Why Goodness Isn’t Always Good?
“All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
Romans 3:12 (NIV)
In Romans 3:12, Paul makes the astonishing claim that “no one does good.” This statement may seem outrageous, considering the many kind and generous acts performed by non-Christians that make the world a better place. However, Paul is referring to a specific kind of goodness—one that can repair our broken relationship with God and establish our own righteousness. Ultimately, he argues, our good deeds cannot save us and may even lead us further away from true righteousness.
The Bible defines a truly good deed as one that is good in both form and motive. Helping an elderly person cross the street, for example, is good in form, as it aligns with God’s will for our behavior. However, if the motive behind the action is selfish, such as seeking a reward or impressing others, then the deed is not truly good in God’s sight. A genuinely good deed is one done for God’s glory, not our own (1 Corinthians 10:31).
C.H. Spurgeon illustrated it like this:
Once upon a time, a gardener grew a huge carrot. He decided to give it to the king because he loved his sovereign. Upon receiving it, the king discerned his love and devotion, and the fact that he expected nothing in return. So the king said: “Here, my son, I want to give you some of my land so that you can produce an even greater crop. It is yours.” The gardener went home rejoicing. A nobleman heard of this and thought: “If that is what the king gives in response to the gift of a carrot, what would he give if I gave him a fine horse?” So the nobleman came and presented the king with a fine steed as a gift. But the king discerned his heart and didn’t give him anything. As he was puzzling, the king said: “You expect me to give to you as I did to the gardener. I will not. You are very different. The gardener gave me the carrot. But you were giving yourself the horse.”
When we trust in God’s love for us through Christ and accept His perfect righteousness, we can perform good deeds as a gift to God. However, if we believe that our good deeds will earn or maintain our salvation, we are ultimately serving ourselves, not God. It is the condition of our hearts, not the actions of our hands, that determines the true nature of our deeds. Without faith in Christ, our good works are not genuinely good, as they are motivated by self-interest.
This understanding is crucial for distinguishing between saved Christians and unsaved-but-religious people. Both may repent of their sins, but only Christians will repent of wrongly-motivated good works, while religious people will rely on them. Recognizing the limits of human goodness and the importance of faith in Christ is essential for a genuine relationship with God.
How does the knowledge that your good works cannot earn your salvation change the way you approach serving others? How can you ensure that your good deeds flow from a heart of gratitude and love for God rather than an attempt to establish your own righteousness?
[The ideas for this week’s materials on Romans 3:1-20 were drawn from Tim Keller’s book “Romans 1-7 for You“]
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The knowledge that good works cannot earn salvation changes the way we approach serving others in that our motivation to serve is not for a reward or even acknowledgement, but out of gratitude for what God has done for us, and a genuine love for Him resulting from a heart that has been altered by His love for us. Paul tells the Corinthians in 2 Cor 5:15-15, “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” It is His love for us that cultivates a love for Him which expresses itself in our love and service for others😊 So, I would say that the best way to ensure that our good deeds flow from a heart of gratitude and love for God, rather than an attempt to establish our own righteousness, would be to consistently clarify our understanding of the true gospel message, recognizing the overwhelming evidence of God’s immeasurable love for us through His word, prayer, other members of His body, and our own experience of faith at work in our lives. To know God intimately is to come to know of this love, which inevitably will lead to a heart which attempts to reciprocate that love, filled with overwhelming gratitude for all that He has done, is doing, and will do!
Long ago I was talking to this buddhist monk and he was saying that truly good people are good because that’s there nature and they can’t do otherwise. At the time I thought that was amazing! To be good by nature so that it never occurs for you to be otherwise.
But later I thought maybe that’s not so noble. If you cannot be bad then it’s not so hard to be good. Where is the nobility there? On the other hand if you are by nature sinful as we all are but by faith and love of the Lord we open ourselves to be changed so that we reflect Him that is Good then is that not so much more noble? To turn people who are by nature bad so that they show goodness that is godly – that in fact glorify the Lord so much more. It shows His power to conquer our insidious sinful nature.
I don’t think of anything I do as work that’s somehow should give me credit in anyway. I praise the Lord instead for how wonderful He is to be able to get anything at all Good from this lowly self.
To be in anyway a reflection of Him is to be near Him and to be near Him is to find peace and joy and that’s my reward.