Doing Good

Hebrews 13:16 “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”

Goodness. Doing good. These are attributes that have been blurred by a world that has very little knowledge of God. How often do we hear people proclaim something or someone as “good”, just because it’s meets their criteria for what they deem as good.

The world will proclaim an actor as good because they tried to save a whale. The world proclaims a judge as good because they helped women kill their children in the womb. The media makes someone good when they change their gender identity as standing boldly in their confusion.

God’s view of goodness differs greatly from a world view of goodness.

What view do you ascribe to? Do you think you’re a “good person”, simply because of your job, you have animals you treat well, or because you’ve never tried to hurt anyone?

I would rather know God’s view of goodness than come up with my own definition and hope that God agrees.

Luke 18:19 “And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”

Guess what? When it comes to who is good and who isn’t…it turns out that no one is good. This concept of goodness being exclusive to God creates quite a dilemma for those who attribute god-like attributes to people. Some buddhists will say that Buddha was deity. Some catholics will attribute god-like qualities to Mary. New agers will place god in the trees, Native Americans will place god in animals, and Wiccans or satanists will attribute god to themselves.

So, if all people are not good, then that means that no good can come from them. You cannot bring fresh water out of something that is poisoned. The literalist may say, “well, unless you purify the water.”

But how can people be purified?

1 Peter 1:20-21 “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

When Jesus manifested the image of God before the world, He gave people a point of focus. When a person has a change of heart and believes in Christ, they are changing their position from being “good in themselves” to recognizing God’s goodness in Christ alone.

The moral law makes it very clear that all have sinned before God. That none are righteous, that all have turned aside and gone their own way.

Jesus fulfilled the requirement of the law…which was death. So, when a godless, no good sinner, turns to God in repentance and confesses their belief…the Lord forgives them because of what He has done.

He paid the price for death, He took upon Himself what we could not do and now the dead are made alive in Him.

1 Peter 1:22-23 “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God”

The destitute sinner gains new life in Christ. They move from a position of enmity with God, to having a pure heart, gaining imperishable seed, through the living God.

Then what happens can only be described as miraculous….

The life of Christ in them begins to produce good works! The Spirit of God leads and directs in the ways of God and when the faithful believer follows, good works are produced. The man or woman of God becomes someone they could not be before.

Good works resemble God, because they come from Him. The attributes of the Spirit of God such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control….these are manifest through the good works of the believer.

Do you really want to ‘be’ a good person?

You have to be made pure. The old rotten sinful flesh is corrupted and worthy of the fire. The water that was stale and poisoned from sin offered nothing of value. To be purified is to be made clean.

Remember in Exodus 15 when the people had crossed the Red Sea and they came to the wilderness of Shur. The waters there were stale and bitter and they could not drink it. The people complained and grumbled for they were thirsty and so the Lord performed a miracle and told Moses to cast a tree into the water and the water became sweet.

That tree was a type of shadow of the coming Messiah.

John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

Jesus makes the stagnant, bitter waters of life pure again. He is the branch. He is the One who purifies the soul and makes it profitable.

Apart from Him…you can do nothing.

So, if you want to do good, then do the will of God. First comes humility and repentance, then comes faithfulness and obedience. What follows is God’s reward, to all who walk faithfully in Him, He supplies them with all they need.