Goodness

Kindness and goodness carry different connotations.

This morning we continue our study on the fruits of the Holy Spirit. We have come to the fruit of goodness. I find it unfortunate how many theologians lump kindness and goodness together. But these words carry different connotations. Kindness has the idea of doing something beneficial for someone, even an enemy. You give him a cup of water, you give him your coat, or you go the extra mile. The Greek word for kindness is spelled almost exactly like the Greek word for Christ. To be kind is to do something Christ-like.

Goodness is related to kindness, but altogether different. Just because you are kind and do kind things doesn't mean you are good. Consider Adolf Hitler as an example. A movie was just released in Germany revealing Hitler's humanity. He was profoundly attached to his dog, Blondi. He was kind to his secretaries. As Allied forces descended on his bunker, he complimented his cook for making such an excellent ravioli. He could be kind, but was he good?

As the Columbine shooters went on a rampage, they found John Savage and a group of students hiding in the library. One of the shooters recognized John and told him to, "Just run!" before killing ten other students. They had worked together on a stage crew for a theater production. It was an act of kindness. But were the shooters good?

Goodness focuses on the depth of someone's quality and character.

Whereas kindness focuses on Christ-like actions, goodness focuses on the depth of someone's quality and character. In Matthew 12:35 (NIV) Jesus says, "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him." If you are an evil person, you might be able to fool people into thinking you are good by doing acts of kindness. But you cannot fool people forever. Out of the overflow of one's heart and character, she speaks and acts.

In Matthew 7:17-18 (NIV) Jesus describes how a tree can be known by its fruit. "...every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit." In 3 John 1:11 (NIV) we're told, "Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God."

As you consider the fruits of the Spirit, you can emulate most any of them. You can show patience and self-control. You can even do Christ-like acts of kindness. But goodness isn't so easily fabricated. Our culture is infatuated with kindness. Politicians, actors, actresses, and artists all have their causes that make them feel good. Acts of kindness can make you feel really good. They can also make you feel really righteous (at least for a moment). But doing kind things and becoming or being a good person are related, but separate things.

Everyone sees herself as a good person.

Let's talk about goodness. Have you noticed that just about everyone sees herself as a good person? I love watching Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron approach people on the street to ask them, "Do you consider yourself a good person?" There are hundreds of videos on YouTube of them doing this. Everyone always says, "Yes! Yes, I'm a good person. Yes, I'm going to heaven."

But then you can ask them how they view God. Is God a God of love? Is God good? Secular people have an elevated sense of their own goodness and a relatively low valuation of God's goodness. They often believe that they are better than God, know better than God, act more compassionately, and thus don't need God! The secular person has a heightened sense of self and lowered sense of God.

You might ask yourself, how can a secular person feel that she is better than God? There are several reasons. First of all, she has no objective measurement for what is good and evil. Good is what makes me feel good. Good is what feels right, and seems right. Good is subjective. What's good for you isn't necessarily good for me.

What's interesting about Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron is what happens when they ask people if they have ever heard of the Ten Commandments. You shall not kill, shall not covet, shall not commit adultery, and shall not take the Lord's name in vain. Suddenly the gears start turning. And when they move to Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, their entire complexion changes. Jesus said that if you've ever looked at a woman lustfully, you've committed adultery in your heart. Jesus said that if you're angry at your brother, or so much as insult him, you've broken the commandment.

This is why the law is so important. Without an objective standard, anyone can declare herself good!

Our culture suppresses any knowledge about the goodness of God.

But there is another reason why people think that they are good. First, our culture suppresses any knowledge about God. No prayer, no Bibles, and no God-talk is tolerated in public. But then simultaneously, as our culture is attacking the word of God, purging Christian influence, maligning God's character, and assaulting traditional values, it perverts and it inverts the very essence of what is holy and good!

In Isaiah 5:20 (NIV) God says, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." Isn't this exactly what our culture does? To be for traditional marriage is hateful, but being pro-life is cruel and tyrannical. Being a virgin, being pure and chaste, is a mark of failure.

When there is no knowledge of God, everything gets turned upside down. Our culture is getting turned upside down, and it's gut-wrenching. Romans 1:25 (NIV) describes how, "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie..." Romans 1:28 (NIV) describes how people, "...did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God..." and how God, "gave them over to a depraved mind." A depraved mind is an upside down mind.

