Good
The Problem with God’s Righteousness
**Part of The Nature of God: A Quick and Dirty Guide.**
Four classic problems plague the nature of God’s righteousness: evil, vindication, corruption and ignorance.
Evil: Some claim that God can’t solve the problem of pain–if God is good, then why does evil still exist?
Vindictive: Other people claim that God is a ruthless tyrant who leans on wholesale massacre to punish the smallest slight.
Corruption: Still others see God’s righteousness–revealed in his use of infinite punishment for finite crimes–as a gross abuse of power.
Ignorance: And finally some simply don’t know what God’s righteousness is. Or how it is related to the theological principle of propitiation.
Let’s look at this attribute and discover the truth about God’s righteousness.
What Is God’s Righteousness?
Righteousness means purity of heart, just, agreeable to the law. Used in Scripture and theology, it’s nearly equivalent to holiness. Righteousness includes all we call justice, honesty and virtue.
Applied to people, it denotes someone who is holy and obedient to the laws of God. Applied to God, it means the perfection or holiness of his very nature.
The Perfect Index for Righteousness
The first thing to know about God’s righteousness is that he’s the ultimate standard for righteousness. God’s righteousness comes from within his self-existent being. It’s the reason he is exalted above us.
That’s why his laws, ordinances and decrees are righteous: whatever comes out of his mouth is holy and just.
This righteousness is anchored in God’s morality and immutability. That makes God morally consistent and perfect, meaning he can’t bear iniquity. This is seen in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 where God enumerates a long list of blessings and curses.
Calvin says in the threats we see God’s spotless purity. In the promises, his infinite love of righteousness. Charnock says in the threats “his irreversible justice manifested that all those that commit sin are worthy of death.” In the promises, “his purity did sparkle.”
Since he is infinite and eternal in essence he is also infinite and eternal in righteousness. His righteousness has no limits and shall endure forever:
But about the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.” Hebrews 1:8
Thus, God does no injustice. His nature can do no wrong. He is simply acting like himself:
The LORD within her is righteous; he does no wrong. Morning by morning he dispenses his justice, and every new day he does not fail, yet the unrighteous know no shame. Zephaniah 3:5
Anything we consider good conforms to God. Anything we consider evil fails to do so. Without God’s righteousness we wouldn’t even understand what evil is.
Christ the Righteous Judge
He is just in his judgments. And Christ will one day be the judge–rewarding the good and punishing the wicked. Shall not the judge of the entire earth do right? Again, he simply acts like himself, immune to any outside influence. Theophilus said:
For he is a chastner of the godly, and the father of the righteous, but he is judge and punisher of the impious. (TA, 1.3)
He renders to all according to their deeds. This is what Theophilus meant when he said “Yes, He is angry with those who act wickedly, but he is good and kind to those who love and fear him.”
Don’t see this as a “plea for personal vengeance,” says A. W. Tozer, “but as a longing to see moral equity prevail in human society.” Retribution is the inescapable moral law of creation.
Retribution means that God will see that each person sooner or later receives what he deserves–if not here, then hereafter. That is righteousness–not vindication.
Therefore, anger is an appropriate reaction to wickedness. Would a God who did not react adversely to evil in his world be morally perfect? God is not God when he does not punish sin.
God’s Righteousness Means You Get What You Deserve
Think about this: Justice equals moral equity. Iniquity is the exact opposite. The only thing wicked men can expect from God is retributive judgment–if you are under divine rage then God doesn’t owe you anything accept punishment.
And no one has an excuse, because his righteousness is revealed in the law of God:
Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: “The man who does these things will live by them.” Romans 10:5
The point?
Instead of shunning him and disobeying his law and behaving like outlaws who fear his return, we should long for his return–because God stores crowns of righteousness to one day reward us.
Like Anselm concluded, “He who is good to the wicked by both punishing him and sparing them is better than he who is good to the wicked only by punishing them.” Anselm’s thought can be echoed 800 years later in the words of Martin Luther:
But whoever is a christian should attribute justice to God and injustice to himself, should consider God holy and himself unholy. (WLS, 555-556)
And what can’t be missed here is that goodness without justice is evil. God spares us because he is good, but he could not be good if he were not just. He punishes the wicked because they deserve it. He spares the wicked only because he is good. Thus, he is free from every ounce of corruption.
