A Good Person?

Are you a good person?

It's an interesting question. Almost 99% of the time when one asks another that the answer is "Yes." Most people consider themselves to be good. Many have the thought process of, "I've done many more good things than wrong things" and "Sure I've done some bad things, but I'm not as bad as that guy." Many evaluate "good" with doing things such as obeying the law, donating to charities, holding doors for others, etc. Those are all definitely good things to do.

But does doing them make one a "good person?"

A lot of people would say yes. Allow me to add something to that question: "Does doing those things, any of those things, grant you access to Heaven?" Then it gets a little tricky. Many would still say yes. I've overheard at least one conversation where one said, "I hope I'm going to Heaven." How straining it must be to not have security on where one is going after they die, to think that you have to do many good things to override all the bad things you've done.

Atheists wouldn't bring Heaven into the conversation, because to them it doesn't exist. So they would answer that yes, upholding the law, donating to charities, being nice, and other related things constitutes as being a "good person." The problem is that if you take God out of the equation, does "good" really exist? If so, what's our basis? What's the standard? It's man-made, because absolutes don't exist from a non-believer's perspective. So doing "good things" is almost meaningless from this point of view...because an absolute good doesn't even exist!

Let's say that God exists. What does He say about us in relation to good? In Genesis He called all that He had created "very good," and man was a part of that. That's right, humankind is a very good creation. We are all very good creations. Unfortunately, that goodness was and is tainted by sin, a darkness in everyone's heart. It does not change the fact that we are "very good" creations, but because of that darkness, we are not granted access to Heaven. So, a person can donate to charities, be nice to others around them, and even win the Noble Prize, but do any of these things pardon that darkness and gets one into Heaven? Does God see us as "good people" when we do those sort of things? The answer to both those questions is no because that darkness still exists.

But there is a way. God provided a way into Heaven, and that's through His Son Jesus Christ. No good thing we do is enough to take away all the bad things we've done. There's no "bargaining" with good deeds. Only through Christ can we have access to eternal life. Then all the good things we do will be for His glory. Jesus calls His followers "the light of the world," which is definitely the greatest definition of a good person!

Accepting Christ will put things into perspective; one begins to realize they are part of a bigger plan. Every good deed then has an absolute meaning.

...so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky ~Philippians 2:15