He was such a good man! Oh, really?

“The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one (Psalm 14:2-3). NKJV

When someone dies, there are always those who say, “He was such a good man, or she was such a good lady.” Admittedly, when I have heard those words spoken of some, I have thought, “Well, if you believe that, then you must not know what I know about them.” In my mind, was I judging the person? Nope, just stating a fact. In Luke 18:19, Jesus Himself asked a certain ruler who had just called Him, “Good Master,” “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” NKJV

Another often repeated phrase is, “People are good at heart.” However, the Word of God says in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things.” NKJV

According to the psalmist, no one is good. In fact, the prophet Isaiah went a step further to explain in Isaiah 64:6, “...we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy (menstrual) rags...” KJV

The Word of God teaches that there are people who DO good, but only God IS good.
When Adam disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, he and his wife, Eve, lost their innocence (Genesis 3:7-12). When they did, sin became a part of the world in which we live. The Bible says, later, “[Adam] had a son in his own likeness, after his own image” (Genesis 5:3). That means that Adam, a sinner, begot a sinner. Scripture further explains that Adam’s sin has spread to all creation: “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). No one is good because everyone of us has been affected by Adam’s sin.

King David wrote in Psalm 51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.” NKJV

So, since there is nothing inherently “good” within any of us, how can we ever make it to Heaven? Well, I’m glad to report that God solved that problem by giving His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross to pay for all of our sin (John 3:16-18).

And, if you will admit to God that you have sinned against him, turn away from your sin, believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the grave and confess out loud that Christ is the Lord of your life, He will save you. You have no hope aside from Jesus (Acts 4:12).

So, are we good? No, we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s standard of perfection (Romans 3:23). However, God certainly is good, and if you will place your trust in Jesus today, He will save you (Roman 5:8, 6:23).

Read 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; John 14:6; Ephesians 2:8-9