God’s Righteousness Climaxes in Christ’s Propitiation
Why would he spare the wicked? Any wicked? And how could he do so and still remain just? The answer is found in the theological term propitiation.
Propitiation means to appease wrath and gain the favor of someone you have offended. In Christianity, propitiation is the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross satisfied the demands of God’s holiness for the punishment of sin. Jesus satisfied God and obtained for his people forgiveness. It’s also a promise–because God is all powerful, demonstrated in Jesus’ resurrection–that evil will be defeated in the future.
In justice God abandons sinners to their wicked ways (the divine penalty for rejecting God). In mercy God withholds or modifies deserved judgment. In grace God freely gives undeserved benefits to whom he chooses.
In the end, the cross of Christ is the culmination of God’s righteousness. All three–justice, mercy and grace–are applied and satisfied.
Does Evil Point to God’s Perfection?
**Part of The Nature of God: A Quick and Dirty Guide series.**
Did you know that your recognition of evil suggests there’s an ultimate standard for evil?
In other words, you have to know what is imperfect to know what is perfect.
So then, what is perfect? And how do we define perfect?
More to the point–and a little harder–what is good? And how do we define good?
What Is Good?
Good as an adjective means kind, adequate, convenient, useful, valuable, suitable, competent and safe.
Goodness in human beings means something admirable, attractive, praiseworthy or generous.
Think acting in good conscience.
When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy. Oscar Wilde
Good as a noun means “to diminish or reduce pain or increase happiness or prosperity.” Reminds me of Bentham’s utilitarian view.
The Jeremy Bentham Guide to Morality
If there is no objective standard for good, then we have nothing to go on that would define good outside of man. We only have ourselves to go by.
Jeremy Bentham, who was a moral hedonist, said morality should be based on “the greatest happiness of the greatest good.” (Moral relativism is inevitable, by the way.)
To discover the degree or amount of pleasure any one action would cause, Bentham suggested a utility calculus. Variables consist of intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity and extent.
Here’s a couplet to help you remember:
Intense, long, certain, speedy, fruitful, pure–
Such marks in pleasure and in pains endure.
In the case of a car accident with multiple injuries, the utility calculus amounts to triage. In the case of pleasure, it amounts to something totally different.
The Parable of a Sex Affair
Imagine you are a married journalist visiting India. You take a swim in a nearby pool. You see a half-naked woman in the water moving toward you. It’s obvious she’s a prostitute. You have two possible solutions:
1. You have sex with the prostitute.
2. You avoid sex with the prostitute.
Sleeping with her would provide certain and immediate pleasure. But it’d be short-lived. Plus, you risk catching a venereal disease. Or getting the woman pregnant. Or getting caught. And if you get caught, your wife gets hurt.
The utility calculus might tell you not to have sex with her. But there’s a twist.
Not sleeping with her would provide certain, short term pain. But the pain would not last, nor would it haunt you. Yet, there still remains a value judgment: would you get caught?
Because you are in India and your wife is not, India provides the perfect scenario: you are a stranger in a remote land and the likelihood of punishment is low. It really just depends on how sensitive you are. And depends on motive.
That’s why we must dig deeper and seek a different standard–a standard outside of ourselves. We can’t determine what is good for ourselves, otherwise we have to allow Stalin or Hugh Hefner or child rapists to stand in our company. The child rapists says, “I raped her to increase my happiness.” If you are a relativist, can you argue with that?
See, we know outrageous moral degradation is wrong. It’s the subtle nuances that get overlooked.
Can We Know What Good Is Without Someone Telling Us?
We can’t use statistical outcomes to determine morality because at any point a society could still be dead wrong with their assumptions. Overwhelming majority vote doesn’t make child prostitution right. We must look for something outside of ourselves.
But how do we find it? And how do we know what it is once we’ve found it? How do we know it is good and not evil?
