The Problem of Good

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

Mark 10:17-18 (ESV)

For millennia, humans have endeavored to understand the evil nature that seems to be rooted so deeply in the heart of man. Reams of paper and barrels of ink have been sacrificed at the hands scholars, philosophers, teachers, politicians and laypeople alike in an attempt to explain how mankind (advanced as we are) could still be as evil as we are. As humans, evil feels so foreign to us. So foreign in fact, we never cease to be stunned and horrified anytime we see videos or read stories of people committing horrendous acts of evil. It’s as though we are seeing evil for the first time every time. A bodega owner in New York is shot and killed by a couple of thugs for a $178 bucks and three bottles of vodka, a child is molested by a stepfather, war criminals kill babies and rape women, a teen opens fire at a college campus, an African warlord kidnaps children to build his army. We struggle to understand how anyone could ever do such things to another human. The fact that we continue to be shocked by evil is actually shocking to me. The truth of the matter is, evil has existed since the Garden of Eden. And not just any old run-of-the-mill kind of evil either. I’m talking about the sort of jealous rage evil that would consume one human to a point where he would murder his own brother in cold blood, hide the body, and then lie to God about it. And, although evil continues to be as pervasive as it is, still we have visceral reactions of disbelief whenever it rears its ugly head.

The only way I Too many of us erroneously believe we can simply legislate evil out of existence. We think if we could only come together and pass enough laws to dictate behavior and speech, we could eventually rid our world of evil. The problem with this kind of thinking is it’s a fools errand. The evil we see being played out today is nothing more than an outworking of the evil that was exercised into humanity in the Garden of Eden. And evil will continue to be a part of the fabric of humanity until the earth is finally destroyed and humanity is no more. So because of this, I am neither perplexed, nor shocked, nor even slightly taken aback by the existence of evil or the carnage it leaves behind. What keeps me awake at night is not the existence of evil, that (in my estimation) can be easily explained. What continues to baffle me is the problem of good.

The Starting Point Matters

It was once said by a very popular, smiling televangelist of today (Joel Osteen) that ”99.9% of people are not bad people. They make poor choices, but deep down, they’ve got a good heart.” The sheer magnitude of how horribly and theologically inaccurate this statement is could not possibly be overstated. And yet, this Pelagian viewpoint about humanity continues to gain traction in the Christian community and appears to be a prominent belief among a large swath of Evangelicals as more and more Christians embrace the notion of human goodness. As Christians who read and understand Scripture, our starting point regarding the state of the human condition, stands in direct opposition to that of the world…or at least it should. Non-believers are of the notion everyone is born a good person but, much like a natural, clean water source that has become contaminated, we too have become contaminated by an evil society. Unfortunately, this idea is not even marginally aligned with Scripture. In fact, it is the complete opposite.

…For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “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.” (emphasis added)

Romans 3:9-12 ESV

When we start with the idea that people are inherently good, but as they go through this life, their familial environment coupled with societal influences corrupt that inherent goodness, thereby creating evil where evil did not previously exist, we immediately deviate from Scripture. The impact of which has severe consequences. The thought here is; if we could only change the many external factors that impact us, we would find peace and happiness with our lives, the desire to sin would be quelled and we could live harmoniously in a sort of utopia. If we could only remove all economic disparities, ensure everyone has an education, ensure everyone’s needs are met, and accept everyone for who they believe they are, people would ultimately be satisfied with life and would stop committing the evils we see today. No more theft, no more hate, no more violence, all would be good. The problem is, this idea has already been recorded and what we find is the end result was no different from what we are experiencing today. The perfect environment for humanity was created by a perfect God and the account is outlined for us in Genesis. All that mankind could have ever needed or wanted was provided by a loving and gracious God. Man had a wife who honored him. Woman had a man who loved and adored her. They both had free and unencumbered access to their Creator. No sickness, no disease, no hunger, no sin, living in the perfect climate and living in perfect harmony with God and all of nature. Yet, when faced with the choice of remaining in this utopia or enjoying the lust of the flesh, mankind rebelled and chose the flesh. Mankind wanted more. He wanted to be in control of his own destiny. He wanted what he wanted and did not want to be told no. Fast forward two-thousand years and that single act of rebellion in the Garden has been reenacted trillions of times over. This alone should be a clear and unwavering indication to us all that no matter how much we believe our societal or our familial influences are culpable for the evil in our midst, the truth is, we are all in complete rebellion to God; a rebellion being exercised daily by all of humanity. If we are truly concerned about the human condition and if we truly want to see human transformation; propping up social programs as the means and method, or trying to Christianize society by way of inducing moral compunction, is not the solution. What humanity needs is what it has always needed since the rebellion of man in the garden; a complete regeneration of their life. A regeneration that only comes from being born again. In other words, we need a Savior to save us from ourselves. To come full circle and right size the aforementioned quote from our smiling preacher, we should know; 100% of people are bad people. They make poor choices, because deep down, they’ve got a bad heart.

