The Good You Cannot Do
Photo by MARK ADRIANE on Unsplash
How good are you? How good do you want to be? How good do you need to be? How good is good enough? How good do you need to be to be good with God? Can you do any good on your own?
Goodness is a high standard. We all fall short of even our own standards of goodness. We rarely experience goodness all the time. We rarely express goodness consistently.
The truth is we cannot ever be good enough to fully please God or our neighbor. Our goodness is rarely good enough. Goodness can be elusive. And our goodness cannot save us.
In his letter to the Roman Church, the Apostle Paul quoted the Psalmist, saying, “As it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12, ESV).
Jesus also struck down the idea that anyone is good when he addressed the rich young man who thought he was good. The man knelt before Jesus and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” (Mark 10:17-18, ESV).
If only God is good, how should we go about doing good if we cannot do good on our own? Where do we get goodness? How does goodness fit into our life?
We need God’s goodness. We need God’s salvation, mercy, and grace. We need God’s rescue. We need God’s goodness to be at work in us, to be at work through us, and sometimes we need God’s goodness to work despite of us.
It is a good God who enables us to be good and to do good. The goodness that does come through our brokenness comes from the goodness of God. God makes us good. God gives us his goodness.
When all around us and in us is not so good, may we live out God’s goodness as God’s goodness lives in us and lives through us.
In Christ alone, Robbie
A Collect For The Fifth Sunday after Trinity: “Grant us, O Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who can do no good thing apart from you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, 2019).
Photo by MARK ADRIANE on Unsplash
