bondChristian

This is the seventh post in the Others-oriented fruit of the Spirit series. The topic is kindness. Get future posts delivered to you for free by grabbing the RSS feed or email updates.

“How do you know if you’re a good person?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I think I’ve been a good person though.”

“So you think you’ll go to heaven?” I said.

“Yeah. I mean, if there is a God, I think He’ll let me into heaven. I don’t think God hates anybody. Anyway, I’ve been pretty good.”

I love these conversations.

Two important things to remember about goodness:

1. Goodness comes from doing good things. Sounds straightforward. The significance is that goodness is works-based. Goodness is measured by the good you’ve done.

2. But there’s a problem. Jesus says no one but God is good (Mark 10:18). So no matter how much we try to act good, we’ll never make it. We’ve already sinned (Romans 3:23).

Goodness is based on what we do, and what we do can’t possibly be good…

If we act alone

Alone we are nothing (John 15:5). We’ve already broken God’s commandments. No matter how good we act now, our goodness is already ruined.

If we act with God

Acting with God, we’re still not good. Because, again, our goodness is already ruined. This is subtle but important.

We are not good because of what we do, even if it’s with God. We are good because of what Christ already did for us.

That might be the most important thing I’ll ever say. As Christians, we miss this all the time. We think we’re covered by God’s grace for past sins but then turn around and try to act good for goodness’ sake.

That’s missing what Christ is all about. Christ died so we would be good no matter what we have done and no matter what we do in the future.

The dying world out there has no idea that this is why Christ came. They think Christianity is all about acting good and earning a place in heaven. And I think they think this because as Christians we’ve thought this. We feel we should try to act good so we can be good.

The world needs to hear the real motivator for loving God. I think Christians need to hear it too. We love God because He first loved us. We love God because we’re so insanely thankful for what He did. That’s a reason to get excited.

How someone can be good

If you’re a believer in Christ, you’re already good. If your friend is a believer, your friend is already good. Now it’s about exposing that.

What you and I and your friend and my friend and everyone else in the world needs to hear is why Christians are good. You know this, I know this – what we don’t is remember. It means feeling naked. It means letting our guard down. It means telling everyone we’re worthless, that it really isn’t about us. But it’s authentic. And it’s real.

If the gospel is going to attract anyone, it can’t be bunch of rules to follow to earn heaven. If the gospel is going to attract anyone, it has to be good news.

Serving Suggestions:

(1) Teach others that Christians are good because of what God did, not because of what Christians did or do or will do. Live like that’s true. Because it is.

(2) Ask about goodness. Ask why your friends think they’re good. Don’t automatically tell them if they’re wrong. Wait for them to ask you what you think.