It Was Never Gonna Work

In 2020 when George Floyd died in Minneapolis MN after being arrested by police officers, the officers who arrested him (one Asian male, two Caucasian males, and one African American male) were charged with murder. The incident was recorded by multiple bystanders and the video was subsequently shared on social media. After gaining millions of views, the entire incident was deemed a racially motivated act of violence against black men. The video of the incident gained enormous national media attention and sparked outrage not only among Black-Americans as a whole, but also among many other Americans. What we witnessed were people of all nationalities across the country rising up in protest based on the narrative that had already taken hold in America that police officers were systematically and disproportionately killing black men. Protests that started out as peaceful, quickly disintegrated into violent and destructive riots as people began burning cars and buildings and looting businesses, many of where were Black-American owned businesses. These riots lasted for weeks and popped up all over the country. One such protest, seventeen-hundred miles away in Seattle Washington, however, took an interesting twist. The protesters in Seattle decided they would put an end to police violence by eliminating police altogether. In their estimation, this superfluous and corrupt part of our society was not needed in order to have a peaceful, civilized world. The result of this decision was a group of protesters taking over the Capital Hill district in Seattle. This newly created area in Seattle was officially dubbed the “Capital Hill Autonomous Zone” more commonly known by its acronym CHAZ. It was created to be an an example to the world that people could live in peace and harmony on their own accord without the need for a structured government to create laws or use any agents to enforce such laws, These autonomous people could, and would, rule themselves and did not need anyone to tell them how to live. (Now why does this tactic sounds so familiar?) The result, as you would expect, was nothing less than complete and utter disaster. It was never going to work. Not only was there no peace and no harmony, there was chaos and just about every kind of crime you can imagine running rampant; except in CHAZ it was happening at a much, much higher rate than the general population. Most of the businesses in the zone closed within in three days of the protesters moving in and actual laws were rarely, if ever, enforced. The result of this “autonomous zone” was nothing short of a cesspool of filth, tumult, poverty, and crime.

In the end, the homicide rate in the CHAZ turned out to be 1,216 per 100,000—nearly 50 times greater than Chicago’s. Though that’s obviously not a strict apples-to-apples comparison—the small sample size of the CHAZ creates an exaggerated statistical effect—it’s instructive nonetheless, as it invalidates the entire premise of the autonomous zone. By instituting a “police-free zone,” the CHAZ didn’t become peaceable; it became lawless, brutish, and violent.

Christopher F. Rufo

Although (as was pointed out by Mr. Rufo) the statistical results of CHAZ are not necessarily scientific in nature, the empirical results of CHAZ do serve as a microcosm of what we know from Scripture to be true. Man, at his core, remains in a continual state of rebellion to his Creator, and this rebellion of pride and lust for self-gratification is played out everyday and brings to us evil of every kind imaginable. That is to say, he (mankind) is at war with God and desires only that which pleases his flesh. Contrast that with some of the most popular preachers of our day, who have a baseline, which seems to stand in stark contrast to the sound biblical teaching surrounding the depravity of man. In their Palagian view, humanity, at its core, is born good and right and we explain evil almost exclusively as nothing more than a product of nurture, either familial or societal. “I was not given the proper care and attention as a child.” “My hierarchical needs were not met.” “I was not given the same opportunities as others around me.” Whatever the issue, whatever the problem, the excuse most often used to defend and justify the sinful lives we live is, “It’s not my fault.” And make no mistake about it, this attitude has been the bedrock of human nature since the Garden.

