Saturday, April 24, 2010

God Alone is Good. Let No Man Lay Claim to that Which is not His

"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good — except God alone."

Mark 10:18 (NIV)


Why does men use the word "good" without regard for the consequence of their claims? For among words that define human nature, "good" is definitely not one of them.

If we believe in the teachings of our faith, we must always be reminded that God's plan started with the "fall of man" into sin; not in the sense that we today commonly consider and quickly recognize as a sin, but merely a failure to comply with the very first command that was given to man.

"You must not eat the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil."

Satan encouraged Eve to eat the forbidden fruit by claiming that by eating the fruit, she will be equal with God, possessing the ability to distinguish good and evil.


"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.
"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened,
and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Genesis 3:4-5 (NIV)


Although we Christians aspire to imitate our Risen Lord, I neither believe we have the right claim that we are good nor even say we aspire that which is good (but act for His glory), and most of all, consider ourselves "like God."


5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

Philippians 2: 5-8


The danger of false humility lurks in the corner as we profess we do not claim righteousness or being good but implicitly shout, in any arena of life, be it in our private or public lives, that goodness is only found and can be exercised by one person besides God Himself and Himself alone.

So now, I reiterate Apostle Paul's words:


9 What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10 As it is written:
"There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one."

13 "Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit."
"The poison of vipers is on their lips."
14 "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."
15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know."
18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

Romans 3:9-18


For if we are good, we can stand on the Throne of Judgment with our head highs, not needing the intercession Christ have died for in the cross. It is better that good abounds in us, so that others may see and God is praised without our individual selves benefitting from from it.

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