A Ramble About Being a Good Person

A friend of mine on Facebook who happens to take a dimmer view of religion and religious people recently posted a photo which says “If you need the threat of eternal torture in order to be a good person, YOU'RE NOT A GOOD PERSON.”

I have to admit, my first reaction was defensive and I wanted to argue. But then I thought, “what exactly am I arguing against?” The Scriptures themselves essentially say this very thing, albeit in a different way and different context. Most church going Christians know Romans 3:23 and some may even know the larger context of Romans 3:10-23 (ESV):

“What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. 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.”
“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

St. John writes in 1 John 1:6-8 (ESV):

“If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

St. Paul also writes in 1 Timothy 1:8-11 (ESV):

“Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted”

And finally in Romans 5:6-8 (ESV):

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The author of this quote is quite right. Good people don't need the threat of eternal torture in order to be good. Where the misconception come in though is that the orthodox Faith of Jesus Christ, regardless of denomination, doesn't say that good people do. It says that there is no one who is a good person. Where we get tripped up is that we want to think of ourselves as good people.

The human psyche itself can't handle the idea of being anything else but good and in the right. Any successful attempt at proving it wrong can possibly result in further insanity of one stripe or another in the strictest sense of the word as it struggles to cope with the apparently irreconcilable data. As a result it uses itself as the ultimate standard of what is good and evil, a malfunction inherited from the fall of humankind. My first impulse was to argue this quote by nature because my own psyche wanted to defend itself on instinct.

The truth of the Gospel directly contradicts the delusion which is inherent to the human psyche. The Gospel says that the human psyche, every human psyche, is malfunctioning and disordered. Left to its own devices it will continue in a state of malfunction until it eventually drives itself into total insanity.

When a human being's physical body dies, the psyche then continues on in God. But if the psyche is malfunctioning and cannot recognize God or His surrounding love, then it continues on in the torment of its own insanity. When someone is so far gone from reality and is a danger to himself or others in this world, we place them in institutions in special rooms where they can be looked after without causing harm to themselves or anyone else. So God does the same thing. This is not to say that such a life is comfortable for the person who has gone insane. The insanity of one's own mind is enough of a torment, so also the psyche that is trapped within itself unable to recognize God or His love. This is why God set up a treatment plan through Jesus Christ. The person in question just has to cooperate with it.

Ultimately, I decided to share that photo on Facebook with the headliner, “I totally agree.” Not necessarily for the same reasons as the person who created the photo, but still.