The Truth Is You Are Not Good

“A certain ruler asked him, ‘Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’
‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is good—except God alone.’” (Luke 18:18-19 NIV)

This week I spoke to our students about the purity of God’s heart.  I pointed out that we often feel pretty good about ourselves because we are in the habit of comparing ourselves with others.  By that standard, we each can seem to be a good person.  And you will hear that a lot, particularly at funerals and when tragedy strikes.  People will lament that death or tragedy came to such a good person.  

Yet, as I told the students, using others to gauge our goodness is not the correct measure.  God is the standard by which we are to compare ourselves and to which we all fall short (Romans 3:23).  In other words, no one is good but God alone.

This is important to understand because of our innate tendency toward pride.  We naturally want to have something on our life’s résumé about which we can boast.  We want to have something to point to that legitimizes our goodness and of our deserving a heavenly reward.  And when this becomes our focus, we ignore the very One who wants to reward us, not because we’re so good, but because He loves us so much.  

James tells us if we humble ourselves before the Lord, He will lift us up (4:10).  Humility is the key and we will get a huge dose of it when we stop comparing our lives to others and begin to examine them in the light of the One who is perfect.  It is at that point when we truly see our desperate need for Him, when we see our goodness is not quite as good as we thought.  

Today, recognize how far short you fall of God’s perfection.  No matter how good you think you might be, you are not good enough.  Only God is good and the sooner you acknowledge that fact, the better.  For only then can you truly receive His love.

© Jim Musser 2012