Am I a Good Person?

I would ask you to seriously consider the question posed in the title of this post. In fact, I would ask you to answer each question below, prayerfully contemplating each question and your answer before moving on to the next question:

  1. Am I a good person?
  2. Can I still be a good person even if I sometimes do bad things?
  3. Can God use my bad actions for good?

Am I a good person? Most people self-assess themselves to be “a basically good person.” It’s a completely subjective measure. Romans 3:23 tells us that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So, for Christ-followers, the question is: Are we receiving the goodness of God?

And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Exodus 33:19 (NIV)

In Genesis, goodness is seen as the most important resumé item when Abraham sends his servant to find a wife for his son Isaac. And the servant finds a woman oozing with the goodness of God, Rebekah. The servant devises a test of the character and goodness of any woman who would be Isaac’s bride:

12 Then he prayed, “Lord, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. 13 See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. 14 May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.” Genesis 24:12-14 (NIV)

Rebekah passes the test with flying colors: 18 “Drink, my lord,” she said, and quickly lowered the jar to her hands and gave him a drink. 19 After she had given him a drink, she said, “I’ll draw water for your camels too, until they have had enough to drink.” Genesis 24:18-19 (NIV) So, Rebecca passes the test of possessing goodness. Does that make her an inherently good person? That question brings us to #2

  • Can I still be a good person even if sometimes I do bad things? Let’s fast-forward to Genesis 27 where Rebekah devises a plot for her son Jacob to rob his twin brother Esau of his blessing from their Father Isaac:

6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Look, I overheard your father say to your brother Esau, 7 ‘Bring me some game and prepare me some tasty food to eat, so that I may give you my blessing in the presence of the Lord before I die.’ 8 Now, my son, listen carefully and do what I tell you: 9 Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it. 10 Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may give you his blessing before he dies.” 11 Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man while I have smooth skin. 12 What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing.” 13 His mother said to him, “My son, let the curse fall on me.  Genesis 27:6-13 (NIV)

Jacob appeared to be Rebecca’s favorite of the twins. Like many of us, she caved to temptation. In this case she was tempted to rig the game for her favored twin. It doesn’t make her a bad person. But it shows us how easy it can be for temptation to get us to abandon God’s goodness in us when we’ve accepted Christ.

  • Can God use my bad actions for good? The obvious answer is yes. As author Dennis Prager points out in his analysis of Genesis, without her intervention God’s plans for Jacob wouldn’t happen. God redeemed the bad actions of someone who otherwise displayed His goodness. He can do the same for us.

So, is #1 true? Am I a good person? The truth is that I am a broken person born into a broken world. By accepting Christ into my life, I can receive more and more of God’s goodness each day. But I can still stumble, and God can redeem my bad acts, and He forgives me for them when I confess them. We can never be good enough for God on our own. The exciting news is we don’t have to!

Pastor Jerry Bader

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