Goodness

People who don't believe in God say that they can be good without God.  They don't need God in order to be good.  They can work out their own good.  We, as cultures and societies, can be good without a God.

This is untrue.

People cannot be good if there is no definition of goodness.  They think they can define goodness themselves, without any divine standard.  It's a nice idea, but it fails in practice.  Even two people cannot agree on a standard of goodness between themselves, if it is up to them.  Certainly entire societies cannot do so.

Western civilizations place a high value on freedom, compassion, and the value of human life.  This is a lingering result from the permeating influence of Christianity, whether or not anyone will admit it.  Cultures that have never benefitted from the ethics of Christian belief, and cultures that have departed from these ethics, are cold, miserable places where the strong oppress the weak without conscience, and there is no recourse for seeking justice.  Contemporary western thought despises its Christian roots, often celebrating the intrinsic worth of "all cultures."  But all cultures are not equal in value and goodness.  No culture is perfect, but cultures with at least the sense to strive for liberty and justice certainly do better than those who do not.

We have a movie called, The Gods Must be Crazy, about some happy tribal people in Africa whose lives are upset when a Coke bottle falls into their midst from a plane flying overhead.  It is a whimsical, funny movie with a gentle feel to it.  The natives are happy, content and peaceful until the influence of the west upsets their balance, and eventually they return to their cheerful, charmed existence.  However, our DVD also contains some background footage of the project, film of the actual lives that the "actors" in the film lived, in their third world country.  We watched the movie with our kids and felt happy at the end of it.   We liked it so much, we started watching all the rest of the material on the DVD.  When we saw the seamy side, the things that had been airbrushed out of the story the movie told, we felt not only disappointed, but violated.  All was certainly not as it had originally seemed.

In the west, we have so ingrained an idea of what our rights are (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, right?), and what sort of justice we "deserve," that sometimes our kids go off to countries on the other side of the world, break the rules, and are shocked when they receive a harsh punishment.  Sometimes they even die, and their outraged parents try to sue the foreign government, apparently not realizing that when you aren't in your own country, you can't insist on people respecting your country's values.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights . . ." says our Declaration of Independence.  And people don't realize--godless people do not realize that when you erase the Creator from the sentence, the truths are no longer self-evident, and there is no reason to believe that people are equal anymore.  It becomes about the survival of the fittest, the strongest, the richest, the most clever and the most heavily armed.  So, watch your back.

Whenever people think they have the right to define what is good and what is bad, they literally think, "I have the right to define what is good and what is bad."  We are so inherently selfish and prideful, we always think, "I am the one who is right.  I am the one who will be offended if it doesn't go my way.  I am the one who must not be offended, because I am the one who is right."

Essentially, we all insist on our own way, and we live at an impasse with others.

This is at the root of the sin Adam and Eve committed in the garden of Eden.  What's so bad about eating a bite of fruit?  Nothing, on the surface.  The bad part is that they insisted on their own way, declared their independence from God's standard of righteousness.  In essence, they said, "You can't tell us what to do, God.  You can't tell us what is right and what is wrong.  We will decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong.  We know best what is right for us."

Satan had told them, "If you eat the fruit, you will become like God, knowing right from wrong."  Such clever words, just a few degrees off from the truth.  He would have spoken truth if he had said, "If you eat the fruit, you will be usurping God's rightful position as judge, and although you will not have the wisdom to know right from wrong, you will insist on trying to define right and wrong, forever after."

This is the human problem.  Heinous crimes are committed and we are shocked again and again, but we should not be.  People do evil because they are hopelessly lost in selfishness and foolishness, because they want what they want, without regard for God or the best interests of others.  There is no natural humility in us, no true concern for the interests of others--at least not if the interests of others will cost us anything.  This is the result of the curse of Adam.  Additionally, we have no wisdom to help us mitigate our selfish impulses.  Some people have a farther reaching view of their own best good than others.  Some people will tell the truth or refrain from stealing from you, or even be kind to you, because they realize that it is in their best interest to do so in a particular situation.  Others operate at a base level of animalistic greed.  But everyone works for his own personal best interests, until the Lord gets ahold of him and the Spirit of God changes his heart.

We have turned--every one--to his own way.  Isaiah 53:6

In those days there was no king in Israel.  Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.  Judges 21:25

If every person on this earth considers himself (or herself) to be the center of the universe, the one true hero, the most deserving of consideration, then there will never be any peace.  If there is no God, and we believe that each one of us has the right to decide what is right and best for us, there will be constant conflict and competition.  You see, when we adopt this mindset, we are all trying to be "god."  Billions of little, selfish gods spread across the globe, we compete for the chance to call the shots, when none of us is remotely qualified for this role.

It is only when we surrender to God as the rightful authority over the Universe that we find peace and harmony.  He is the Creator who knows how it works, and He is the only one who truly knows how to love.

God demonstrated His love for us in this: while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
~Romans 5:8

Jesus, the very Son of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself of His divine glory, took on mortal flesh, and humbled Himself to death on a cross.
~Philippians 2

God loves us, and He is the only one we can trust.  He is the only one who knows what our best interests are.  He is the only one who has the power and the lovingkindness to help us achieve them.  He is the only one who could and would sacrifice His own blood to provide us with hope, peace and joy.  He is the only one wise enough and sovereign enough to repair the universe for the benefit of all who will cooperate with Him.

I think it is safe to say that His promise goes something like this:  All Creation is broken by sin because of rebellion, but I am working to repair and restore it.  I am both able and willing to do this for you.  All you have to do is come to me and trust me.  Work with me, believing that I have your best in mind, and let my Spirit work in you.  Sometimes it will be hard, because there is trouble in this world, and I am not going to destroy my original creation just yet.  I am waiting to gather in all who will come to me, and that means I am letting this broken creation continue for longer than you will find comfortable.  But believe me, trust me.  In the end, it will be worth far more than any affliction you face in this age.  I have prepared for you an eternity that is far more wonderful than anything you could ever ask or imagine.  Come to me.  Trust me.  Cooperate with me.  Obey me.  I am working for your good.

God is the only completely unselfish being.  This is what the Bible means when it says that Jesus is humble (Philippians 2:8, Matthew 11:29).  He is completely unselfish, and wants only the best for us.  His desire is to share His glory with us.  He sacrificed Himself so we could become partakers of goodness and light and life.  Therefore, in our quest to find a standard of goodness--which we mortal, flawed humans obviously can never agree upon among ourselves--we discover that only God can be trusted to provide the standard that miraculously, by His grace, benefits all creation.

There is no good apart from God, only selfishness and conflict.

But God is good.  His love and faithfulness endure forever.

If you reject Him, He will give you opportunity after opportunity to change your mind and come back.  But if you continue to refuse to listen, to refuse to come, to refuse to let Him heal your spiritual sight so you can see the light of His glorious face, in the end He will give you what you want.  In the end, if you insist on your own way, He will give you your own way.  He will turn you loose to run into the abyss of darkness that you in your independence think you crave.