I remind you that when God came to Adam after he and Eve’s rebellion, Adam’s immediate response to the Lord’s inquiry was to blame someone else. And not just any someone else. He looked at God and told Him it was “[t]he woman whom you gave to be with me…” In this one simple phrase the whole of humanity is laid bare. From here, everything else regarding the depravity of man can be explained. But let’s be clear, Adam wasn’t blaming the woman for the lust in his heart, as is often taught. He didn’t simply say it was the woman’s fault and then leave it at that. No. He added a qualifier to his statement. Read it again; “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” (emphasis added) Adam wasn’t blaming Eve. He was blaming God! Let that sit with you for just one minute. Adam, the prototype of every human after him, was pointing his finger at God in an effort to explain his sin and rebellion. I ask you; are we any different today? I think not. “Hey! Don’t pin this on me!” we think. “I’m not the one to be blamed for any of this. This is all your fault! It’s the parents you gave me! It’s the brain you gave me! It’s the color of skin you gave me! It’s the sex you gave me! It’s the country you gave me! It’s the lack of talent you gave me! It’s the personality you gave me. You see God, if you had just done one thing more thing for me, then…. then my life would be different. Then I would be able to make good choices and be a good person. You can’t blame me, I’m merely a product of the circumstances you created.” This is the message we speak to ourselves and others around us. And outside of an encounter with the living God, we are wholly incapable of and unwilling to recognize our own culpability.

Goodness: The Enemy Of Salvation

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’  But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’

Luke 18:10-13 (ESV)

The idea that humans are, at their core, inherently and naturally good people is a false positive of epic proportions and one that has ruinous and eternal consequences. If we were to believe the current secular narrative, whenever we do find moral degradation and evil in our world, it would be simply explained as nothing more than a product of societal failings, lack of government intervention, invalid cultural influences, and other harmful external factors; all of which have culminated to negatively impact the lives people, leaving them with no other choice other than to commit acts of evil. This line of thinking would suggest the problem of evil, therefore, could be solved through the use of external human influences by way of implementing legislation and promoting behavior modification; a theory that has failed miserably over and over again throughout the history of mankind. And why is that? It’s because goodness, as we will see, is an issue of the heart and not a product of existential influences. To that end, it’s important we dispel this misguided perception that good can be legislated. You cannot legislate good; you can only punish evil in an effort to ensure good prevails.

As I said earlier, as a Believer, if we accept the ideology that humans are naturally good people, the eternal consequences of acting upon such a belief are catastrophic. Embracing the ideology of inherent human goodness stops us from sharing the Gospel, and at the same time, insulates the sinner from being able to receive the truth of the Gospel. So long as we believe goodness and morality are the end game of the Christian life, we will continue to overlook sharing the Gospel with “good people”. So long as we believe the “good sinner” doesn’t need to hear the Gospel because they are already good people, they will never receive salvation and are destined for an eternity in Hell. Goodness is exactly why we don’t feel compelled to share the Gospel with the little old lady across the street or our neighbors who are “good people” and do acts of kindness. Why do they need to hear about the Salvation of Christ? They’re not bad people. My neighbors go to work everyday, are well-respected by their colleagues, they don’t engage in any criminal behavior, are kind to their fellow human, participate in the 5K run for cancer, are kind to the environment, buy Girl Scout cookies, love their children, and are happily and faithfully married. Just look at them. Oh sure, they may not be perfect, but they live quiet lives and have a positive impact on society and the world around them. They’re a testament to the goodness of humanity. The kind of goodness for which we should all be striving. In stark contrast to these people, we have no problem sharing the Gospel with the homeless guy or the drug-addict or the prostitute, or the criminal in prison, or the pregnant teenager. We absolutely see the need to share the Gospel with these people. I mean, look at them. Their lives are a wreck! They really need Jesus! We so strongly see the need to share the Gospel with these sorts of people, we make very concerted efforts to organize youth groups and men’s groups and ladies’ groups, and prayer groups to go out into all the shady places in our city and the prisons and the homeless shelters to hand out Bibles, pray for people and share the Gospel. We’ll serve meals at the Salvation Army to the less fortunate and share “the love of Jesus” with everyone there. And why is that? What’s the difference? Why does the drug-addict need to hear the Gospel but the Buddhist down the hall from my office does not? Why does the homeless alcoholic at the shelter need Salvation but small business owner does not? Why? Because in our estimation it’s obvious. I mean, just look at the life of the drug-addict or the homeless guy or the alcoholic or the unmarried lady who’s pregnant with her third child from her forth live-in boyfriend. If anyone needs to hear the Good News so Jesus can clean up their life, it’s these people! It’s not the middle-class, hard-working, home-owning, agnostic family across the street with good morals. They’re doing just fine. They already have a good, successful, and peaceful life. Why do they need Salvation? Not a lot of work for the Lord to do here. They may need to stop cussing and watching rated R movies. But outside of that, they’re actually pretty good people. I mean; how could a loving, caring God allow someone like this to go to Hell?

