Have you ever watched that new t.v. action-comedy "the Good Guys?" The one where the two mismatched cops who follow up on petty crime get caught up in high profile gun fights and car chases as the older cop leads the younger by-the-book cop into reliving his glory days. So why do these bad things keep happening to the Good guys? Are they just looking for trouble or does it keep following them? Wouldn't they rather have some conflict to keep things exciting? Are they really the Good guys, or just better than the bad guys they encounter?
This t.v. show reminds me of a young adult who once made a lot of money and who had lot of influence but was not satisfied inside. So one day he paused for a moment from spending his money and telling people what to do and asked a humble carpenter "Good teacher, what must I do to inheret eternal life?" The answer he was looking for must have had a pricetag, so Jesus first responded with a question. "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone."
The rich young ruler must have stumbled over a few words as you may be right now thinking "did Jesus just deny being good?" Wasn't He the Son of God, the perfect Son of God? Like here's a murderer, here's a thief, here's a white lie, here's me who got saved, there's Jesus and God? But I thought me and Jesus and God were good, but now your saying only God?
Read Luke 18:18-34 Matthew 19:16-29 and Mark 10:17-30
Now ask yourself one more time Who is Good?
God! It's in the Bible! Jesus said it! Period.
So what does this have to do with bad things happening to good people?
Here's the breakdown. Jesus was the spotless lamb, the perfect sacrifice, but not even He would be blameless as He took upon the sins of the world. If Jesus was Not Good, then are we truly Good People? And what is bad? Sin. Then why don't bad things happend to bad people? Because no matter how "Christian" we think we are we are still on this earth in this time and we are stuck with the consequences of sin (evil and sickness). The sin of Adam and Eve, the sin we still live in.
THAT IS WHY WE ARE CALLED TO REPENT.
What is Christianity without repentance? Its like a good looking person on the outside with a real dark secret on the inside, and unfortunatly we all have it.
So what do we do? Read, reread, memorize and meditate on Romans 6-8 for starters, then do what John the Baptist said, Repent. Make a radical change in your entire life. Admit you are Not good, never will be good and will always be bad, but with entire dependence on God's saving grace. Then simply follow Christ.
So why do bad things happen to good people? I think you get the point by now. What about good things happening to bad people then? It happens, yes, God is merciful, and I for one am greatful. Just keep your eyes on the prize, keep the faith, finish the race. That's it.
2 comments:
The only thing I would add Brian is that Jesus is God, so He is also good. Yes, for a moment he took on our sins and God turned his face away (fathom that one for a minute to not be 'yourself' somehow), but I would say that at the time Jesus spoke to the rich young ruler he could still be classified as good along with God, yes? It is possible that Jesus' saying, "no one is good, but God alone" was trying to get the rich young ruler to understand who He was. In other words, if he knew the rich young ruler didn't "believe" he was the Son of God, then he was essentially saying, "Why are you coming to me when you know only God can answer your question?" Anyway, just some thoughts to add....take them or leave them. Or better yet, hope it spurs you on to more study and helps give you hope! :)
Thanks Heather. God is good, Jesus is God, but we need to be made Holy. That is the Good Jesus was talking about. God alone is holy. Following the commandants might make us good people, but only through God's Son can we be made Holy. More on holiness later.
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