Even churched people think that they are "good enough".

It's not just secular people who think that they're good though. It's also religious people. It's churched folk like you and me. Remember the story Jesus told in Luke 18:9-14 (NIV)? "To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 'Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men-- robbers, evildoers, adulterers-- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.' "

We can illustrate what happens with a simple diagram. Let's say that this vertical line represents the heavenly standard of God's goodness. (DRAW VERTICAL LINE) To get to heaven we have to be that good!

But then here is the religious person down here, doing his acts of kindness, his religious duty, and taking steps of faith. (DRAW STEPS of FAITH) You read your Bible. You give to the needy. You go to church. You recycle plastic. You eat at Chick-a-filet. You're a good Christian person.

It's not that religious folk don't believe in grace. It's just that they need less and less as they go along. As they live for God, their need for Christ, for grace, becomes smaller and smaller until Christ is completely diminished! This is what we see with the Pharisee. He had become so high and mighty in his own mind that he began looking down on people way back here! "Thank God I'm not like them!"

So secular people pervert what is good and evil. They suppress any knowledge of God that might contradict their lifestyle, beliefs, or opinions. The religious person thinks he needs grace less and less as he become more and more good. In their own way, both religious and secular people pervert the truth of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So what is a Biblical view of goodness?

In the Bible we find a series of remarkable statements about goodness. In Mark 10:18 (NIV) Jesus says, "No one is good-- except God alone." Whoa! Romans 3:10-12 (NIV) says, "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." Romans 3:23 (NIV) says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Isaiah 64:6 (NIV) says, "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away."

Throughout book of Romans Paul makes the case that the whole purpose of the Old Testament law wasn't to make us holy, but rather to expose our sin and our need for grace. The law should humble us. It should empty us of any sense of moral goodness. It should never make us proud. If obeying the law makes you proud, you're not applying it deeply enough!

This is why Jesus preached on the Sermon on the Mount. Everyone thought that they were good because they obeyed the Ten Commandments. But what Jesus showed them was how they were violating the spirit of the law in their hearts, their desires, in their thinking, and in the trillion compromises they were making every day.

Allow me to illustrate a biblical view of goodness. 2 Peter 3:18 (NIV) tells us that the Christian should, "...grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." So this first line represents how we are grow in the knowledge of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you ever noticed that when you read your Bible, or when you go to church and worship God, you get overwhelmed by his perfect love? By the joy of his salvation? The peace he offers in Christ? The patience he shows to the ungrateful and wicked, to sinners, and to people like you and me? The kindness he showed in sending Christ? The goodness and moral perfection of his character, that in God there isn't anything false? That God is faithful even when we aren't faithful? The Bible elevates our sense of God's goodness and greatness, doesn't it?

When we worship God, we get a more clear picture of our brokenness.

But there is something else that happens when we read our Bibles and worship God. We get a clearer picture of our brokenness, our rebelliousness, and our sin. Preaching these messages on the fruits of the Spirit has deflated my ego. I write these sermons and I begin to realize how little business I have preaching! Have you ever noticed that it's impossible to go on an ego trip when reading the Bible? So this second line represents how we begin assessing our lives using sober judgment, seeing ourselves as we truly are in our sinful nature and in our utter depravity.

So our valuation of God is rising, and our valuation of our own sense of moral goodness is falling.

But here is the best part. As we go along in the Christian life, notice how our appreciation and our gratitude and our joy of salvation increases. Unlike what we saw with the Pharisee, our need for God's grace grows. This is what Peter meant when he instructed us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The essence of goodness is humility.

A lot of people think that the essence of goodness is self-righteousness, but it's actually humility. Goodness flows out of humility. It flows from a humility that recognizes God's goodness. A humility that recognizes that we're saved by grace, not by works. A humility that recognizes that we all need grace equally. None of us stands on a perch, all high and mighty. We all need the same remedy for sin.

Do you want to know what the gospel is? Do you want to know what the good news is? It's this. It's that we are saved by Christ's righteousness and Christ's goodness, not by our own. The goodness that saves is the goodness imputed upon us by faith in Jesus Christ.

This is why we sang, "You are good, You are good when there's nothing good in me." This is why we're about to sing, "Just As I Am". It's because God invites us to come to him not as good people, but as people who need to washed, forgiven, and filled with his goodness.

Romans 3:23-26 (NIV) says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished- he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."