My argument is we can’t know what is good without the Law, that is, the Word of God. Paul said, “On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law.”
God planted consciences in us so that when we sin we sink into secrecy and shame. We are defensive and aggressive when in sin. So when we are not shameful and defensive, we must be doing good, right? Close.
The core issue comes down to “what is sin?” Because when we know what sin is, we can then know what good is: the opposite of sin.
Here’s How to Know What Sin Is
We all sense we know what is wrong with the world. We can sense child abuse is wrong. Genocide is appalling. Cyclone Nargis barreling through 250,000 people, bad.
We know that diseases that ravage the body into a corpse is wrong. An earthquake snatching a hundred thousand women and children and men, wrong. Terrorists butchering people alive for their faith, wrong.
We know all this is wrong.
But how do we know it’s wrong? We know what is imperfect…but not what is perfect. Why is that? Why do we have this sense of imperfection? Of something gone wrong?
Here’s why: We cannot know the imperfect unless we know the perfect. Thus, there must be a perfect standard. Could this perfect standard be the ultimate Moral Lawgiver?
Anselm argued that since we know things that are more or less perfect, there must be a most Perfect by which we know this.
In the Bible we learn God is morally impeccable:
The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He. Deuteronomy 32:4
His perfection follows from his infinity: he is an infinitely perfect Being. Flawless and excellent.
Now think of God as the just judge.
The Biblical judge is expected to love justice and fair play–and to loathe all ill treatment of one person by another.
On the other hand, an unjust judge is one who has no interest in seeing right triumph over wrong. This person is by biblical standards a monstrosity.
Evil That Offends God
We all agree what repulsive evil is. What we disagree on is the evil that offends God because it ends up being very subtle.
Let me show you what I mean.
God posses a holy jealousy and a morally perfect character. The former is what gives God zeal to protect and preserve his own holiness. The latter is the absolute moral perfection that pervades the character of God.
Thus, offending a holy God is not hard. We do not need to murder or rape to offend God. Merely ignoring him will do the trick. Sin–moral rejection of God–can happen easily.
Why should he not love us unconditionally–and just back off? Good question. But who said God has to love the way we love?
The Unchanging Standard of Goodness
Theism affirms that God is an unchanging Being. So, he must love in an unchanging way. That means God can be perfectly just and perfectly loving at the same time–provided it is not on the same person at the same time. In other words, his wrath rests on all unrepentant sinners and his love on all repentant sinners.
This does not mean there is a change in God.
In his Systematic Theology Norman Geisler says that God always manifests wrath on unrepentant sinners and always manifests love on the repentant. The only thing that changes is that the person–by repentance–moves from under one attribute to under another.
To say God changes, is a category mistake–comparing a changing thing with an unchanging being.
Besides, for God to change is to admit some imperfection in his being. And to admit that there is some imperfection in his being is to suggest a perfect standard to judge his imperfection by.
So then, what is that standard, if not God himself?
Conclusion
The unjust implies the Just. Evil implies good. We get our sense of evil because we have a sense of good. We can bring that sense of good into sharper focus by studying God, since he is the ultimate standard of good. And once we do this, we can learn two things:
1. Pleasing a holy and just God is a whole lot safer than alienating him.
2. God will one day defeat evil.
When we learn about the ultimate standard–the perfection of good–we discover that God can’t let evil prevail. He is both omnipotent and holy: he cares that evil exists and he has the power to do something about it.
And as hard as it sounds, we have to trust his reasons for not vanquishing it now. That is what it means to surrender.
10 Ways to Know If You Are Truly a Good Person
“Moses mit den Gesetzestafeln” by Rembrandt
**Part of the Curmudgeon’s Guide to Sharing Your Faith series.**
Almost everyone thinks they are a good person. Including you.
But the question you should be asking is not “Am I a good person?” but, “Am I good enough to go to heaven?”
How would you know? The way to find out is to ask yourself if you have obeyed the Ten Commandments.
Most people say, “Well, I’ve broken one or two, but nothing too serious. The guy down the street, now….has he broken some laws!”
