Yes! There is Good News! 12.31.16

Here is a word right out of the heading, “good.” Just what is good? Do you think of yourself as good? Do you know anyone of your friends or acquaintances who you might label as good? How do you define good? What might be the qualities of someone who is good?

In the Garden of Eden, God told His “first children,” that they must not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. So, just because God labeled something as “good,” it didn’t mean that man should desire it. What God was really saying is that He, the Creator, was the one to define what was good and evil. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death.” (Proverbs 14:12) In the account of the Garden of Eden, Eve sees that “the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom.” I guess this means that everything man sees in this world that seems good, pleasing and desirable, is not necessarily so.

One of the things about which we must be careful is labeling ourselves and others as good. Mark 10:17 has this episode, “As Jesus on His way, a man ran up to Him and fell on his knees before Him. ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is good except God alone.’” Hmmmm! The only human to live a perfectly righteous life took umbrage at being called good! I guess it might be presumptuous on our part to call anyone here on Earth good.

Let’s dig a little deeper. In the book of Romans, Paul opens up a barrage of scriptures that should set us back on our heels a little. Chapter 3, 10 - 18 he quotes from several places Psalms and Isaiah to let us know that, “there is no one righteous, not even one ... there is no one who is good, not even one ... etc.”

While Sally and I were visiting relatives over Thanksgiving, someone gave me a book to read titled, “Good or God?” by John Bevere. The premise of the book, as Bevere states “is one simple question, is good enough?” He goes on to ask the question, “ If good is so obvious, why does Hebrews 5:14 say that we must have discernment to recognize it?” Hebrews 5:14, “ ... but solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” I really think that this is the whole concept of what constitutes “good” must be handled correctly. Eve thought that if it looked good, smelled good, and tasted good; it must be good. But God sees things differently! And so, if we really want to understand what “good” is, we must consult the instruction manual of the author of all things “good.” We know that manual as the Bible! And it tells us about the “good news” of the Kingdom.

We’ll talk some more about this next time.