“It is good to be good.”
It is a slogan I heard my not even four-year-old say one day morning. I was impressed. Even a toddler knows that good is good. It is socially accepted, moral preference, and good in personal interactions.
Would it make us acceptable to God because we like and try to do good? Many say they will be with God when they die just because they are good. Is it true?
Good is relative
The way people say good is a relative concept by their standards. An individual thinks I am not bad as some other terrible things they have seen others doing or say. Also, there is a fairness problem. Even the worst person one can think of surely has done several good things. Likewise, even the best person one can think of surely has done some bad things or even worst things. Who is better then? Or how much is good enough? So, the good people talk about falls short in fairness and absoluteness.
Bible says:
all our righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in your sight (Isiah 64:6 NET)
That doesn’t sound good at all.
Because:
Dead means no good thing counts
Whether being good and doing good is your thing it won’t count anything as long as you are dead. Guess what. Apart from God, everyone is dead because of their sins. A dead person as such can’t do anything to revive or restore themselves. Sin means missing the mark of God’s standards of right. And all who have been born to this world are born in sins. We can’t help ourselves. Such a sinner never could pay the price for sins to redeem themselves no matter how much good they try to pay the cost.
Where should I go for help then?
As the Scripture says:
But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
(Gal. 6:14-15 ESV)
The above words from Apostle Paul in the book of Galatians are objecting to an early argument by some of the budding Christians that they should be following Mosaic laws also to be a saved person. But Paul by the Spirit of God shreds those arguments to pieces by asserting that salvation is only by faith in the work of Lord Jesus Christ in the cross who loved us and gave himself for us. He states it is not circumcision, aka good work, that counts but a new creation. If righteousness were through the law, Scripture says, then Christ died for no purpose. Christ died so that by His work and power, a sinner is saved to become a new creation. That’s right, a new person.
A dead person cannot save himself. But the Lord who died on the cross and rose again makes redemption possible. It is the plan of God. In this is the wisdom of God. And it is the love of God. No man came up with this idea. But it is from the eternal plan of God that In Christ we can have salvation. Nothing can thwart the plan of God. No good works of us can attain the standards of God. And so, our boast or glory has to be in the cross of Christ.
Would you rather accept the salvation of God and boast in the Cross of Christ? Would you keep trying to be good to get saved and accepted by God?
Stop trying to be good; let Christ save you by His grace.