Man, that is about the boldest title I have ever come up with for anything I have ever written. Anyone who knows me well, realizes how bold that was. That's alright. I'm keeping the title anyway. It's difficult for me to imagine that I could be a reference point for a topic like this. But, my confidence is not in myself which, hopefully, will make more sense by the end of this article.
Are you a good person? It's a good question. Being a Christian, that question has an entirely different depth to it than it being asked by someone with another worldview. And, to dispell popular myths, the idea of Christian goodness is not reduced to avoiding beer, women and saying 'sh#%'. I know that sometimes that seems to be the long and short of it...coming from us alot of the time. But to embrace that as the biblical concept of goodness is to avoid what the Bible says. The Bible goes far deeper than simple list of things to avoid or things to do. It deals with our hearts...our very center. And the Bible is far more useful than Snopes.com when it comes to these things. Trust me with that.
I believe that Jesus Christ was not just savior, Lord and redeemer. He is also the smarted man that ever lived. If He had something to say on this matter, which He did, then it would seem logical to listen to His words, read about His actions and try to figure out His entire demeanor and perspective on everything. Anyone could agree with me on that point. The powerful part of my proposition is that by doing this....following Christ....there is a supernatural aspect for those who also place their confidence in Him as Lord and Savior, that will not happen to the average person pursuing His teachings for only the value and virtue of the teachings alone.
Jesus replied to them, “My teaching is not mine but comes from the one who sent me. If anyone wants to do his will, he will know whether this teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own.
John 7:16-17
The biblical concept of 'soul' is sort of a synonym for life. Our soul is our life. And our life/soul is comprised of a will, mind, body and social context. All work together to make our life/soul. Our will is the decision center of our being. I use spirit and will interchangeably. Our mind is what contains thoughts, emotions and desires. Our body is what acts within the physical world. Our social context is our interaction with other lives that provide our relation and purpose in life. Without any of these things, we have no life. If any of those components are neglected or harmed, our life is harmed or even destroyed.
Everyone's spirit or will has been formed. The only difference is whether or not its formation is malformed or transformed. Our spirit can be either formed by the world we live or by God. There is no other option. And because everyone's will is formed according to the world around us, everyone requires spiritual transformation. No one, outside of Jesus Christ, naturally has a will in line with the Kingdom of God.
What does a life conformed to this world look like? Outside of obvious things, like violence, perversions, etc....take a look at the subtleties....like pride, anger, jeoulosy, lustful desires, greed. Consider someone who's been insulted and how that insult is handled. A soul transformed to this world will withdraw and probably attack the one who insults. That same soul, depending on its sensitivity, could withdraw from everyone in general or learn to take advantage of everyone in general. Sound familiar? How about someone else getting the promotion or recognition you deserved? What is your natural reaction? Is it true gratitude or resentfulness? See what I mean? I should have hit everyone by now.
A life conformed to God looks just like Jesus. Look no further than Him.
Once more, in order to align ourselves with His Kingdom, we must entrust our very lives to Jesus Christ and intentionally follow Him. According to Jesus' own words, His teachings are self-validating and vindicate His claims of beiing Lord, God and Messiah. If there is another option (and there are many), then either He lied or else these options are counterfeit.
Because our will is influenced by the world around us and because the world around us can be impacted by our decisions, there is an interaction between our spirit and our world, that work together for good or evil.
There are two ways to try to be a good person....work at it or entrust yourself to Someone who will help you become a good person. Listen to Paul's words in Romans 9:
What can we say, then? Gentiles, who were not pursuing righteousness, have attained righteousness, a righteousness that comes through faith.But Israel, who did pursue the righteousness that is based on the law, did not arrive at that law. Why not? Because they did not pursue it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works.
Romans 9:30-32
Here is one of many stark contrasts in Scripture between the two options. Works or faith? By works, Paul refers to the externalities and appearances. It goes far with other people, but has no value with God. The Jews observed all the feasts, festivals, holy days, rules and regulations....but their approach to righteousness (as well as all us, naturally) was to work hard at it. But success was not true righteousness but great acting. That sort of righteousness, according to Paul, was who could do a better job at disquising thier mess. Meanwhile, the gentile believers , who were alot more ignorant about Scripture or even serious religious dedication (considered religious peons), had obtained righteousness through confidence in Christ. Many Christians consider this text to mean that this righteousness was 'imputed' to them through their faith in Christ. I agree. But that is not all of it entirely. It also means this:
Place your trust in Christ and not only will you no longer be condemned by the law of God, but you will be given the freedom to cooperate with Him, knowing He will help you get better, without fear of what failure could bring during the process.
