Do you consider yourself to be a good person? I do not know your answer to this question. I know, though, that quite many people here in Norway consider themselves to be good persons. That might also be the case for people in your country, either you live in Europe, Africa, America, Asia or down under in Australia or New Zealand.
But when you answer this question, your consideration will depend on the standard you use. Perhaps you use your country's laws as your standard, and that you base your consideration on a fact that you have never been convicted for any crime. But if you drive a car, I would not be shocked if you at least once have exceeded the speed limit. Your response to this might be that I am right, but that it was not a big risk in that area and that no one got hurt. And that if it had been a speed control in the area, you would have reduced the speed according to the speed limit - not to get caught.
For sure, you do not agree on every law in your country. But in a way, you respect them - at least so that you do not want to get caught breaking one or more of the laws. Some people, though, disagree so much that they deliberately break some of the laws and are not afraid of being caught. Being caught gives them an opportunity to tell the society that the law is outrageously stupid.
Another standard you can use when considering whether or not you are a good person, is your behavior among people around you - within your family, among friends and colleagues and among people you do not know.
How do you consider yourself based on these two standards? My guess is that the big majority of you put your good things in one box and your failures in another box, and then you put them on a scale to find out which box is the dominating one. Quite many people come to a conclusion that the box which contains all the good things they have done is the most dominating one. And therefore, they consider themselves to be good persons.
But; being good - is it good enough? Maybe you thought you were behaving in a good way in several situations, while people around you were hurt under your power? So are we qualified to consider our own goodness? Perhaps not, you might say , but I would not be sure of a righteous and just consideration from other people, either. You are most probably right. So, who can then be righteous and just to consider our goodness?
God realized quite early that people were not living up to His standard. But people did not realize it themselves. Therefore, God gave Moses the 10 commandments, also referred to as the law. The law represented God's standard for people's lives. What quite a lot people do not know, is that God did not give the law because He actually thought that people would manage to keep it. No, He gave the law so that people would become aware of their shortcomings, of their failure to live up to God's standard. The Bible tells in Galatians 3:19 that the law was added to disclose and expose to men their guilt because of transgressions and to make men more conscious of the sinfulness of sin.
The law was given on stone tablets to the Jews. They became conscious of the sinfulness of their sins. So the first purpose of the law was fulfilled. Romans 5:20 tells that the second purpose of the law was to make people aware of God's grace. God wanted us to realize that we needed His help to deal with our sins. He wanted us to realize that we have no chance whatsoever to live up to God's standard. He wanted us to turn away from a belief that our own works could make us live up to His standard, and instead turn to God's grace.
But I am not a Jew, you might say, so how does this apply to me? The Bible says that the law was put in the consciousness of the Gentiles, which per definition means everyone who is not a Jew. If you are a Jew, God gave you the law on tablets to Moses. If you are not a Jew, God gave you knowledge about the law in your consciousness. Even if you cannot name even one of the commandments, you know it when you behave in conflict with it.
The first purpose of the law was fulfilled - to a certain extent. The Jews realized that they were not living according to God's standard. The second purpose of the law, though, was not at all fulfilled. Instead of turning to God for His grace, they started in their own works, trying to fulfill the law. Even when Jesus Christ came - the Messiah, the Redeemer - the Jews were fully occupied with fulfilling the law.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ was tightening the grip. What seemed extremely difficult to accomplish in the law, was made impossible by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. For example, in Matthew 5:20, Jesus said: "For I tell you, unless your righteousness is more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven". If anybody so hard tried to live up to the law, it was the religious group of scribes and Pharisees. But their attempts were far from enough.
Jesus did not stop there. In the verses 21 and 22, Jesus referred to the commandment saying that you shall not kill. He tightened the requirement by including among the murderers everyone who ever speaks insultingly and whoever says you cursed fool or you empty-headed idiot. Those people will be unable to escape punishment and unable to escape the hell of fire.
In the verses 27-29, Jesus referred to the commandment saying that you shall not commit adultery. He tightened the requirement by saying: "But I say to you that everyone who so much as looks at a woman with evil desire for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye serves as a trap to ensnare you or is an occasion for you to stumble and sin, pluck it out and throw it away. It is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be cast into hell".
In the verses 43-44, Jesus referred to the commandment saying that you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. He tightened the requirement by saying: "But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you", and in verse 46: "For if you love those who love you, what reward can you have? Do not even the tax collector do that?".
If you had a tiny hope concerning your own efforts so far, in verse 48 He says: "You, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect"!!! I do not know how you think for yourself, but I can definitely say for myself that I am not even close to become perfect as God is perfect. Have you thought about what it actually means to be perfect as God is perfect? It means that there is no opening for even one single, tiny mistake.