And this my friend is where we are today. What we have done over the years is allowed an enlightened, humanist intellect to influence the Church and reduce the Gospel to nothing more than yet another self-help religion that promotes behavior modification and healthy living. Following Christ is now no different than following Buddha, Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, or the advice of your therapist who is using “Christian principles” as a way of life. Success, peace, love, harmony, and building a better you have now become the end game for Salvation. How you build a better you is irrelevant. So long as you find peace with yourself and become a good human, it matters not which path you follow. Being good is the highest moral virtue anyone can have. It’s why we support the “marginalized”, separate our trash, and drive low carbon emission vehicles. It’s why we care about endangered species, and transgenders, and LGBT, and… ad nauseam. We idolize, bestow great honor on, and strive to be like those who possess and perform acts of goodness. Mother Theresa is one such good person. Her commitment to doing good in the world continues to be the global gold standard for anyone who aspires to be a good human. People who are soft-spoken, who love everyone, and don’t judge (which, in the eyes of the world, has become the lowest form of hate in which you could possibly engage), are elevated as those with the highest moral virtue and those whom we should emulate. In other words, nice people, kind people, non-judgmental people, are not only good people, I would argue they are the considered to the best people. And what of Jesus? Well, he too has been yoked alongside the previously mentioned do-gooders like Gandhi and Mother Theresa. His salvific life continues to be expurgated and hijacked so we can use Him as another example of how to be a good human. Never mind the purpose of the cross and of His shed blood. Jesus was a good man, who did good things and came to earth to make sure we could live a good life, and to show us all how to be good humans. That’s really all we need to know about Him.

Why Are We Good?

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

Romans 7:18 (KJV)

Everyday, in every part of the world, something good is happening. Even as you read this, at this very moment, someone, somewhere is doing something good. But if scripture teaches (and it does) there is none who does good, how then do we reconcile the fact there is good being done in the world even though the heart of man is only evil? Even more to the point, why are non-Believers doing good? What’s the payoff for them? What is it that keeps this world of ours from collapsing into a dystopian world of evil and chaos?

To begin, that which keeps this world from collapsing into utter chaos is, first and foremost, the mercy of God. Everything else outside of that is secondary. Unbelievers are earthy-minded and have only self-interest as their motivation. In fact, I would submit to you it is entirely impossible for the unbeliever to behave selflessly in the truest sense of the word in any way. For the unbeliever, there is only one shot at life. This is it. It’s the YOLO (you only live once) mentality. They are motivated by things like law, pride, power, self-preservation, and the desire to create a working and functional society; one that maximizes their comfort and affords them the opportunity to pursue their own happiness as they see fit in their own eyes. The Believer on the other hand has been reborn and his desire for doing good is motivated by a commitment to God and the sacrifice made by Christ. Although much could be said about the goodness of the Believer and the motivations thereof, my focus here is rather to help us understand why carnal and sinful man would do anything good; lest we become confused about equating good works with Salvation.

Let’s start with likely the most universal force behind someone doing something good…self. When Paul tells us “no one does good, not even one.” he’s not suggesting no one can do good. To the contrary. There is a rich profusion of scriptures which speak extensively to the subject of people doing good. The argument here is simply because someone does good, it does not make them good a good person, let alone a Believer. This is what Christ was referring to in Mark 10:17 when he asked the man kneeling before him “Why do you call me good? ” You see, even though we know Jesus “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38) he still attributed all goodness to God. To put this concept into context, consider the following example. We would never concede that a man who is involved in criminal enterprises, abuses his wife and children, spends money on prostitutes, but also gives to the Salvation Army and volunteers at the homeless shelter during the holidays, was a good person. Although he is doing human good, the takeaway here is, simply because you can do good, and sometimes you might actually do good, does not make you a good person. The problem we have is, even in our human goodness, our deeds are tainted and impure because the heart is “deceitful and desperately wicked” and we have deceived ourselves into believing if we do good works we are good people.