Either trust in your efforts at great acting and cover up a malformed soul, or place your confidence entirely in Him, uncover all the mess with a confidence that the mess no longer has the power to condemn and confidence that by cooperating with Him, you will be transformed into a person you never could become on your own.
Jesus' parable about the prodigal son raises this issue too. Remember the story? A rich man had two sons. One of the sons wanted his father to give him his inheritence before he died, so that he could run off and live like hell, which he did. The other son stayed behind and helped out his father. The son nearly destroys himself with wine, women and whatever else...decides he had it better at home and returns to see if he can simply be a servant, rather than an heir.
The father in the story runs up to him and embraces him as soon as the son makes it within view. There is a huge party on his behalf....fatted cow is butchered for good steaks and lots of celebration.
The other son is extremely indignant.
He approaches his father and in his anger, lets him know how he feels about treating the prodigal son with such gratitude when he never left his father's side the entire time.
The father tells him that he should be happy his brother returned, rather than worrying about what everybody deserves. It was never about how good either son was...as evidenced by both the one son's depravity and the other son's pride. It was about coming home to the father.
One thought his righteousness was based on his track record (appearances only). The other had righteousness through returning to his father and placing his entire life in his hands (humiliating but thoroughly transforming).
The externally righteous will always feel indignant towards those who obtain righteousness by faith. Consider Paul's words in Galatians:
So you, brothers, are children of the promise, like Isaac. But just as then the son who was conceived according to the flesh persecuted the son who was conceived according to the Spirit, so it is now."
Galatians 4:28-29.
The flesh is synonymous in the Greek with our natural inclinations, which is a works-based righteousness in conformance with the world, which is no righteousness at all. And this counterfeit righteousness is not only at enmity with righteousness through confidence in Christ. This sort of 'righteousness' provides alot of outward persecution against the 'children of promise', who are those whose righeousness is in Christ and through Christ by intentionally learning from Him.
The pressures of this world will hammer on your will, mind, body and social context until you look just like this world. And this world is also a very outwardly religious world. Just watch the Daily Show and see how morally outraged Jon Stewart can get or watch The View and hear all sorts of moral proclamations around a table. How about reactions in politics? The world is full of very outwardly morally motivated people. Problem is, outside of spiritual transformation through an apprenticeship in Jesus Christ, we are simply spraying Lemon-Fresh Joy on a pile of fresh dog poo.
Sorry for the analogy...but I don't know how else to communicate the facts of the matter. Maybe Isaiah says it better (not much better). "All of our righteous deeds are as filthy rags (used toilet paper in Hebrew)."
True spiritual transformation requires a clear vision of what we need, real intention to take steps in that direction, and the motivation to do it. God's grace supplies all three of these things. What we can do in this process is study Jesus and contemplate on it. We can spend time without any noise or diversions focusing on Him through study and prayer/meditation. We can also try to purposefully not have our way in things, whether that is food, drink or simply having the last word. It teaches us that we don't have to have our way. These things help us to learn how to recognize where He is working, when He is speaking and how to discern things better. Lastly, by placing confidence in Him, we can expect (confidence/belief/faith) that He will be doing things from the inside out to make us into something that resembles Jesus....an authentically good person.
But because of our condition and formation, it will probably be somewhat painful, humiliating and scary at times. There will be voices that try to make that pain, humiliation and fear magnified so that we quit. But be keeping in mind wonderful words such as "Great is He who is in you than he who is in the world", as well as others help us keep those voices at bay...and they will be many and often.
This is not a good world. That's pretty uncontroversial. And outside of what He teaches for our good, we resemble our world, whether we like it or not. That is controversial. Always has been. And until everything comes into conformity with His intentions, always will.
But His way brings forth His Kingdom into this realm like a little yeast in a large lump of dough. Heaven doesn't have to only be something we go to when we die. Heaven is also something we can have now and extend here, but only through faith. Likewise, hell is not only a place reserved for those who prefer it after death. It is also here and now too.
The closest places in our lives can be heaven or hell. We can choose self-protection, engage in attacks and withdrawals to and from others and by doing so, extend hell, rather than heaven. Or we can pick up our cross and follow Him, relax that our own lives are in good hands, enough to be able to serve others without fear or hesitation...thereby extending heaven here and now. Your confidence is in Him, not in your own efforts. And your confidence in getting better doesn't depend on your successes, but your confidence in Him finishing a work He started in you.
And as the song goes....'the world, will be a better place for you and me. You just wait and see.' (John 7:16-17)
