"Good" is Not Who We Are

America has a lot of do-gooders. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Many times we are able to temporarily help people that are suffering. The problem is that our good activities tend to make us feel like we are good souls that deserve reward. Not so! We should remember that everything we have done on this earth, after Judgment Day, will all be burned up. Even if we do good things 24/7 our nature remains mortally flawed in our core being and we still deserve judgment. We are all born subject to eternal futility and this is the reason doing good deeds are simply not enough. Apart from God we all have a meaningless existence. Because of our feeling of self-importance we have all disobeyed Him at one time or another. Jesus said; There is only One who is good. Matt 19:17 (NLT). Only God and no one else. The Almighty created people because He wanted to build His eternal family and they must be good. The bottom line here is that we must have our defective “self” changed into a being of godliness. If we want to live eternally with God, as a part of His family, our only hope is to be totally changed. The remedy is that we, of our own volition, must submit to our Creator who is the proper Master of everything.

After we submit to God our godly training will begin. The key is to yield to our instructor and give up our own individual logic. We must learn to move as a part of the body of Christ or we will never be able to claim His goodness as our own. The Bible tells us about the failure of Israel to give up their own logic. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,(doing good) have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Romans 10:3 (KJV) We cannot grow in righteousness (become good) until we allow God’s discipline to do its work in our life. Paul tells us; God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way. Heb 12:10-11 (NLT) There is no other way for people who are born defective to learn righteousness. Those of us that want to live with God forever must submit to our training in godliness.

God’s greatest discipline includes teaching us to understand His purpose for man; For, “Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. 1 Cor 2:16 (NLT). His discipline also includes being our guide; Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.” Luke 1:78-79 (NLT). Our training will make us ready to live a godly life; If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work. 2 Tim 2:21 (NLT) It is not possible that we know what form of discipline the Lord will use on us. People are all different and only the Lord knows what each of our disciplines will look like. Some of us will need harsher treatment than others but God always deals with each of us in love.

Many times we learn from God during or after a disaster. In our natural self we tend to think of this as the discipline of the Lord. It is not. Although God uses every opportunity to teach us He does not hurt His children. When we think like this we show that our training in love is not yet complete. We live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. 1 John 4:17-18 (NLT) Everything God does in our life is for our eternal good and no one else can make this claim. However, it is necessary for us to give dominion of ourselves to God. We do this by dedicating every waking moment to receiving the help of the Spirit of Jesus. This is the only way we can become good. This means that the greatest feature of a Christian life becomes our ability for self-renunciation. Unceasing denial of self requires that we repeat “I can do nothing on my own initiative”. This should not seem unreasonable to us because even our Lord Jesus did this very thing Himself as seen here; I do nothing on my own but say only what the Father taught me. John 8:28 (NLT) If Jesus did NOTHING on His own, what makes us think that we should have control of our own life.

The fact that the Father taught Jesus does not mean that our Savior went to school in Heaven. While Jesus walked this earth He yielded His will to the Holy Spirit who taught Him what to do and say as it was needed. This is the same Spirit that wants us to yield our desires and follow His decisions in our everyday life. If we say we want to follow God but refuse to listen to the Spirit, we will certainly offend our triune God. As a Christian becomes more godly we must remember that it is not “the natural us” who is responsible for our improvements. God has become the leader of our life and it is He alone that makes improvements in our life. Our old self will always remain a fallen creature and we must continually yield it to the Spirit’s control. Jesus lived His 33 year life this way even though He never was sinful; Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. John 14:10 (NLT) Jesus tells us in this verse that all He ever did was the work of the Father. Our goal should be to do only the work of God but many of us are busy making our own plans.

Most Americans feel that our independence is the most important thing we own. But God wants us know that this is the biggest issue that stands in our way to Heaven. We must learn to submit ourselves to Him. Jesus said; I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will. John 5:30 (NLT) The only way we can do this is by renouncing our own ideas and asking the Spirit to show us God’s method of doing things. This will involve some discipline from God and we must be willing to accept it for our growth. The Bible says; If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. Heb 12:8 (NLT) Of course, it is important to accept our discipline the same way we should accept everything else that God has for us. Everything in our life is to be accepted with our child-like faith. We are not born to be good but we certainly are REBORN to be good by the power of the Spirit. Praise the Lord forever more.