But I don’t care about him. I care about you right now. So let’s go through them and see how you would do.
1. You shall have no other Gods before me.
Have you always put God first in your life? Jesus said love God with all your mind and all your heart. Have you ever failed to put Him first in your life? I know I have. Millions of times.
2. You shall not make an idol for yourself.
Does God get the backseat to your life while sports, shopping or work rule your life? Are you obsessed with money, fame or power?
There was a time when I thought about nothing else accept winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. I tried to fit God into these plans, but He wouldn’t fit. So I neglected him…and idolized fame.
3. You shall not take the name of God in vain.
Ever combined a curse word with God’s name, even when you were alone in the garage? If so, then you are a blasphemer. The Bible says “God will not hold him guiltless who takes the name of the Lord in vain.”
4. Remember to keep the Sabbath Day holy.
God commands that we set aside one day in seven to meditate upon Him. How often do you do fail to do that? If you’re like me, at least twice a month. When you and I do this, we show that sports, shopping or work dominate our life.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
Think back to a time when you were a teenager in your parents’ living room. They’ve just grounded you for staying out late the night before. How did you respond?
If you blew up, you dishonored your parents. And when we don’t honor our parents in a way that’s pleasing to God, we’ve sinned.
6. You shall not murder.
“Nope, doesn’t apply to me,” I hear you saying. Think again.
Jesus warned “Whoever is angry with his brother without cause, is in danger of judgment,” and 1 John 3:15 says, “He who hates his brother is a murderer.”
All of Jesus’ comments on the Laws gets down to the motive, the heart. That is the core of who we are. So you and I are murderers–even when we haven’t killed anyone–if we hate someone.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
Jesus warned “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust
Scholars consider Jesus' Sermon on the Mount to be the New Testament type of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on Mt. Zion.
for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Have you ever looked at someone with lust? God says that adulterers and those who have sex before marriage will not enter heaven. That includes those who lust. Whoa.
8. You shall not steal.
Have you ever stolen anything? Something small when you were little? Petty theft is still theft. If you’ve ever taken something that belonged to someone else, then that makes you a thief.
9. You shall not lie.
How many murders do you have to commit to make you a murderer? Just one. How many lies do you have to tell before you become a liar? Again, just one.
The Bible warns that all liars will have their part in the lake of Fire. Heavy stuff for bending the truth.
10. You shall not covet.
Covet means to want something that belongs to another person. Their house, car, money, lifestyle or wife. In other words, envy. Or jealousy.
I can’t tell you how often–especially in this keep-up-with-the-Jones world–I’m plagued by this. You?
What Happens If You Get One or More of These Wrong
So, how’d you do? Are you truly a good person? Will you get in heaven if you died today?
If you’re like me, you’ve broken them all at one time or another. By my own confession I’m a lying, lustful, envious, murdering and idolatrous thief. That makes me a sinner.
What about you? Are you a sinner? Perhaps you think God is good and because of his goodness He will overlook your sins?
You could beg him for his forgiveness. Why not? He’s a a good God–he’ll let you off the hook.
If that’s your thought, one thing we would have right: he is a good God. And that means he cannot let sin go unpunished.
What kind of judge would excuse a serial child molester–a notorious monster who sliced the throats of the children he raped–simply because the criminal said, “Look, judge, I know you’re a good judge, a forgiving judge. I’m really, really sorry. From the bottom of my heart.”?
Would that judge be good if he turned a blind eye to those crimes? No. That would be a wicked judge.
In the same way, because God is a good judge, he’ll never let sin go unpunished. He will punish all the rapists, murderers and thieves. But He won’t stop there.
He’ll also punish all the lustful liars, adulterers, idolators and blasphemers.
And the punishment? Hell.
Fortunately, Jesus paid the penalty for our sins over 2,100 years ago. You don’t have to withstand the wrath of God or pay for your sins. God sacrificed his life for your life.
But you have to repent and trust in Jesus. You have to become a Christian.
How to Become a Christian (in 1,000 Words or Less)
“Christ Carrying the Cross” by Hieronymus Bosch, ca. 1515-1516, oil on wood.