Being good - is it good enough? Do I consider myself to be a good person? I asked you these questions in the beginning. My answer is simple: According to God's standard, I am not a good person. The good that I do according to the laws of Norway and according to proper behavior among other people, is not at all good enough.
God had two purposes with the law. One was to expose to men their guilt because of transgressions and to make men more conscious of the sinfulness of their sins. The other one was to make people aware of God's grace. God wanted us to realize that we needed His help to deal with our sins. He wanted us to realize that we have no chance whatsoever to live up to His standard. He wanted us to turn away from a belief that our own works could make us live up to His standard, and instead turn to God's grace.
Earlier, I said that the first purpose was fulfilled, but only to a certain extent. Why did I say that? A lot of people of today, even though the law has been put in their consciousness, are not concerned about the sinfulness of their sins or the consequences of their sins. Many people live with a belief that many sins are not sinful at all. Only sins that have a major consequence on other people are considered to be sinful sins. Therefore, they live their everyday life in a lie that makes them believe that they are good enough, and that only bad people commit sins that make them not qualify to be good enough.
This is, I believe, a major reason why many people do not consider the church to be necessary or relevant for them. The other major reason why many people do not consider the church to be necessary or relevant is probably the fact that a big part of the churches in the world presents the law as the solution. These churches and many of the people in those churches, have not understood the second purpose of the law which was to make people aware of God's grace. They have their focus on the law and Jesus' Sermon on the Mount as the solution, as a recipe for people to live up to God's standard. And they urge people to repent, in the meaning that people need to turn away from sinful sins. Unfortunately, many churches have not grasped what many people have understood; God's standard is impossible to accomplish in people's own efforts.
The word repent is one of the most misunderstood words in the history. Not only is it misunderstood, but the misunderstanding is probably keeping many people away from God. The Hebrew word for repent means to turn around (so far there is no misunderstanding) to grace (not from sinful sins)! To repent does not mean to turn around from doing sinful sins. If that were the meaning, God could have left us with the law and Jesus Christ could have returned to heaven after the Sermon on the Mount.
But Romans 3:20 states: "Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin". Galatians 5:4 says: "If you seek to be justified and declared righteous and to be given a right standing with God through the law, you are brought to nothing and so separated from Christ. You have fallen away from grace (from God's gracious favor and unmerited blessing)".
To repent means to turn around to grace. It means to turn away from a belief that we can accomplish God's standard in our own efforts, and instead turn to His grace. Jesus Christ did not return to heaven after the Sermon on the Mount. Instead, He kept His walk toward the cross to fulfill the law so that we could be lawful receivers of God's grace. Jesus' first deed after He came down from the mountain clearly lined up His way to the cross. Matthew 8:1-3 says: "When Jesus came down from the mountain, great throngs followed Him. And behold, a leper came up to Him and, prostrating himself, worshiped Him, saying, Lord, if you are willing, You are able to cleanse me by curing me. And He reached out His hand and touched him, saying, I am willing; be cleansed by being cured. And instantly his leprosy was cured and cleansed".
This man was abandoned from the society because of the leprosy. Touching a leper was considered to be unclean back then. It was the ultimate bottom of a human life, being rejected not only by the society but even having to stay away from his only family.
Just minutes earlier, Jesus had said to the people who were listening to Him: "You, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect". But now, in front of the leper, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. He touched this totally imperfect man and He cleansed and cured him. Did Jesus do it because the man had turned around from the sinful sins in his life? Or did Jesus do it because of God's grace?
Are you a good person? Being good - is it good enough? If you think that being good is good enough, you need to live up to God's standard in your own efforts: You, therefore, must be perfect as God is perfect. But I invite you to repent - to turn away from the belief that you can do it in your own efforts - and instead turn around to God's grace. If you repent, Jesus will reach out His hand and touch you with God's grace.
Jesus Christ is good enough!
P.S. If you want some help to consider your own goodness according to God's standard, you may open the link below. If you read through all on that link, be aware of a few things. Be aware that the site indicates that repent means to turn away from sin and turn to God. Keep in mind that repent rather means to turn around to grace. The site advices you to (first) turn away from sin and (then) surrender your life to Jesus Christ. Keep in mind that you cannot manage to turn around from sin in your own efforts. What you need to do is to realize that you cannot live up to God's standard and therefore you should turn around to God's grace by surrendering your life to Jesus Christ. The site also indicates that you need to name each of your sins. If you have not yet received Jesus, it is part of the realization of God's standard and not being capable of living up to it in your own efforts, to be aware of the fact that you have sinful sins in your life. The important part is to understand that you are not living up to God's standard, not to name each and every sin. It is important not to be sin conscious but Jesus conscious. If you spend much time trying to remember all your sins, you tend to be sin conscious. In addition to that, you are not even able to remember all your sins.
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