Is Christianity about being a good person?

by Bibi Babatunde-Ikotun

Is Christianity about being a good person? Is it a religion based on moralistic teachings focused on only doing good things to earn God's favour? Here's the truth works-based Christianity focuses on people working to earn favours with God. It's about how well you serve God, how much charity you do, how well you pay tithe and much more work. The only thing this kind of gospel does is make you think you're good but you're not based on God's standards. It makes you think that God owes you whereas, God owes nobody!

Romans 3:20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin

Here is the gist, only God is good. He is the one who has the standard of being good. By His standards, we are not good. We can't measure up to God's standard of being good on our own works. You don't take the law and try to keep it all to show you're good. You take the law to see that you need help.

Romans 10:4 (NLT) For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.

Christ fulfilled the law for you and I. If you keep your faith in Jesus, it's like you fulfilled the law. Jesus never broke any of the laws, He never sinned. If your faith is in Christ, there is an exchange between you and Jesus. Jesus was your substitution on the cross. To be considered as good by God, you must put your faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

If you compare yourself to others to define yourself as good, you may be "good". But if you put yourself beside Christ and you'll see how bad you are. You may say "I don't kill", "I don't steal", "I pray", "I go to church" and I do other "good" things hence I am good and better than a large number of people in the world. But it doesn't count of matter to God if you've not put your faith in Jesus Christ. 

We, humans, are natural rebels against God. We're dead in sin. We're physically alive but spiritually unable to respond to God. We really don't give our lives to Christ because we have no life to give, rather, we receive the very own life of Christ when we believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Which is the gospel! 

The gospel addresses who we are at the core and is capable to change us. Faith alone in Jesus is what saves and a life sanctified and regenerated is what produces works (fruits). We don't have a relationship with God because we obey, we obey because be has made a relationship with us.

So yes, being in Christ can make you a good person but being a good person doesn't make you satisfactory to God. Think about the thief on the cross, he was a bad person based on worldly standards but because he believed the gospel as spoken by Jesus, He received eternal life. 

We must consistently stay with the pure and unadulterated message of the gospel. Don't be like the Galatians who tried to move from faith to works. You can't help yourself into eternal salvation by your actions. You are saved through Christ, you're kept saved through Christ as well.

We must know that the unifying story of the bible is about the gospel. How a righteous God made sinners righteous through faith alone. The more we understand what Jesus has done through his sacrifice the more we'll grow in sanctification worship, devotion, delight in the person of God.

As long as you are still in this world, you need the gospel daily. The gospel produces faith and faith produces love and love produces good works. Without a deeper understanding of what the gospel is, it is hard to produce fruits of righteousness. What you may see will be acts of hypocrisy while lifting up holy hands.

The gospel is not only about escaping eternal judgement but also being united with him. Being one and being home in Him. Through Jesus, we get God and be satisfied in Him.

Everything we do should be a response to what Christ has done! It is "works" to say "serve God", "pay your tithes", "sow seeds" and do so much more to receive the blessing from God. This perspective will lead to frustration but we must KNOW that we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places because we're in Christ not because of anything we've done or will do.

Ephesians 1:3 (NLT) All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.

I hope this reminds you of why being good is not enough, you must be saved! We don't preach "Be good so God will accept you", we preach Jesus and Him being crucified! We preach the gospel which is God's power unto salvation and the solution to every problem!

Rest in what Christ has done! You've made it! 

With love,

Bibi