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Where God-questions are put to the test This month’s question… So far as God is concerned isn’t ‘being good’ good enough? Is “good” good enough for God? My answer would be yes. But that it matters what you mean by “good”. The account in the front end of the Bible, that tells of God making everything, has God expressing his view of his handiwork. Time after time his verdict is, “And it was good.” Not “goodish” or “good enough”. But “good”. Which in the fullest sense meant “perfect”. And that’s the rub. God’s “good” is our “perfect”. So couldn’t he just lower the pass mark a bit? Turn a heavenly blind eye to the times we don’t quite come up to scratch? If that’s how you see it, let me ask you a few questions and get your view. How slight a smear of washing up liquid left on a cup makes the content undrinkable? How much damage to a load of white washing can one very small red sock inflict? How many salmonella germs does it take to close a restaurant? Get it? The problem is that what seems small messes up the whole. Selfishness, pride, dishonesty and the rest infest the human condition. They may seem trivial but they all taint the big picture of who we are and impact on how God relates to us. Do you ever remember going to buy a new pair of shoes while feeling pretty good about the pair you were wearing at the time? And cringing when the pair you tried on made the old look so shabby you couldn’t even bear to wear them home? Having seen perfection, we discovered our previously perfectly acceptable shoes were not so perfect after all. It is similar when we compare what we are inside to what God expects of us. Most of the time we feel pretty good about ourselves. In our eyes, compared with most people, we are “pretty good, thank you”. And compared with some others, God should be grateful to have us on his planet. We’re OK. But God has a different standard. It’s a “new shoes” standard. It’s one to match who he is and what he created. It’s the standard of absolute moral goodness, purity and perfection – and it’s the standard we are measured against. Which means, in his eyes we are like damaged goods well past their sell-by date. That’s why “being good” isn’t good enough. It is also why God came to earth as Jesus to make possible the forgiveness that we need – through his death on a cross. And that’s good news for those whose “good” will never be good enough. The Y Course Peter Meadows is the co-author with Joseph Steinberg of The Book of Y the basis for the eight week Y Course that explores life’s biggest questions. If you have a Y Question relating to issues of faith and God, Peter or Joseph will do their best to answer it. Send your question to: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Subject: Y Course We hope to publish their responses in future editions. |
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