So if doing good things can’t make you a good person, then why is anyone doing good things? What’s the payoff for them? There are, in my estimation, three primary reasons why, according to Scripture, the unbeliever would be doing good: the law, to establish their own righteousness, or for personal gain. Outside of these three reasons, the unbeliever has no motivation for doing any good works.

The Law – Because people fear the consequences of breaking the law, they are constrained in there evil and therefore do good by default. If it is the law then which constrains us, when we do good to avoid consequences, we are not doing good as an act of selflessness, but rather, we’re doing it because we have our own interests in mind. How many of us have thought about robbing a bank or killing someone? And what percentage of us have actually followed through with these ideas? I would argue very few. Why is that? Because we know if we do commit these acts, the law is waiting to condemn us and punish us accordingly. Our desire to not feel the pain of punishment, outweighs our desire to follow through with evil deeds. There is no change of heart here, only a restraint motivated by law. Said differently, if bank robbery and murder were no longer punished, banks would cease to exist and there would be a marked decline in population. We’re not restrained from robbing banks and murdering because we’re such good and holy people. We’re not robbing banks or murdering because we’re self-preservationists, plain and simple.

Establishing One’s Own Righteousness – This is one reason an unbeliever might be motivated to do good. Many, many people are motivated to do good because they desire to prove to themselves and others they really are good people and have no need to be born again to live in eternity with God. They are already good people and will make it to heaven on their own merit. Sure, they’re not perfect, but they do more good than bad. They live their lives principled in yin and yang. So long as they’re living a good life (as defined by humanist standards) and do more good than bad, why would they not go to heaven? Listen to the words of Isaiah regarding the sins of Israel.

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (emphasis added)

Isaiah 64:6 KJV

Personal Gain – Finally, our desire to do good is not motivated out of love, but rather out of personal gain. That is to say, we do good works because there is something in it for us. At the end of the day, there is a payoff. Now, whether that payoff is the euphoric feeling we get because we did something good, which also affirms our sense of self-righteousness, or knowing that we will receive some sort of reward or recognition for our good works, our motivation is the payoff we believe we will receive. How many millions of people are donating time, money, and resources to various causes with the knowledge their work will be rewarded? College students are highly motivated to spend time serving their community because they understand, upon looking for a job, companies are more favorable to applicants whose resumes demonstrated they are willing to serve others. We, like these students, are not serving in our community and doing good works because we’re such good and holy people. We’re doing good works because we’re opportunists.

Conclusion

This idea of the inherent goodness of humanity we see being preached in both secular and Christian arenas now-a-days, has clouded the ability of many Christians to see the truth of sin and depravity, and has placed them on a path that aligns more with the world than the Word. It is exactly why many churches continue to move further and further away from the truth of the Gospel and are instead embracing a more humanistic gospel, which teaches, our ability to do good grows in direct proportion to our human enlightenment. That is to say, as we continue to gain more knowledge of the science of humanity, of history, and the world around us, our need for salvation is diminished in proportion to that understanding. We no longer need repentance from dead works, we need reparations. We no longer need salvation, we need psychology.

Many churches today are less concerned about teaching the uncomfortable truths of sin and depravity found in the Bible and our universal need for a Savior, and are instead more focused on motivational speaking and encouraging human goodness. So long as you can find your truth, your happiness, your success, your peace, and can do it without harming or offending others, it matters not how you live your life. It’s exactly why we are seeing a concerted effort from many so-called “Christian” leaders to blur the lines between the truth of Scripture and the desires of the world, It’s exactly why many “Christian” leaders are now able to, with not only no shame but rather with great confidence, welcome and champion the idea of the “homosexual Christian”. It is why they are able to, again with great confidence, promote the idea that our melanin count is somehow relevant in our walk with Christ. They not only teach these things in lock-step with the world, but also encourage their congregants to do the same. Remember the end game here is to create a world where human goodness, as defined by the world, reigns supreme. But our good works, no matter how much we deem them to be good, will never measure up to the righteous standards of a holy God who demands nothing less than perfection. It is the very reason we are all in need of a Savior; because for all our righteousness and our holiness, and all our good works, it will never be able to account for the indwelling sin residing in our lives. And for all the goodness we believe we are doing, it will never be sufficient enough to bring us the peace on earth we desire or the eternal life we seek. There is but one narrow road that leads to leads to salvation and there is but one gate that you must enter through to receive eternal life. And both are called Christ.