This was a question that I heard on the radio while I was running errands. Unfortunately, I never heard a good answer to this question. The radio DJ's posed this question and opened it up to listeners to answer. Now, to be fair, it is possible that there may have been a proper answer given by a listener or a DJ and I just did not hear it. I was running errands in my car so the radio was on and off during all of this. But the few answers I did hear actually made me a little sad. They made me sad because the people that did answer only focused on the word good, and if they started off with a good answer, they failed to develop it further. This is so important because let's face it; society often things that "being good" is good enough. Those of us who are Christ-followers and believe in the Scriptures know that this is not true, and I feel the point must be made abundantly clear.
The answer to this question is no. It is possible to be good without God. Now before you stone me, let me explain. If it was not possible to be good without God, well then pride would not be much of a problem now would it. One of the biggest reasons we are separate from God is because we are prideful and selfish creatures, and our human nature delights in taking all the credit for ourselves. But what does God say about all the good things that we do? "We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deed are like a polluted garment." Isaiah 64:6. Well then you may ask, "What is the point of doing anything good or righteous?" Let me be clear on this: What is being said in Isaiah is not that God does not like when we do good/righteous things; but rather those things cannot and do not save us. We cannot hang our spiritual well-being on just being good and hope it tips the scales in our favor. Our inherent human nature separates us from the holiness of God, and that does apply to EVERYONE. "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." Romans 3: 10b-12.
The question is not "Do we need God to be good?" but rather "Do we need God to be righteous or holy?" Yes we absolutely do! When we accept salvation and give our lives to God, He then calls us to be transformed. "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12: 1-2 . It is all about where your focus is. Our focus is to be on giving God all the glory and allowing ourselves to be submissive to Him that He may continue to work in us and through us; transforming us into a more Christ-like person and lead others to Christ. Naturally born out of that transformation we will tend to do good and righteous things, but it is not the good things we do that bring about change. The reverse is true. I can do all that good and right things just like the Pharisees, but it will never get me any closer to God because my heart and soul need the saving through Christ's death and resurrection on the cross. Should we be good? Sure. Why? Because God calls us to love Him and love others, and doing good and righteous things is part of that. When we truly love God and others, we tend to treat them good naturally. It is whether our heart belongs to God or not that matters to God. So who does your heart belong to?
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