Good Person

My son is involved with a local church youth group.  It’s a fantastic group with great leadership, and we’re so thankful he’s fallen-in with them.  The people and the culture are having a powerfully good impact on him, and watching him from the sidelines brings back a flood of hundreds of memories of when I was a youth pastor back in the day.  I must admit it feels so ironic and strange to be on this side of the equation as a middle-aged dad.  But it’s good!

A few days ago, after I came home from a meeting and he came home from youth group, I asked him how it was and what they talked about.  He said they talked about “goodness.”  My initial feeling was “oh, that’s not very compelling.” Of course I didn’t say that, I said something like “oh that’s cool…how was it?”  I try to always ask questions because teenagers don’t usually talk to us parents unless we do…right?  Anyway, his response was super insightful and I’ve been mulling it over ever since.

“Yeah,” he said, “he (the youth pastor) was talking about how goodness is seen as not doing what’s wrong.  Like when parents say to their kids ‘be good,’ what they actually mean is ‘don’t do bad things.’  But being good is more than that.”  We proceeded to have a tiny treasure of a conversation about how “goodness” is often seen as the absence of destructive behavior instead of the presence of life-giving behavior….and how that’s not what the Bible means.  In that moment my son was my teacher, and I was the learner. 

When I roll the word “goodness” around in my brain, I think of someone who’s boring & naïve, who takes no risks.  That’s partly because of my own baggage as someone with a hard-wired propensity to be rebellious.  But beyond my own interpretation, I do think that our society sees “goodness” as somewhat passive and fragile.  But there’s nothing fragile or vulnerable about Jesus or His followers when I read scripture.  There, I see a culture of strength under control, great power bridled by humility, effectiveness with respectful restraint.  The early Christians were not extreme on either side….neither self-righteous finger pointers, nor weak-willed emotional doormats.  They were powerful and vibrant and respected for the good they were doing, and humble and gracious and inclusive about giving credit to the Father of us all in the process.  This example stands in stark contrast to the chosen religious benchmark of our age.

GOOD PERSON

The “good person” assessment is a litmus test we’ve created to define ourselves with pride, to differentiate ourselves from the “bad persons,” and to lay claim to the afterlife reward we’re sure we deserve.  This is the root of all religions, and although its birthplace is the echoing God-Stuff in all of us, it’s expressions are hopelessly corrupted by pride.

Today, when someone says that they are, or someone else is, a GOOD PERSON, what they usually mean is that they don’t murder or cheat on their taxes or do malevolent acts that harm others.  Being a good person, in American Culture, is the absence of extreme badness….and we seem to believe that staying away from egregious anti-social behavior is God’s definition of goodness, and that heaven awaits every person whose good behavior outweighs the bad.  This is the predominant religious belief in America….and it’s a sinister lie.  It tricky because it’s surrounded by appearances of truth….but like many other destructive spiritual errors, at its core is a wicked, evil, God-less lie designed to alienate us from the real Living God.

The lie is that we can manufacture our own goodness and deservedness of God’s blessings in this life as well as the hereafter.  Of course God wants us to be good, but His goal is not behavior it’s relationship.  Godly goodness is behavior that flows out of a right relationship with Him.  The Biblical word translated as “GOODNESS” in English describes action-oriented character that originates from God and is empowered by Him through the expressions of our lives.  We are not the author of what goodness is, God is…and we cannot attain goodness outside of relationship with Him. 

Often when I talk with people who hold onto the “good person” theology, it’s in the context of them wanting to have an alternative to following Jesus’ ways or getting too close to Him in a true relationship sort of way…but then they’ll throw out the good person claim like it’s some kind of “get out of jail free card” so they can go on living their own lives without any serious commitment to God in their daily lives.  This is the pseudo-religion of the American media & entertainment industry, which has replaced the Bible as the new foundational moral compass of our society…and it’s just the latest deception.

Why am I saying this?  Am I coming across like a judgmental buzz-kill right now? My goal isn’t to criticize people’s pursuit of happiness, but to point to a higher truth & fulfillment that actually works.  After all my years of pursuing truth, researching religions, and living life, it has become crystal clear to me that the historically-reliable testimony about Jesus is completely unique and true.  All religions demonstrate man’s attempt to reach up to God, but only in Christ do we see God reaching out to man to produce the goodness He desires.  And when we come into right relationship with Him, only then is His definition of goodness fulfilled in us. Any other “goodness” we try to manufacture without Him is like trying to clean a kitchen with filthy rags.

“No one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law [of God] commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood [on their behalf].” (Romans 3:20-25)

“Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.” (John 7:37-39)

“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature…rather, walk by the Spirit…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, GOODNESS, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5, excerpts)