“Just Be a Good Person”? Really?
Have you ever heard someone say, “As long as I am a good person, God will accept me”? But, what does it mean to be a “good person?” Does it mean to do good and avoid bad deeds?Doesn’t everyone do some good deeds and some bad deeds? Is anyone innocent from sin? Someone will reply, “I will do more good than bad to be a ‘good person.’” How do you know that you have done more good than bad? Do you know all your deeds? Do you know all the consequences of your deeds? What if doing one bad deed outweighs all the good deeds that you do due to consequences that you did not consider? How can you judge yourself to have been a “good person”?
The truth is, “There is none who does good, no, not one” (Romans 3:12). This is because, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Committing one sin means we come short, and nothing we do makes up for that shortcoming. Good deeds don’t cancel bad ones. There is no Karma. You can’t make up for lost time, and there is no going back.
Does that mean we should all just give up? Yes! We should give up on self-righteousness and start trusting in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Paul wrote, “Yet indeed I also count all things loss . . . that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (Philippians 3:8-9). How do I do that? “He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Hebrews 5:9).