ARE YOU A GOOD PERSON?

Hi, there! We’re glad you landed here to consider a vital question. Your answer can likely shed important light and aid you in answering what might turn out to be one of the most important life questions you’ll ever ponder—are you a good person? Let’s think about it.

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord (Isaiah 1:18).

Born in the USA

If you were born and raised in the United States and someone asks your religion, your answer is likely to be “Christian”. You were born in America, so you must be Christian, right? 

As such that you believe that there is a God; that He has established right from wrong, good from evil; that He sees everything; and that if you are good enough by His standards, He will admit you into heaven when you die. (You are going to die, right?) But how good do you have to be to make the cut? Let’s see…

Here’s the question: Are you a good person? If you answered, ‘Yes, I am a good person’, let’s make sure you are right.

Once in your life:

Have you ever killed someone? Probably not. Have you ever cheated on your husband or wife? Stolen something? No? Okay, doing pretty good so far! 

How about being mean or bullying someone? Ever done that? Road rage? Gotten angry and flipped someone off? Surely not! Wow! You’re doing great! 

Are you always truthful? Have you never told a lie, about anything, large or small? Not even once? No? Oops…. 

According to Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament, There is no righteous person, not even one…(Romans 3:10). For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he is guilty of all (James 2:10). Yes, just one time … on any point, and there is no escape. For the wages of sin (even one!*) is death… (Romans 6:23). 

*There is a deeper issue, but that’s for another time.

Sadly with so small a thing as telling a lie, all your good works and deeds are strewn by the wayside, and your eternal future is settled—stumble in one point, guilty of all—and the yawning jaws of hell are waiting … for you! 

We must acknowledge the truth that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). 

There’s no way could we ever be able to satisfy the righteous requirements that Jesus commanded, “Be holy as your Heavenly Father is holy” (Matthew 5:48). Impossible! 

So, now, according to God’s standard, if you died today with just that one sin, where would you go? Right. But wait—

There is better news!

Thinking clearly, do you believe that God, the almighty creator of all things, held any unrealistic expectations about His fallen creation? Of course not! 

Taking a step back, God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good (Genesis 1:31). He loved it, including the first people He created; Adam and Eve. He gave them only one “no-no”—do not eat of the fruit of a certain tree, for in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die (Genesis 2:17). 

But they did eat from it and they did die—forfeiting His life-giving Spirit. Their human spirits died to God’s Spirit.  

Therefore, just as through one man (Adam) sin entered the world, and death through sin … thus death spread to all men, because all sinned (Romans 5:12).

If there was to be any hope for salvaging mankind, including you, that once good person, God would have to intervene. And He did:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

He (Jesus) is the propitiation* for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2).

*The satisfaction of God

And do you remember that passage we quoted earlier, For the wages of sin is death… (Romans 6:23)? There’s more! It also says, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23b).

And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life (1 John 5:11-12).

When Jesus began to teach that the Kingdom of God had come, and that He, Himself, was the long-awaited Messiah, the Savior of all mankind, He was rejected, tortured, crucified and buried. 

On the third day, in accordance with God’s plan, He was raised from the dead, seen by more than 500 of those who believed in Him (see 1 Corinthians 15:3-8), and 40 days later was taken up into heaven to be seated at the right hand of God the Father (see Acts 1:1-11). And there, He has made a place for those who believe in His Name.

Conclusion

Hopefully, we have now come to the place at which we agree: 

• that we all have sinned and fallen short 
• that apart from Christ none of us is a good person 
• that to be rescued from spiritual death and the fires of hell, we all need God’s intervention 
• and that His intervention came in the Person of Jesus Christ, who took upon Himself the sins of the entire world
• Who suffered and died in our place, and was bodily resurrected from death by God the Father 

This was in order to restore in us what was lost through Adam—the life-giving Spirit of God. 

That’s the gospel. That’s the good news! And it is received by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8). 

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).

That if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9).

Do you believe this? 

If you do, if you have received the eternal life of Christ Jesus our Lord, then you actually have become a good person! Because when the Father looks at you, He sees you clothed in the righteousness of Jesus! For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ (Galatians 3:27).

Before the rapture

We leave you in the hope and the prayer that if you have not yet received the saving life of Christ Jesus, you will do so soon – hopefully Before the Rapture. We can assure you, you WILL NOT want to be here AFTER the rapture, which we and many others believe is imminent, even at the door. 

If you have received the saving life of Jesus Christ, and while we wait, keep this truth in your heart and mind:

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:1-4). 

Grace and peace be with you all. 

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