The Goodness that Makes Life Worth Living Is Obtained by Trusting God and His Ways

Romans 1:  The Problem Is Shame in What God Has Supplied as the Way to Life

When we ask again: ‘How is it that when he enjoined us in this book of yours not to do anything or receive anything without witnesses, you did not ask him: “First do you show us by witnesses that you are a prophet and that you have come from God, and show us just what Scriptures there are that testify about you”’—they are ashamed and remain silent. [Then we continue:] ‘Although you may not marry a wife without witnesses, or buy, or acquire property; although you neither receive an ass nor possess a beast of burden unwitnessed; and although you do possess both wives and property and asses and so on through witnesses, yet it is only your faith and your scriptures that you hold unsubstantiated by witnesses. For he who handed this down to you has no warranty from any source, nor is there anyone known who testified about him before he came. On the contrary, he received it while he was asleep.’ (John of Damascus, Fount of Knowledge, Heresies, concerning Islam)  

Take note of verse 2.   The prophets testify about Jesus and lead up to him.  This is important to Paul in his writing about the gospel.  It is new.  It is unique.  It is also foretold and anticipated.

Paul received grace and his calling to apostleship for this gospel which in verse 5 he explains as "obedience that comes through faith."  We do not believe the gospel so that obedience is optional or unnecessary.  We believe the gospel so that we might complete our obedience to God.  The law and the gospel go to the same place and describe the destination the same, but only the gospel can get me there.  The law taken rightly is more descriptive than prescriptive.

His visit is for mutual encouragement, the heart of spiritual gifts (v.11).  Spiritual gifts, then, are about a connection between believers and not merely possessed in one's own life.  Without mutual edification, spiritual gifts are not really spiritual gifts.

The point of Paul's letter to the Roman church is addressing the shame that some people place on the gospel.  People prefer other "ways" to God and tend to leave the gospel because of its apparent weakness and unpopularity.  In contrast, Paul says that the gospel is God's power revealed as a righteousness by faith from "first to last."  (vv.16-17)

Shame in the gospel is nothing new.  It's unapologetic dependence on God as well as its unmitigated promise for real goodness in the lives of those who embrace and exercise it make it unpopular at all times.  People prefer to rely on their own resources.  They also prefer to have a goodness that appeals to people around them rather than a goodness that really changes them.  We all wish the world could be a better place, but we are largely unwilling to cling to the goodness that God gives because it requires real change to our lives.

Of course, righteousness by faith will be fleshed out in this letter, but at the outset, I find it helpful to understand this righteousness that Paul preaches answers the important life questions "What is real?" The power and ability of God.  "Who is well-off?"  Those who are being delivered from this evil age.  "What is good?"  What God has revealed in the gospel.  "How does one become a good person?"  By trusting in God's work through the gospel.  Faith is trust and always implied is trust in God and his ways.

Lord, may I shed my shame and embrace this faith that places your good news at the center of my life as the one thing I can count on and the one thing that will bring goodness and well-being to myself and others.  Amen.

Good for What?

Goodness is not defined by action.  Actions can only be good if the intention is good.  For example, One man gets a second job to earn money so that he can send his child to school.  Another man gets a second job to earn money so he can support a drug habit.  Both men have the same actions, but their intentions are different making one man's actions good and the other man's actions evil.

Goodness can only be declared and administered by God.  Only he is able and fit to take such a position.  No other governor of moral law is possible, whether by rule or consensus, since people always lack perfect knowledge and differ in their views and feelings.

Goodness does not exist because God wills it or because God created it or because God performs it.  Goodness exists because it is what God is.  He cannot rule by any other means; he cannot create in any other way; he cannot act with any other intention.

So the very basis of goodness in human life is the goodness that God is.  This alone is the only ultimate intention that makes "good" actions good.  As defined above, it is intention that makes an act moral or good, not the action itself.

Jesus described the only real good intentions this way: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Love your neighbor as yourself."  The love of God, the affirmation of his intrinsic and essential goodness, will alone guide and correct all other actions and areas of human life.  Without this inner admission of God's goodness, good cannot be done, because goodness is always defined by intention.

Similarly, the love of our neighbors affirms the essential goodness of God since they are made for his love and his benevolence.  Denying love to our neighbors denies the that intentions of God for good in this world, since that is what the creation is made for: people.  People (as well as all creation) have value and goodness because they are made by and for a good God.

In this age, the more typical command is: "Love yourself with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Love God and your neighbor when it serves your self-interest."  So rather than goodness being the foundation of action, personal desire becomes the foundation.  The fundamental question switches from "What is good?" to "What is good for me?" or "What's in it for me?"

For example, one person goes to church, volunteers at a soup kitchen, and teaches their children to do what is right so that they will not be punished, but will be rewarded by God, or so that other people will see their goodness.  Another goes to church, volunteers at a soup kitchen, and teaches their children to do right because they love God and their neighbor as themselves.  One is a hypocrite, the other is devoted.  The ultimate intention is what makes the action good.

A popular notion is that a person can just love their neighbor and not love God.  The question would be, "On what basis can a person love their neighbor as themselves except with God as the source of goodness?"  Invariably, such love picks out which people deserve love and which people can be overlooked.  It must take from one group and give to the other.  This is because without God as the foundation and administrator of goodness, personal preference and desire rule.

In the end, the question becomes not "What is good?" or "Who is good?", but "What is a person good for?"  Is it for God's sake, so his goodness and light might be known and acknowledged?  Or is it for the more typical reason: self-interest?

As Jesus said, "Many will come to me that day and say, 'Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons and perform many miracles?'  But I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you.  Away from me you evildoers!'."  (Mt. 7)  This loving God with all that we are is more than just knowing about him, it is a person-to-person, conversational relationship that underlies the good intentions we are to have.

Another person to describe this is Paul when he wrote, "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."  (1 Cor. 13:1-3)  The love Paul is speaking of is the love that Jesus described: "Love God with all that you are and love your neighbor as yourself."  Without this foundation and intention, no actions are beneficial or good.

Goodness flows from the intention to serve God because he is good and kind and loving.  This is where most of my time is spent.  In an age where people spend their days denying and hiding from God's goodness and seeking their own desires, I must take special time and constantly remember to affirm and seek God's goodness and love.  From this "cleaning the inside of the cup, the outside becomes clean."  From this rooting and planting by streams of living water, fruit grows.  From this desire to imitate God, goodness flows.

Ironically, people have a internal story that says, "If I get what I want, then I'll be happy."  This, of course, is a lie, disproved many times by many lives.  Usually, we find if we always give people what they want they get "spoiled."  The true story goes, "Seek God's goodness and love and influence and happiness will be thrown in, too" or as Jesus says, "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well."  (Mt. 6:33)

(My thanks to Charles Finney's Systematic Theology.  This blog entry is not intended to prove, but to provide reasons to have confidence in God and his goodness.  Also this entry is not intended to argue, but to clarify, most of all for myself.)

Lord, let me be good for you, or I will find that I have been good for nothing.  Amen.