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146 | Why Do I Need Jesus if I Am Already Good?
1.1k Plays1 month ago
What is good? Can you be "good" and not be a Christian? Why do I need Jesus if I am already a good person?
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Referenced in this episode: ⦿ Who the Son Sets Free - Galatians Bible Study? | https://phyliciamasonheimer.com/product/galatians-bible-study/
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Transcript
Introduction & Listener's Question
00:00:00
Speaker
And oftentimes when we talk about this, people are like, well, it's so unfair of God, like he's standing off over there, watching you struggle, watching you trying to be good. And, you know, he's just distant from you and this unrealistic standard. And they always leave out the best part of the story, that God didn't leave the standard unrealistic. God made the standard accessible.
00:00:29
Speaker
Welcome back to Verity Podcast Friends. I'm Felicia Mason-Heimer, the host of Verity and the founder of Every Woman, a theologian, the parent organization for this podcast. I'm so excited to continue the Beginner Believers series this week with a really great question from one of our listeners. What does it mean to bear fruit when I already was good before salvation?
00:00:55
Speaker
This is an excellent question because it's one that many of us don't want to verbalize, right? We think, I was a pretty good person before I met Christ, so what's the difference between how I behave now and how I behaved before I knew Jesus?
Understanding Goodness Before and After Salvation
00:01:11
Speaker
We're gonna talk about that a little bit and look at what scripture says about bearing fruit, which is the biblical way of talking about a holy,
00:01:21
Speaker
and fruitful life in Christ. I think that this episode will be helpful to those of you who are talking to non-Christians, unbelievers who believe they really don't need to adjust that much in their life and that God should be pleased with them. Hopefully, some of what we learn is helpful to you.
00:01:43
Speaker
Now, before we dive into these scriptures, we first have to talk about what it means to be good, because I think a lot of this conversation struggles due to a difference of definition. Whenever you start to talk about a topic, it's important to define your terms.
00:02:02
Speaker
Now, if we were to simply define the word good, we could come up with all sorts of definitions from our own personal experience. But the dictionary definition for good is that which is morally right, righteousness, or, you know, something when it's used as an adjective, it's to be desired or approved of. So morally right is what we generally mean when we use the word good.
00:02:31
Speaker
So if somebody says, good boy to their dog, what they're saying is, you did the right thing. You've been a good boy. You are worthy of my affection. I desire you. I approve of you. Well, what does it mean for something to be bad?
Moral Assumptions and Human Struggle with Morality
00:02:51
Speaker
That is another question that we have to ask. To be of poor quality or low standard?
00:02:59
Speaker
That's one of the definitions of bad. How about evil? What does it mean to be evil? If you define evil, it means profoundly immoral and wicked. So when we are talking to people about these
00:03:14
Speaker
definitions of good works, a good life, an evil life, a bad life. We have to really define those terms, yes, according to the dictionary definition, but even a little bit further. See, a lot of us bring
00:03:29
Speaker
assumptions to what is morally right, what is righteous, what is immoral and wicked. And many times when we're talking about our lives before Jesus and after Jesus, we have our own ideas of what moral righteousness is. And so for many of us, we look at our lives before Christ
00:03:52
Speaker
We might say I didn't lie. I didn't cheat. I didn't swear. I didn't listen to nasty things. I didn't watch nasty things. I was a good friend. I was a good daughter.
00:04:04
Speaker
What's so different about me before Christ and after Christ? Aren't those all the things that God wants? And if God wants those things, why couldn't I just be good on my own? Excellent questions. So let's look at what the biblical definition of goodness is.
00:04:27
Speaker
And we're going to talk a little bit about what Jesus did on the cross, why that mattered, and how that changes the game for morality after Christ.
00:04:37
Speaker
Our morality is basically our idea of what is right and wrong, and we see the decision to choose morality for oneself as early as Genesis 3.
Eden's Temptation and Human Autonomy
00:04:51
Speaker
In Genesis 1 and 2, God creates humanity. He creates man and woman, expressions of his image,
00:04:58
Speaker
just with distinctive differences. He sets them in this beautiful garden and he gives them freedom within limits. He gives them the option to do and have dominion over anything in the garden, except for one thing. He puts a tree in the garden and he says, I want you to trust me and to not take the fruit of this tree.
00:05:22
Speaker
Because if you do, you will surely die. Now in scripture, death represents separation from God. But Adam and Eve don't know everything that will happen if they are to die, but they know enough. They have a knowledge of good and evil that tells them this is wrong because God said so. And that's why when Eve and Adam are standing by the tree and Satan tempts them,
00:05:51
Speaker
They engage with him and his lie, because the lie that the enemy tells them is that God is withholding from them. He uses a twisted presentation of God's design, the ability to steward the human will,
00:06:09
Speaker
to invite them into his temptation. Notice that when Eve comes up to the tree, the first thing the enemy does is question God's word. Did God really say?
00:06:25
Speaker
So though Eve knew what God had told her and knew she had these freedom within limits, that she had a knowledge of good and evil, the enemy told her she didn't have enough of a knowledge of good and evil. It wasn't just about knowing right from wrong because Adam and Eve knew that.
00:06:44
Speaker
It wasn't about being like God, as the enemy said, because Adam and Eve were already like God. They were the image of God on earth. So the enemy had to twist the truth just a little bit. He had to cast doubt on God's goodness, God's trustworthiness, and he had to invite them to not just know good from evil, but to determine good and evil for themselves.
