Freedom is Good News Part 151

There are so many things that will lead us to the goodness of God and this understanding has, for the most part, been our aim these past few years in these articles.  The “good news” of God springs forth from the goodness of God.  But let me ask this question; what does the goodness of God lead us to?  Once we recognize that God is good and that this is for us “good news”, do we have an obligation set before us to do something?

If I were to say no at this point, then why should I bother to write another article?  We might as well be as the rich fool in Luke 12:19, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years.  Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”

The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans 2:4, “Do you show contempt for the riches of His goodness, tolerance and patience, not knowing that God’s goodness leads you to repentance?”  I believe Paul is saying that if we do not understand our need for repentance when compared to God’s goodness, then we are showing contempt toward God!  Wow, let’s take a closer look at this; none of us wants to be found in contempt of God.

I have heard it said by some, “Well, I’m really a good person.  I do some good things in my life and when hung in the balance they outweigh the bad.”  This is not the attitude we want to have.  Isaiah puts it this way, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are as filthy rags.” (Is. 64:6)  We do not have any true “good works”, God perceives them as filthy!!

Allow me to put it this way: a man stands in a court of law found guilty of brutally beating an elderly woman.  His lawyer has shown the judge that the man has done many good things for others in his neighborhood and so the judge says that because his “good acts” outweigh this one bad one he is allowed to go free.  WHAT?  We would all call this a travesty of justice. 

Our God is a God of justice.  But because He is good and shows us His goodness each and every day, we also see that He is a God of grace.  He calls us to repentance.  He desires that we recognize our faults and our sins against His “holy, righteous and good law” (Romans 7:12) and so repent.  Repentance is not defined as sorrow for a wrong but is defined as a turning around and away from our transgressions as so turning toward God.

In any rational society (and God is rational) there can be no such thing as mercy and grace without having justice and there can be no such thing as justice without law – no law, no justice; no justice, no need for mercy.  God has a system of laws and so a system of justice.  He will judge the guilty; i.e. all of us!  But God is a gracious God and so will extend His mercy and grace to those who repent – to those who accept they have a sinful nature and turn from it. 

“For God so loved the world that He gave us His Son, that whoever believes in Him ….

Freedom is Good News Part 20

Here is a word right out of the heading, “good”.  Just what is good?  Do you think of yourself as good?  Do you know anyone of your friends or acquaintances that you might label as good?  How do you define “good”?  What might be the qualities of someone who is good?

In the garden of Eden God told His “first children” that they must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  So, just because God labeled something as good, it didn’t mean that man should desire it.  What God was really saying is that He, the creator, was the one to define what is good and evil.  “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” (Proverbs 14:12)  In the account of the garden of

Eden, Eve sees that “the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom”.  I guess this means that everything man sees in this world that seems good, pleasing and desirable is not necessarily so!

One of the things about which we must be careful is labeling ourselves and others as good.  Mark 10:17 has this episode, “As Jesus started on His way, a man ran up to Him and fell on his knees before Him.  ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’  ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered.  ‘no one is good except God alone.’”  Hmmmm!  The only human to live a perfectly righteous life took umbrage at being called good!  I guess it might be presumptuous on our part to call anyone here on earth good.

Let’s dig a little deeper.  In the book of Romans, Paul opens up a barrage of scriptures that should set us back on our heels just a little.  Chapter 3:10-18 he quotes from several places in Psalms and Isaiah to let us know that, “There is no one righteous, not even one… there is no one who is good, not even one ….etc.”

While Sally and I were visiting relatives over Thanksgiving, someone gave me a book to read entitled, “Good or God?” by John Bevere.  The premise of the book, as John states, “is one simple question, is good enough?”  He goes on to ask the question, “If good is so obvious, why does Hebrews 5:14 teach that we must have discernment to recognize it?” Hebrews 5:14 says, “But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”  I really think that this whole concept of what constitutes “good” must be handled correctly.  Eve thought that if it looked good, smelled good and tasted good; it must be good.  But God sees things differently!  And so, if we really want to understand what “good” is, we must consult the instruction manual of the author of all things “good”.  We know that manual as the bible!  And it tells us about the “good news of the kingdom!!

We’ll talk some more about this next time.