30 Days of Truth

Day 25 – no one is “good”

There is no one that is “good” but God Himself.

Think of the nicest, kindest, most thoughtful person that you can think of.

Now remind yourself that in God’s eyes, they are not “good”.

They may help every person they meet, give endlessly and expect nothing in return, and yet God says that they are not “good”.

God calls His workmanship “good” but we should never think that we are “good” in both word and deeds according to what God calls “good”. We simply do not qualify.

The only thing that makes us “good” is to be reborn in the image of Christ Jesus spiritually, nothing else.

“Good” behavior doesn’t bring about our salvation or keep us saved, and it doesn’t change God’s love towards us at all.

On the contrary, trying to keep the law to “be a good Christian” causes us to increase in sin.

God gave man the ability to choose from the beginning.

Does this make the garden of Eden into a “setup”?

Did God intentionally set us up to fall into sin?

It might seem like that is true, but we must remember that GOD IS Love. Love would not wish sin or death upon anyone, or intentionally cause them to sin or lead them to death.

God merely gave us the choice between life and death, and we foolishly chose death.

With every choice, we either strengthen sin in our lives or strengthen our faith in God.

As sin increases, so God’s grace increases to cancel it.

Does this mean that we should increase our sinning so that we receive more grace from God?

Of course not!

The grace of God is not cumulative and its benefit for us does not ever increase or decrease.

Grace cancels out the debt of sin, but many times, we are left to deal with the consequences of our choices.

Some of those consequences can ruin our lives or the lives of others.

Sin is cumulatively damaging but grace was a one-time atonement for all sins, forever.

How then are we to be “good” if we don’t follow the law?

No one has been under the Law since the New Covenant began.

Yet everyone has the law written in their hearts and knows right from wrong. Their conscience accuses or excuses then in every choice they make.

The grace of God doesn’t excuse our sin, but it also does not accuse or condemn us for it.

The Holy Spirit reminds us that His righteousness is in us, and cleansing us from all unrighteousness, even as we struggle with sin.

There is a belief in the church today that once we are born again, we must live holy and perfect in order to remain saved, and yet Jesus never taught this.

In fact, there is nothing in the Bible that says we must live without sin. The Bible warns us to abstain from sin, to hate sin, to run from the very thought of sin, but it also reminds us that are sins were paid for and that they are not counted against us because of what Christ accomplished on our behalf.

If you have believed on Jesus, then spiritually you are as holy as you can be while you are still in a corrupted fleshly body. You cannot make yourself more holy to God by your acts of “goodness” any more than you can make yourself more unholy to God by your acts of sinful behavior.

You did not make yourself Holy and you cannot make yourself become unholy. The holiness in you is the work of God’s grace and the finished work of Christ at the cross.

Your belief merely appropriates in your spirit what Christ did for you over 2000 years ago.

Your unbelief cannot change your born-again spirit, because when you believed, Christ made the change in you.

If you could have changed yourself apart from Christ, then we would not have a need for a Savior.

No one can change their base spiritual nature and save themselves.

Only God can change the spirit.

So, stop worrying about your sins and your relationship with God, because God has chosen to have a relationship with you despite your sins, and He will never leave you or forsake you.