“…[T]here is none that doeth good, no not one.”  (Romans 3)

“And [Christ] said unto [the rich young ruler],  Why callest thou [M]e good? there is none good but one, that is God…”  (Matthew 19)

As you might deduce from our (1st) first title, my wife and I never went the Santa Claus route. And before anyone takes offense, let us explain.  We did not celebrate Santa Claus in our home, Santa Claus was a fictional character that we could enjoy if we desired, but we never presented him as a non-fictional person. Neither did we or do we judge others that do. Christ-ians have liberty to do as they please and what they do is between them and God. Lost persons will do what lost persons will do, we have no place in telling them how to celebrate Christmas, nor do we care to.

We can have pesonal convictions without forcing them upon others or judgeing others that do not share our personal conviction.  An example: I do not wear clothing that depicts characters. My personal conviction is that I am owned by Christ and I “advertise” only for Him…if I were to wear a super-hero shirt or a sports shirt I would be in breach of contract, so to speak, for It was Christ that purchased me and my servitude. Again, this is a personal conviction, others can and may wear what they want…that’s the beauty of Christ-ian liberty and personal convictions. I don’t concern myself with other’s choice of clothing, that’s their business. That mindset speaks to grace, as well. We are not to push our likes or dislikes on anyone…We all have  liberty in Christ.

Any way….. I got off subject. My reason for the Santa Claus title really was to use the words, “Be good for goodness sake” and to working through the question or possibility of being good outside of Christ-ianity. Can a person be good without being saved?  Is there such a thing as an atheist that is a good person?

I understand that this can be a weighty subject but I think we can work our way through it.

From our quoted Scriptures above the Bible is pretty clear….there is none that doeth good, no not one. Christ stated pretty plainly that there is none good but God. He was in no way suggesting that we was not God Incarnate or that He was not Goodness, Himself. The Master was simply dealing with the young man at the young man’s level of understanding. The young man approached Christ and called Him, ” good master” or good teacher. The point is this, if all that the young man saw in Christ was a human teacher then He could not be good as humans are fallen and completely mastered by sin…inside and out. The Bible is clear, there is none; there is no person that is good in himself, in hus nature, in his pathology, or even in the good that he may do. There is no such thing as a person being good intrinsically. THe Word of God is clear…….but.

But what about all the charities and all the “random acts of kindness” that persons do? I will give an example that I think will explain my point: I saw a show on t.v. In this show a person was going out of their way to help another person. The other person kept trying to get the former to leave her alone, but the former was determined to help. Finally the latter asked, ” Why do you even care?”  the former replied, “Because it makes me feel good.” That may sound ok and acceptable. But let us ask the question, was the helpful person being good? Did his action make him a good person?

Does an action that benefits another equate to the act-or being a good person? I posit in the negative. Intent and motive is EVERYTHING. If I perform a good deed because it makes me feel good, I am not performing that deed out of goodness or for the sake of goodness itself, but because I benefit. That’s not goodness, that’s self-centered-ness and self gratification. The deed may be helpful and it may be good but the one performing it is not necessarily good.  At the core, persons do good deeds out of obligation, fear, guilt, expectation, tradition and because it makes them feel good about themselves. Doing a good deed for these reasons does not make a good person.

Humanly speaking , however, we do say things like, “he’s such a good guy,”  or  “He’s a good man.”  When we make statements like that we are speaking about human or societal standards and relative goodness. Compared to Hitler, most persons are good, if we compare ourselves to this week’s media villain, we’re pretty good. But these are not the standards that matter or that mean anything at all, if we are looking at the eternal big picture.

Scripture, in addition to the (2) two quoted texts above, also says, “[W]ithout faith it is impossible to please God.” After reading that we must ask ourselves, what pleases God?  Scripture tells us all that pleases God, for our purposes, I will point out (3) three, 1. Christ pleases God.  2. Holiness pleases God.  3.  Righteousness pleases God.  These (3) three please God in addition to faith pleasing God. Therefore…..

Therefore, there are two (2) standards that determine goodness.  With humans, if one is better than the next guy he is good.  This however has no eternal value and this standard of measurement has, does and will lead persons to Hell. The other Standard that has eternal value is Christ. In Christ one has faith, in Christ one is made holy, in Christ one is seen by God as righteous.

To summarize, we must stand with Scripture and state that one cannot be good (for goodness’ sake) outside of Christ and the only way to be good is to be in Christ and to use God’s Standard of Goodness.