You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honour your father and mother.’” Mark 10:19
The man replied:
“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Mark 10:20
He clearly understood these in the way the Pharisees taught, as outward rules. He hadn’t heard the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus redefines what these commandments mean in God’s eyes - hatred is murder, lust is adultery. No mention is made of the first commandment as he clearly failed on this:
“You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3
Jesus wanted this man to recognise who he is, the Son of God who had entered his world to save humanity by dying in our place. Jesus then suggested that he loved things of this world more than God. He asks him to change the direction of his life, to repent, and then explains the most important decision anyone can make, the decision that opens the door to eternal life,
“Then come, follow me.” Mark 10:21
We read that he then walked away from Jesus, the only door to eternal life:
“At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.”
What God had permitted him to have became the block from entering into a relationship with God. He refused to come under the umbrella of the only person who has ever been good. If he had followed Jesus he would have been credited with the goodness or righteousness of Jesus Christ.
But doesn’t the Bible say that we should live good or righteous lives? Yes, we must, but our attempts to be good are never good enough for God, we need to be protected by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This can only be obtained by submitting to the rule of the Lord Jesus.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” Ephesians 2:8-9:
“He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.” Titus 3:5
An Old Testament prophet echoes the same sentiment, writing:
“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” Isaiah 64:6
Such Scriptures consistently teach that human efforts or “good works" are insufficient to achieve a standing of righteousness before a holy God. Instead, the Bible presents salvation as a gift received through faith in Jesus Christ. Once we have Christ’s righteousness it is then our responsibility to live in such a way that our Lord is pleased with us. Good works matter but they cannot put us right with God.
How to be considered ‘good’
I well remember talking alone with one of my patients on a public ward. She had advanced cancer and was asking for euthanasia. I explained that we couldn’t do that but her drugs were changed to make her feel more comfortable. As the conversation progressed I asked her whether she felt ready to die.
“Oh, I think so. I have tidied all my shelves at home!”
It was apparent that she had not considered what dying leads to. So I asked directly:
“I hope you don’t mind my asking but on a deeper level, do you think you are ready to meet God?”
She thought for a bit and answered:
“Yes, I think so. I have never done anyone any harm.”
There are two problems with that answer. Firstly we can never get right with God by the way we live and secondly what she said was almost certainly untrue. When talking with a dying patient it would not be kind to suggest that she was lying so I changed tack and asked,
“Would you mind if I show you what the Bible teaches?”
Fortunately each bed side cupboard had a Gideon’s Bible there so Ie took this out. We looked at such passages as the following:
“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.All have turned away.” Romans 3:10-12
“There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:22-23
It was so exciting then to show her the verses either side of Romans 3:23 that explain how we can become righteous or good in God’s eyes.
“This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.” Romans 3:22-25
The status of being righteous or good is given to all those who turn to Jesus for help - that is what ‘to believe’ means. It is much more that a cerebral acceptance of certain doctrines about Jesus and his church. To be ‘justified’ is to be seen by God ‘just as if I’d never sinned’. It means to be made ‘good’ in God’s eyes. This is a gift of God that is given to all who become followers of his Son.
I illustrated this to my patient by holding out my left open hand, palm upwards, saying,
“Let this hand represent each of us. We have all fallen far short of God’s righteous standards.”
At this point I put the book onto the open hand and said,.
“Let this book represents all the wrongs that God sees we have done. They create a barrier between us and God. Being religious does not solve the problem. There is nothing we can do to put ourselves right with God. We can never be considered good in God’s eyes by what we do.”
I wriggled my fingers under the book to show that all my efforts to be good or religious cannot solve our problem, Then I showed my right hand which was holding a clean handkerchief.
“Let this hand represent the Lord Jesus. He did not have our problem. He was good, he was righteous and he says to us, ‘Allow me to take the penalty for your sins on myself. I have died for you for this very purpose.’”
I then moved the book representing our sin onto my right hand representing Jesus and transferred the white handkerchief, representing the Spirit of Jesus, onto the left hand to replace of the book representing my sin.
“This is the Christian great news. Any of us can become acceptable to God because Jesus bore our sins on that cross..
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21
“But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.” 1 John 3:5
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” 1 Peter 3:18
She understood the Christian message and there and then asked Jesus to save her. I left her with some Bible promises to look up, promising that if we are followers of Jesus we really have been accepted by God.
“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” John 5:24
“For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” John 6:40
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.” John 10:27-28
The following morning I had a phone call from her husband:
“Are you the doctor who spoke to my wife yesterday?”
I hesitantly replied:
“Yes.”
He continued,
“Well, I would like you to know that we are not a religious family. However when I saw my wife this morning she had a peace and radiance about her that I have not see for many months. Would you mind explaining to me what you shared with her?”
He did come to my home and we went over the same gospel story. IHe brought a large Gideon bible with him on which the cover had printed ‘Headmistress’. I didn’t ask where that had come from! At the end of the discussion I asked him if he felt ready to make a decision about Jesus or needed a bit more time. He wanted think some more so we chatted over tea and biscuits!
I visited his wife in the local hospice where we had transferred her to. I wanted to encourage her so we read another promise in the Bible that is so encouraging:
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1
To illustrate this verse I wrote her name boldly on an A4 piece of paper and said,
“Let this piece of paper represent you and let the Bible represent the Lord Jesus. You are now ‘in Christ’, you have committed yourself to him.”
I then placed the paper with her name in the open Bible and then closed it over her name and then explained.
“Because you are now in Christ, when God looks at you he doesn’t see your sin at all, he sees the righteousness of Jesus, his Son. We are protected by his righteousness. More than that, Jesus has now gone to heaven with his Heavenly Father and, because you are in him, you also will join him in heaven. This is the thrilling news of the gospel.”
A nurse on that unit later told me that she patient was so thrilled that she asked for all of Romans chapter 8 to the read to the others patients in her unit in the hospice.
Ten days later I received a telephone call from her husband to say that she had just died. He then added,
“One of the last things she said to me were, ‘Will you get right with God yourself? Will you go regularly to the doctor’s church and sort this out.”
He subsequently drove many miles every Sunday to come and hear the Bible being taught. He then joined us at a Christian Basics group and it was then that he committed his life to Christ.
We all need to be righteous in God’s eyes and the Bible is clear that following Jesus is the only way to be given this status. To refuse God’s offer is stubborn foolishness of the most obstinate kind as there is no alternative way to get right with God.. When Peter and John were on trial before the Sanhedrin they boldly exclaimed:
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
The writer of the book to the Hebrews gives us a blunt warning:
“How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?” Hebrews 10:29
This is a question we must all ask ourselves:
“Does God consider me good?”
BVP
‘Cure for Life’ is a book published in many languages and in its 5th English edition, written for people who are looking for answers to the big questions of life. It describes who Jesus claimed to be, what evidence there is to support his claims and then what Jesus taught.
