God
Sees “Good People” as “Sinners” Too
In an earlier post to this blog, I shared some of the lessons
learned during my Bible study. There are many other lessons I’ve learned, but the
Spirit has guided my spirit to revisit this one particular point before moving
on to share others.
As Christians we believe the Lord Jesus has redeemed us
from the penalty of death / the eternal separation from our Creator God. That
is the “salvation” of our souls . In response to God’s love in accomplishing
this for us (John 3: 16-17), we have learned that we should return His love by
serving as “Ambassadors” for Him, to bring knowledge of our Lord Jesus’ suffering
and sacrifices to help save others. (1 Corinthians 5: 14-21) Key to understanding the significance of what
the Lord Jesus accomplished for us as individuals requires the knowledge of how
His actions have affected all mankind, not just Christians, even as His Earthly
journey happened some two thousand years ago. The essence of this blog message
is to share my thoughts on God’s perspectives on “good people”. There is
a potentially significant difference between those who see themselves as being
“good person”, and how that same person might be seen from God’s perspective.
From a biblical perspective, the term “good’ means
“agreeable, excellent, beautiful, best, or pleasing”, as when God found the
results of His Creations each day in Genesis Chapter One. (Strong’s Concordance
#02896) Further, when applied to a person, the Lord Jesus responded to a
reference to Himself being called “good”, He answered: “Why callest thou me good?
None is good, save one, that is, God.” (Luke 18: 19) In that context and for this post, I add
another term: “righteous”. (Strong’s Concordance #6662, meaning lawful,
as justified and vindicated by God) “Righteous”
was first used in the Scripture in Genesis Chapter Seven, when the LORD used it
to describe Noah. In the previous chapter it was noted that “the wickedness of
man was great in the earth(v.5)…But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”(v.8)
That is what we each strive to achieve…being seen as righteous / good in the
eyes of God and thereby deserving of God’s grace and salvation.
Perhaps the most difficult and intriguing challenge when
engaging others in this area of Bible study is to convince them to see things
through God’s eyes. As noted in my earlier post, many, if not most people feel
that they are “good people”, who have lived “good lives”. Further, if they
believe in a life after this earthly journey, they likely feel they will have a
very positive future. They do not identify with the term “sinners”, which
presumably applies to people who have done “bad things”. (Romans 1: 18-32)
However, the Bible teaches us that we need to be able to see the world, and mankind,
and ourselves through “God’s eyes”, rather than our own human eyes.
The Bible gives the history of the first man’s creation as
a perfect being in harmony with God. (Genesis 1: 26-27, 31. However, we soon
learned that under the temptation of God’s Enemy Satan, the man Adam committed the
offense of disobeying our Supreme Deity and Creator (sin), and thereby bringing
sin and death (separation from our Creator) into the world. Even so, our
Omniscient God was not taken by surprise. He immediately instituted His Plan to
provide for the restoration of man to Himself. (Genesis 3: 14-21; Romans 6: 23).
Now here is the issue. As a result of Adam’s sin, all future
generations of mankind inherited the trait of a “sin-nature” when we were born.
In God’s eyes we are not “sinners” because we have sinned as Adam did. He
sees us as sinners because we were born as sinners. (Romans 5: 12-19; 3: 23) Just as Adam was given the choice to
believe His Creator God or suffer dire consequences (Genesis 2: 15-17), so have
each of the rest of us been given a choice. If we are willing to admit that we
are sinners, the next step is to understand the implications / consequences of
bearing that designation in God’s eyes. Then we have the choice to either
believe or not believe what the Bible scripture teaches.
Before we go further, let me establish that
the Supremacy of God’s Kingdom is that it is based on truth, justice and
righteousness. (Deuteronomy
32: 4; Psalms 89: 11-14. 97: 2; Isaiah 30: 18) However, if there is anything that God hates
more than the sins of untruth, unfairness
/ injustice, and evil, (https://www.gotquestions.org/God-hate-sin.html ) ...
it is Unbelief….the lack of faith in what He has said. It
was Adam’s unbelief that brought sin and death into the world. (Genesis
2: 16-17, 3: 6; Romans 5: 12). It was Cain’s unbelief that led him to
bring a bloodless sacrifice to the LORD; then reject the LORD’s offer of
assistance; and commit the first murder. (Genesis 4: 1-8) It was Israel’s
unbelief that caused a 40-year delay (and countless lives lost) to their
entrance into the Promised Land when they rejected the LORD’s instructions at
Kadesh Barnea. (Deuteronomy 9: 23) These are only a few examples of man’s unbelief.
The reason that God is so adamant / unwavering about man’s unbelief is that He has
established His Plan for the salvation of mankind, with the basis being that He
Himself would place all the punishment for man’s sins onto His dear and beloved
Son, our Lord Jesus. (Matthew 3: 16-17, 17: 1-5; John 3: 11-21) God’s Supremacy
and Divine Law mandate that evil / disobedience be punished, with no exceptions…no
loopholes. That is why even the Archangel Lucifer (a previously trusted leader
of God’s angelic hosts) was evicted from Heaven. (Isaiah 14: 12-17; Ezekiel 28:
12-19) Remember, that as a God of Truth and Justice, His wrath and judgment are
His punishments for sins, not because of a hatred for the sinner. In the Old Testament, the many instances of
God’s wrath against the Nation of Israel and others was punishment for sins,
even among His Chosen People. (https://www.christianity.com/wiki/god/what-is-the-biblical-understanding-of-the-wrath-of-god.html
)
So, contrary to what many might believe, we as Christians
were not saved from eternal death by God’s “mercy” or "forgiveness". It was His overwhelming love for man that
led Him to take out the wrath of His judgment on Jesus, His Dear Son, instead
of us. Our sin debt had to be paid. That was the price of our redemption /
restoration to Him. All that God asks of mankind is that we believe in His Son
Jesus, and what He accomplished for us as individuals through His tremendous
suffering, Crucifixion death, burial and Resurrection. (1 Corinthians 15: 1-4;
Romans 10: 9-13)
In His Omniscience, God knows that we all have sinned. He also has made available to each of us
message of salvation. Some will believe that
message and receive His righteousness.
Unfortunately, many more, including many “good people”, will ignore or
reject that message. Fortunately for us,
He has given us the freedom of choice…belief, or unbelief.
Dr. W. A. (Bill) Robinson
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