Let us attempt to answer this question from a biblical perspective and ask ourselves a different question. Are we good people? Before the fall, the Bible states, “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” Genesis 1:31 Everything was pure, including man. However, after man disobeyed the Lord, the entire creation became corrupt. Corrupt is “spoiled, contaminated, debased or degenerate in character.” (Etymonline.com, 2021) Ergo, we are no longer pure. In Matthew 19:17, Jesus states, “There is none good but one, that is, God.”
As creatures of habit, we learn through repetition. It has become the norm to refer to ourselves and others as good people, sometimes even extraordinary. Funerals are a great example. Often, the preacher refers to the deceased as being good or having led a good life.
When we refer to ourselves and others as “good,” we emphasize that our behaviors are within the acceptable range of society’s and our personal standards. This folly has led us to believe that we are inherently good. The Word of our Lord says in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” As in, not even we can recognize how desperately wicked we are. Humans have inherited a fallen human nature. This means that within us is a tendency to selfishness and disobedience. Therefore, we are more likely to choose evil when we make choices.
The Spirit of Prophecy puts it beautifully:
Man was originally endowed with noble powers and a well-balanced mind. He was perfect in his being, and in harmony with God… But after his sin, he could no longer find joy in holiness, and he sought to hide from the presence of God. Such is still the condition of the unrenewed heart. It is not in harmony with God, and finds no joy in communion with Him. (White, 1892)
The good news is that this tendency can be dominated and overcome through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit.
The only goodness we can claim is the goodness of Jesus. Referring to ourselves and others as good is a snare of satan. A snare that leads us to become angry and resentful towards God when bad things happen, for we now believe that we are undeserving and thus mistreated. We forget that our Lord also suffers when we suffer; His suffering is much greater than we could ever imagine. We suffer because we disobey God. Our disobedience to God gives satan dominion in our lives and in the lives of our children, allowing him to wreak havoc. Romans 6:16 “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey…?”
We demonstrate our love and loyalty to God through obedience to His Word. God shows His love through His Word. His Word protects us from satan. The Word of God became flesh, dwelt amongst us, died, and was resurrected on our behalf. Christ’s death and resurrection gave us the power to override our tendency to evil by Christ dwelling in us. To elaborate on this a little, I refer your attention to Galatians 3:20, “I have been crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Our crucifixion and death happen when we repent and are baptized by immersion. Baptism is our announcement that we are dead to our sinful tendencies. When we emerge out of the water, we emerge as a new person. A person who has covenanted to submit our minds to Christ in all things. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 2:5 This is how Christ lives in us. Therefore, the way we think, talk, behave, and the choices we make in all things must be in willing submission and cooperation with Christ. Having the mind of Christ does not mean that we make void the law; instead, we uphold the law because we think and act like Christ, and He kept the law.
We break God’s heart whenever we reject His Word (the law and the testimony). Think about it this way, when someone breaks our heart, it aches us to the point of deep depression, which may last days, months, or even years. If that is what happens with just one person breaking our hearts, what if two or three people break our hearts simultaneously? According to Google, the world’s population is currently at 8 billion people and every single one of us “have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We each have failed to reach our Lord’s glorious standard of righteousness or right doing. We have all broken His heart. Our Lord’s heart breaks each time we choose to do evil. Isaiah 53:6 states, “All we like sheep have gone astray, and every one of us has turned to our own ways.” In turning to our own way, we separate ourselves from God, “Can two walk together unless they are in agreement?” Amos 3:3 The answer is no.
So, who are we following when we choose our way? The devil, of course. We become closer to God or the devil with each choice. James 4:8 states, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” There is an unseen war between Christ and satan, and the battle is for our minds. Whoever controls our minds controls our decisions and our actions. The continuation of this verse puts it succinctly, “cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.” All of us struggle with that state of double-mindedness, allowing satan to control our minds because of our natural inclination towards sin. This natural inclination happened after Adam’s fall. From thence, Adam’s offspring would be born with the curse of this inclination. Each time we sin or transgress God’s law, we separate our minds from our Lord. Isaiah 59:2 states, “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.” Christ’s death and resurrection bridged the gap of separation between the Father and the human race. Therefore, we have the privilege to “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16
The devil is wholly and genuinely evil. God is truly and completely Good. The devil tricked us into breaking God’s command. Therefore, we are sinners in need of a Savior. Baptism is not a magic pill that produces complete holiness immediately; it takes work between Jesus and us. We are being rehabilitated by Christ each day. Each moment, we must choose to surrender to Christ. The more we surrender to Christ, the more like Him we become. This means constant vigilance on our part. The devil does not sleep and will use any opportunity to get into our minds. This is why we are not “Good.” If we were, we would not need a Savior. Jesus Christ would not have needed to come to this earth to die for us. Therefore, bad things do not happen to good people; bad things happen to sinners.
In our fight against sin, it is essential to remember that we are wrestling against satan’s character manifesting in us and others. The adversary (satan) has no interest in being near or having the nature of Christ. Therefore, we must pray for ourselves and others that we will desire to be like Christ. To “create in us clean hearts” Psalm 51:10 because our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” Jeremiah 17:9 Our Lord will hear and answer our petition. He will come in and do for us what we cannot do in our strength.
“Not I but CHRIST in every word and action” Albert B. Simpson
Let that be our theme all the while we are pilgrims on this earth.
To GOD be the Glory.
AA
Etymonline.com. (2021, July 3). Retrieved from OnlineEtymologyDictionary: https://www.etymonline.com/word/curse
Version, A. K. (2009). Authorized King James Version. Harrah, Ok: Mission Publishing Inc.
White, E. G. (1892). Steps to Christ. Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Associati
I love this. Praise be to our Lord and Savior! Please write more!
Do you think we may sim involuntarily and sometimes are punished involuntarily? Why so bad things happen even after we ask for forgiveness? What about Grace? Lovely blog post gave me lots of food for thought and was a great meditation on Gods word. Please post more. : )
Thanks for your comment my dear. That’s a great question. I don’t know, if we sin involuntarily. Involuntarily would indicate that we have no control over our actions. A lack of autonomy if you will.
Instead of involuntarily, I would venture to say that because of our propensity to sin and our lack of communing with God; our first reaction is a sinful one. As we cultivate our relationship with God, surrendering to HIM daily, HE gives us HIS grace to overcome those propensities.
God’s Grace is always available to us, but without us surrendering to HIM, we miss out on it. It’s a choice.
Our God does forgive us, each time we repent. When CHRIST died HIS forgiveness was made available to everyone. He atoned for every single person. The forgiveness is already there and available, we just have to confess, repent and accept it. However, even when forgiven, the consequences of our decisions still remain. This applies to any decision, whether it be for good or for evil, or in other words, whether it be for God or the devil.
I hope this helps. Thank you again for your wonderful comment. It gave me food for thought.
An interesting discussion is definitely worth
comment. I do think that you need to write more about this subject, it
may not be a taboo subject but typically people don’t speak about these subjects.
To the next! Cheers!!