Day 2654 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Mark 10:18 NIV

Continuing yesterday's line of thinking a little bit, one of the biggest hurdles that humanity must find a way to get over in regard to a life of faith is our understanding of good. We've managed to get it in our minds that there are good people. The idea of that sounds wonderful. To believe that people are all inherently good. Problem is that Scripture tells us otherwise. Scripture points out the reality of original sin and how mankind has been born into that burden ever since Adam and Eve.

So our entire understanding of what's good has unfortunately been corrupted. As we discussed yesterday, this whole idea of good and evil requires a perfect version of good by which we can compare everything else. Without that unblemished standard we have no way to judge and determine how good or how bad something really is. Without a perfect gauge, we're all just left to guess and make our own determination based upon what we each personally think and believe and prefer.

Can't work like that. Each person cannot have the right to pick and choose for themselves what's right and what's wrong. As we discussed yesterday, that leads only to anarchy and not order. So we must have a concrete example of goodness that we can always rely upon. That's where we humans and our innate arrogance begin to struggle. We think we're better than we are. We conveniently choose to overlook our sins so that we can feel better about ourselves. We ignore our flaws and failures so they don't make us aware of the true nature of our fallen condition.

But in truth, we're not perfect. We're all a far cry from it. We all fall down. We all make mistakes. We all do and say things that we shouldn't. We all act out of anger and jealousy and arrogance. We all succumb to the temptations of wickedness. So how are we to think that we're somehow good? Here in Mark chapter 10, we even have the King of Kings and Lord of Lords rebuking someone who called Him good. If even Christ is unwilling to bear the title "good" then who are we to carry it?

That's where this whole idea of bad things happening to good people becomes so dangerous. When we approach life with this assumption that there are good people, then we're setting ourselves up to believe that there are those out there who don't deserve to endure trial and hardship. We're allowing ourselves to think that there are some who should be immune to life's pain and torment. And so when that pain and torment and trouble eventually come, then we're left wondering why God lets something bad happen to someone who is good.

Friends, you know I don't mind bursting bubbles, so here comes another dose of humility: We're not good. None of us. Not a single human is without flaw. Not a single human is without sin. Each of us have been born with hearts that are bent toward doing what's wrong. And unless we have a perfect version of good to learn from, then we're left to following our deceitful hearts. Unless we have a perfect form of righteousness to hold our lives to, then we're simply not going to try to do better than what our selfish, fallen nature desires.

Now I know that as with every other aspect of our faith, there are countless arguments that people can and will pose against this truth. What about children? What about babies? "What about my great-grandma, I mean the lady is a saint!" What we have to understand is that the Bible is God's inspired Scripture that He breathed out through inspired people to hand down throughout the generations to be used for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. And what God has told us in His Scripture is that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

We may not like it. We may not want to admit it. Our foolish pride and selfish arrogance may balk at the idea and find whatever reason or excuse we can to fight against it. But the fact remains the same: We simply are not good. There's this humility that's required to admit that, and for many, especially those outside of our faith, that kind of humility may forever be unattainable. But until we come to terms with the fact that we're flawed, we can't appreciate God's forgiveness. Until we learn to see our sins and failures, we can't grasp the scope of what His mercy has done through the cross.

And until we find the willingness in our hearts to admit that we're far from perfect, we will simply keep living this lie that tells us that we don't need God because we've never done anything wrong. We'll keep thinking that we can define our own truth as we've never messed it up so far. And we'll keep clinging to this idea that we're above the brokenness of this world and therefore shouldn't have to endure trial or hardship, and then getting upset and angry when trial and hardship show up at our door anyway.

Friends, I know it makes us feel so much better to think that we're instinctually good. But wanting something to be true doesn't make it so. Thinking that we're better than we are only makes things harder. It's only makes the fallen state of our world more difficult to understand. It only keeps us from forsaking our arrogance and learning the lessons that we absolutely must learn if we're to truly be born again into a life spent serving Christ rather than our own selves. If we can't see the brokenness within, then how can judge the state of the brokenness around us?

If we can't start making changes in our own hearts and our own lives, then how can ever start making a positive impact in this place? Again, all of the downfall we see and all these horrors that we witness aren't evidence of God's inexistence or proof of His fallacy or validation that He isn't good. The problems we see are the result of a human race that has turned from His goodness and chosen to live under this idea that each of us can define our own truth and make our own way and do our own thing. The problems we have are evidence that all of humanity is inherently corrupt and in the most desperate need of salvation and guidance toward something better than what we've chosen for ourselves.

There is no good in us because we've traded the good that was once inside for the sins that this world has offered us. And if we're to be completely honest with ourselves, we can all admit that even our best is worthless without that best being a part of something greater than ourselves. That's why we need God. He makes all of us this bigger than us and helps us learn to live for more than our corrupted nature so that we can rise above the depravity that humanity has chosen and live to make a difference by shining a light that we let burn out a long time ago, but a light that He Himself came to rekindle in the gift of Christ.

The bottom line is that we seriously have to get over ourselves if we ever want to make things better. If we don't ditch this idea that we're already good enough, then we'll never try to do better. We'll never set out in pursuit of God's perfect form of righteousness if we think we've already attained it. Continuing to live in sin and selfishness while thinking we're perfect isn't okay. It's nothing but a lie that keeps us from ever coming to learn and admit the only truth that can ever save us from ourselves.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold