🎵Prompt Response: Why Call Me Good?
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What does it mean to be a good person?
I don’t think many could argue that YahShua (Jesus) did good—even great—works while He walked on this Earth. By all descriptions, He was a good person. But do you know what He answered when someone called Him Good Teacher?
“Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone. ”
He went on to tell the young man who asked the question some ways that he could try to be good…
“You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother.’”
“All these I have kept from my youth,” he said.
On hearing this, Jesus told him, “You still lack one thing: Sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”
But when the ruler heard this, he became very sad, because he was extremely wealthy.”
So which of those things would really have made him good? Keeping all the commandments? Selling everything he had to give to the poor in exchange for treasure in Heaven? Or is there something else?
In the last line, YahShua calls to the young man, “Follow Me.” The young man leaves sorrowful because he didn’t want to give up his lifestyle to follow The Lord. He had good works. He might even have given something to the poor. But sell everything? Let go of all he had and all he knew to follow a new way of life? That was a mighty big ask.
Every one of us can try to be good in our own ways. And though God would rather everyone be good to each other, without what He did for us, we are told that our righteousness is like filthy rags. Isaiah says it this way:
“You welcome those who gladly do right, who remember Your ways. Surely You were angry, for we sinned. How can we be saved if we remain in our sins? Each of us has become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.”
That one line: How can we be saved if we remain in our sins? Doesn’t that say so much? How can we say we believe in biblical salvation and then go preach another gospel that says something different than what’s in the Holy Bible? I ask this mostly of those who lead congregations, churches, or small groups, but it also applies if we write or otherwise communicate our message to the world. If we teach by word or deed that someone can stay in their sin while claiming to serve the God of Scripture, we are creating our own doctrine.
So, even if we care for (or love) someone so much that we don’t want to think they aren’t ready to meet God, teaching them that being good is a replacement for God’s definition of salvation is doing a terrible disservice to them. Teaching them to follow The Messiah according to His words and the written Word of God is really the closest thing to being good we have available in this life. But the treasure of spending eternity with a truly good God who loves us; that’s totally worth it!
And I think this song about God’s goodness gives a great reason to “be good and follow Him.”
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