Daily Word

What is a “good” person?

One who does good?

No!

Jesus says that even “those who are evil” can give “good gifts” to their children.

What does He mean?

Fallen man is fundamentally evil, evil in his basic nature, but can still do what is good.

What is man’s basic nature?

His spirit.

The spirit-nature of fallen man is hostile to God, dark, evil – but he can still do what is humanly considered to be good.

But he is unable to do what is “good” in God’s eyes.

What is “good” in the eyes of God?

Only that which is born of the Spirit, done in and through the Spirit of God.

Only God is “good” in the absolute and proper sense.

Only the person who is born, filled and driven by the Spirit is “good” in His eyes: a person who lives by “faith.”

What does it mean to “live by faith”?

To live in complete dependence on God and receive all that one is and does from Him.

That is true “righteousness”: the only thing that is right in God’s eyes.

This does not “dwell” in our “flesh.”

In our flesh, in ourselves, in what we are independent of God, there is “nothing good” – nothing spiritual, nothing that is “good” in God’s eyes.

We cannot produce it however much we want and try to – only receive it in total dependence on the Spirit-Source of Goodness.

The “carnal” man “cannot please God” – cannot do what He wants, only what he himself wants.

He is totally self-centred.

Therefore, we must die out of our self-centeredness and become Christ-centred: live by faith.

Then we are “good” in the true sense!