**Part of the Curmudgeon’s Guide to Sharing Your Faith series.**
So, the central story of the Bible is about God reconciling a rebellious people. You, whether you like it or not, are one of those rebellious people.
You say, “I’m only human—nobody’s perfect.” That’s correct. Romans 3:23 says the same thing: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Our Problem: Separation from God
You and I both do things that we know are wrong. That’s what conscience means: sinning with knowledge.
But you say, “I’m a pretty good person. I’m not as bad as the guy down the street who drinks whiskey and beats his wife.”
You wanna bet?
More than likely, on any given day, you are guilty of blaspheme, lust, murder, lying and stealing. [Don't believe me? Take this quiz to find out.]
No wonder you feel estranged from God—He’s holy and good. You and I, on the other hand, are not.
But your sinful acts have alienated you from God; your sins have caused him to reject you and not to listen to your prayers. Isaiah 59:2
And you were dead in your tresspasses and sins. Ephesians 2:1
So, whether you break one or all of God’s laws, you are guilty of sin. And it doesn’t matter if you stole a pencil from work or slit a toddlers throat: God punishes all sin.
What Happens If You Sin
Just as criminals must pay the penalty for their crimes, sinners must pay the penalty for their sins.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
If you continue to sin, in the end, you will stand before the Judgment seat of God and He will declare you guilty. Your punishment? Spiritual death.
Image from 1969 Gospel tract
Now, does it concern you that you’ve sinned against God? It should.
You’ve actually angered God by your sin. The Bible says that His wrath abides on you and that you are an enemy of God. What can you do about it?
Futility of Our Works
You might think you can do enough good deeds to outweigh your bad deeds. Or lead a good life and God will then play nice with you.
This attitude is called “works by salvation.” And it’s unbiblical.
The Bible teaches no amount of human goodness or human works can get you on the good side of God.
For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not of works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9
Salvation Is a Free Gift
Imagine one morning you were arrested for torturing dogs, maiming them, even killing them. You were a respectable, clean fellow, yes, but you just couldn’t stand dogs.
In court, the judge finds you guilty. He sentences you to 17 years in prison. Without parole. You weep. But just before you are ushered out of the court room by the guard, a stranger walks through the door.
Everyone stops.
The stranger takes off your handcuffs and puts them on his hands. He announces to the judge, “I’m going in his place.”
You watch dumbfounded as the guard carts the stranger away.
What just happened? The stranger just paid your penalty and his sacrifice was a demonstration of his love for you.
Jesus did the same thing for you and your sins over 2,100 years ago.
Christ Has Paid Your Penalty
The Bible says that Christ loved you enough to die for you–even when you were rebelling against Him.
But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
This is the good news of the Bible: God gave His own Son to become a man, live a sinless life and die on the cross to satisfy the penalty for our sins.
"Circles of Thorns" by Hieronymus Bosch
Moreover, to prove that Jesus was in fact God-man and that His death in fact meant substitution for your sins, God raised Jesus from the dead.
Why did He do this?
God does not want you to perish. In fact, He’s provided a way for you to be forgiven.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
Right now, God invites you to come to Him for a full pardon.
How Do You Receive This Free Gift?
The Bible teaches that all you have to do is follow His command to accept this free gift:
Repent…that your sins may be wiped out and times of refreshing may come from the Lord. Acts 3:19
If you will confess and forsake your sins and trust in Jesus Christ, God will forgive you and you’ll pass from death to life.
It’s a free gift. And it’s your choice: you can either accept or reject this free gift. What do you want to do?
What Does It Mean to Put Your Faith in Jesus Christ?
It means to trust in Jesus the same you’d trust in a lifeboat cast on a raging sea.
Today, with all your heart, surrender your life to Jesus Christ. Confess your sins. Ask God to forgive you. Say that you’ll trust in Jesus. And thank Him for the gift of everlasting life.
Pray now. There is nothing magical about the words you use. It is the attitude of your heart that God cares about.
And don’t put this off. You could die the instant you turn away from this screen.
If you are making this commitment to Christ today, please let me know. I want to hear from you.
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