Stop Trying To Be Good

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Come Now; Let Us Reason Together

Okay. I know the title sounds stupid; however, I think I can back it up as good advice.

First, let me tell you a true story about a conversation I had with my son. I have to tell you that he lives with his mother. This will help establish the setting, which created the conversation. My son’s mother was punishing him for some misconduct at school. He was confined to his room, and his mother gave him a list of activities he could not do. When his mother was away from home running errands, he was tempted to do some of the things his mother instructed him not to do. He managed to refrain from breaking his mother’s law, but he decided to do something that his mother did not include on the list of “Don’ts.” What he did caused harm to another person and was potentially criminal in nature. After finding out about what my son did, I spoke with him. I chewed him out for about ten minutes. During which, I asked him “What were you thinking?” and “Didn’t you know that was dangerous?” He responded, “I don’t know what I was thinking, dad.” I told him that I wanted his mother to get a DNA test done, because he could not be my son and do something that stupid. I had grand thoughts of what I would do with all that child support money I would be saving. Then, my questionable son said something that only a someone with my DNA could say and mean it. He told me, “Dad, if I wasn’t trying to be good, this would not have happened.” I thought to myself; “Well, that’s definitely my boy.” Then, I gave some thought to the profoundness of his words. Before I explain why my son’s words were profound, let’s look at some biblical history.

In the biblical book of Joshua chapter 24, we read an account of Joshua speaking to the nation of Israel. Joshua encourages the Israelites to serve the Lord God who brought them out of slavery in Egypt. He said, “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve... But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:14-15 ESV).

Joshua places before them a choice and declares that he and his household have made the choice to serve the Lord.

The people understood Joshua’s words and respond, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out before us all the peoples… Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God” (Joshua 24:16-18 ESV).

All is well, right? No. Joshua does a bizarre thing. After encouraging the people to do good and after they accepted his encouragement and pledge to serve the Lord, Joshua explains (vs. 19), “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.” What kind of leadership is that? Build people up to do good and then tell them they can’t do it. This reminds me of another Joshua (Jesus is the Aramaic Greek translation of the Hebrew name Joshua). Jesus changes the name of His disciple Simon Bar Jonah to the name Peter, meaning rock. “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:18).

Peter takes hold of his new title and boldly proclaims, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away” (Matthew 26 33). Peter was declaring his boldness to stand with Jesus to the end, even when everyone else runs away. Does Jesus thank him? No. However, Jesus said to him (vs. 34), “Truly, I tell you [Peter], this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” Thanks Jesus for you vote of confidence. The Apostle Paul writes about this dilemma in his letter to the Romans. He writes, "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand" (Romans 7:18-21, ESV). What is it about trying to do good that Joshua, Jesus, and Paul understood?

The Westminster Confession chapter 6 section 4 states the following about the soul condition of mankind. “From this original corruption [Adam’s sin], whereby we [mankind] are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions.” This ever presence of evil is not an external devil but an internal will. In other words, we are not capable of doing good, yet we are commanded by God to do good. However, in order to do good you must be good. Trying to do good is the impossible mission. Set aside what Paul has said and observe a two-year-old child. The child will do exactly what you told him not to do, and if you asked him “Did you do that?”, he will tell you “No!” with a straight face. Who taught the toddler to disobey, lie, be selfish, and demand attention? According to the Holy Scriptures, the answer is nature not nurture. Paul continues, "For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members [body]. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:22-24,).

Paul’s anguish is our anguish; his appeal is our appeal. “Who will deliver us from this…?” Paul understood that this is mankind’s problem and it would take a super-man to solve it. He reveals the answer in the next verse. He writes, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Superman, Jesus Christ, has come to save not only the day, but also the world. This is the Gospel message. We are all natural sinners by simply being born of human seed, and this sinful nature causes us to enjoy sin. Unfortunately, we all have sinned and we deserve the penalty of sin, which is death. Therefore, to overcome the nature of sin in us, we must be “born again”, not naturally but supernaturally by the Spirit. Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit’s seed. This gave Him the ability to live a sinless life even thought He was tempted due to his human body. He offered Himself up to pay the sin debt by dying in our place. However, because He lived a sinless life, death had no legal right to keep Him. Then, He rose from being dead to authorize the spiritual rebirth of others who would accept His sacrifice as their own. Those who accept His sacrifice as their own are given the new nature. The new nature makes them sin still possible but it’s unnatural. When those who are born again sin, they are grieved by it and seek to repent and reconcile with the inner Holy Spirit. Without being born again, you sin with no conviction because you have no inner spirit to inform you that what you did was wrong, even though you may understand that there is an external law that says what you did was wrong. If we attempt to do good on our own strength, then failure is certain. As we acknowledge our impotence to overcome temptation and sin, God releases His omnipotence to us. When we trust in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior, we are given the Holy Spirit as our source of good. We don’t actually do any good, but the Holy Spirit does good through us.

I explained to my son that he should stop trying to be good and surrender his weakness to God, by accepting Christ Jesus as Lord and His sacrifice on the cross as payment of his sin debt. In doing so, he will find strength to overcome temptation. This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, “Gods strength is made perfect in our weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Don’t Waste Your Time Trying To Be Good