Good 'Nuff

So, as Dave and I have been lurking in the shadows of atheist web blogs waiting to pounce like rabid tapirs, we have come across some real moral whoppers. Most of these are simply misunderstandings of moral relativism (kind of an oxymoronic phrase, isn't it?) or of post-modern theory in general.
Nonetheless, it drives me to contemplate the often repeated, ever present, "I'm a good enough person, and that's good enough!" or the one on About.com, "You don't need God to be good."

A woman there noted, "I know for a fact that morality doesn't prove god exists because I'm a good person and I don't believe in him at all!"
I'm not telling you this so you can laugh. We should be careful; I know some pretty sorry stuff comes out of my own mouth, and that right often.

So, first off, the purpose of "religion" may be, in some people's view, to make people "better." Fair 'nuff. "Religion" in that sense certainly bears those marks. But Christianity does not. It was not "for goodness sake" that God put His Son on a cross. It was for us. He wants you, as a good person, to be in relation to Him, yes, but more importantly, He just wants you. Christianity is about love, and if you are seriously in love with Him, He will change you Himself. He loves you so much that He was willing to give up the Mystery of His Son to pay for your rebellion.

When have I rebelled, you ask?

Let's go back to the "Beginning."
It wasn’t merely that Adam and Eve broke God’s command not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, but that the fruit itself was bad. The fruit of the Tree of Knowledge shows itself when we decide what stands as right or wrong, wholly apart from our relationship to God. When we take upon ourselves what is rightfully His we make ourselves the judge, demand to be king of our own realm and master of our own destinies. We want just what Satan wants, "to be like God." In doing so, Adam and Eve stepped outside of the life-giving relationship that originates within the love of the Trinity, the give and take, the Ultimate Being and Essence of Love. Until we are born again in faith in Christ and brought back into that great Oneness, we forever stand outside Life itself and remain forever doomed. We were made for relationship, communion. Instead we chose to stand alone.

Because we live, breathe, reason and can now discern good from bad for ourselves, humans tend to think we don't need God. But God is life and we will never have it apart from Him. On the other hand, God loves us so much that He gives us what we want. If we choose to stand it alone throughout our existence, He will let us. (Though existence is hardly the word I would use.) If we choose not to believe, He will even hide so we may have our little delusion. And if you wish to find Him, you may seek but you run the risk of finding something wholly else that you merely imagine you want. Better to call Him, I say that He may come find you. He is the Seeker of lost sheep.

So, eating "the apple", breaking God’s law may kill us, but doing “good” won't make us alive again either as long as we are still the ones deciding what "good" and "evil" are. This is why “good works” do not count in our favor and “good” people are not saved– indeed are the hardest to save. Because in the end, the sin isn’t in doing what is “wrong” but in taking it upon ourselves to be the Decider. We set ourselves up to “be god.” “Good” people do what they think is right – and they may even be correct in certain assumptions – but it is that very rebellion, that our idea of right or wrong is ultimate, that takes our life. Jesus said only God is good.

As C.S. Lewis and Timothy Keller said, “We are rebels that must lay down our arms” and “give up our self-salvation project.” We truly must let the Lord be Lord. He is a good One.