The Powerlessness of Pre-Christ Morality
00:07:11
Speaker
This desire to determine what morality is for ourselves is the continued curse of humankind. Whenever we decide this isn't wrong for me, we are perpetuating the same lie that the enemy gave in Eden. We're falling into the same trap that says, I don't trust God to tell me what is good for me. I'm going to determine that for myself.
00:07:38
Speaker
And so the whole story of redemption, the whole story of the gospel that starts in Genesis 1 through 3, spans the entire Bible all the way to Revelation, is an ongoing saga of God offering all of himself to be trusted, all of himself for relationship and humanity's freedom to choose to trust or to choose distrust.
00:08:03
Speaker
When we choose distrust, we automatically choose autonomy. We choose to anoint ourselves the gods of our own lives. This in turn leads to us determining our own morality and deciding what is good and what is evil for ourselves. And this is one of the biggest differences when it comes to how we live our lives before Christ and after. Before Christ, we are living as our own gods. We are deciding what is good in our own eyes.
00:08:33
Speaker
We might decide that that means being a kind person. We might decide that means being a loyal daughter or a hard worker. But our motivations are tainted. Our motivations to doing all of these things are often driven by how other humans will perceive us.
00:08:55
Speaker
like when Eve looked at the fruit in the garden and saw that it was beautiful to the eyes, a delight to the eyes, and it was desired to make one wise. We think, you know what, it serves me well to do these moral behaviors, to choose these good traits, because it makes me delightful to other people's eyes. It makes me seem wise.
00:09:18
Speaker
It makes it me seem like I can determine what is good and evil in my life. I am the master of my own destiny, my own fate.
00:09:29
Speaker
These temptations are as old as this world. And so when we are behaving in these good and moral ways before we meet Christ, we might echo the goodness of God. This is called common grace. We might echo the goodness of God in a way where we're kind of reflecting who He is
00:09:51
Speaker
even while being apart from him, but we can't ever know the fullness of who he is because we're doing it for the wrong reasons. We're doing it without his power. We're doing it without connection to him. And oftentimes we're doing it out of worship of people and a desperate need to prove ourselves to them. Now, even if you'd say, I wasn't trying to prove myself, I genuinely just wanted to be good. That may be true too, but everything that we do apart from God
00:10:21
Speaker
isn't enough to save us. It isn't enough to bridge the gap between us and God, because everything we're doing is we're doing out of our fleshly nature, our nature apart from God, if we are not in Christ.
00:10:34
Speaker
It doesn't count for anything. Now you might think, well, that doesn't seem fair because why is it that only the things that I do once I'm in Christ count and the things that I did before Christ, they don't count? It's not that God doesn't care about our efforts. He sees our efforts. He loves to see how his people long to be saved, long to have connection and purpose and long to do what is truly good. I believe God sees that.
00:11:04
Speaker
He is grieved by it because he knows that until we come to a full knowledge of the relationship we could have with him, all of those efforts are wasted. See, salvation is a free gift.
Salvation and the Role of Christ
00:11:19
Speaker
It's something that we can't earn. We can't pay for it. We can't ever be good enough
00:11:27
Speaker
to be holy like God, to be perfect like God. Somebody has to bridge the gap. And the good news of the Christian Gospel is that the one who bridged the gap is God Himself.
00:11:41
Speaker
See, oftentimes when we talk about this, people are like, well, it's so unfair of God, like he's standing off over there watching you struggle, watching you trying to be good. And, you know, he's just like distant from you and this unrealistic standard. And they always leave out the best part of the story, that God didn't leave the standard unrealistic. God made the standard accessible.
00:12:09
Speaker
by laying himself down and dying on a cross to pay the human price so that we could experience relationship and grace and love and holiness and perfection with him. God is not far off. He is the most near person you could ever experience.
00:12:32
Speaker
So often we just tell part of the story. We focus on God being so holy that we're not able to earn it. And we forget that the whole point of the story is that a holy God made it possible for those who are impossibly far from Him.
00:12:52
Speaker
So where does this leave us with before Christ, after Christ? I was good, now I'm saved. What does goodness look like? Well, we're going to look at what bearing fruit means. But I really want to emphasize that no matter how similar lives look before and after Christ, the difference here is Christ himself.
00:13:11
Speaker
You can be the most holy-seeming person on earth, but if you are not surrendered to Christ, if you are not in relationship with Christ and having His sacrifice applied to you, all of your holiness is just human effort. But Christ dying and applying His sacrifice on our behalf bridges the gap between us and God, brings us close to God, and allows us to
00:13:39
Speaker
begin to bear fruit out of a place of peace and abiding and dwelling with God. Listen, this is important. What was the intent in the Garden of Eden all along? The intent was for man and woman to live in free relationship with God, walking with God,
00:13:59
Speaker
Bearing fruit, being fruitful, that doesn't just mean having children, it also means bearing spiritual fruit.
Abiding in Christ and Spiritual Growth
00:14:04
Speaker
It means becoming a person who is productive in the ways that God is productive, which is creative and loving and communal, to be fruitful in this place of dwelling with God. And through Christ, we have that ability again.
00:14:24
Speaker
We get to dwell with God, which is why in John 15, Jesus uses this language of abiding in Him. We're dwelling with Him. Jesus' name is Immanuel, God with us. John 1 says that Jesus came and dwell among us. He tabernacled among us.
00:14:42
Speaker
He made a tent, a dwelling. So Jesus did what Eden couldn't do. And when that happened, we became able to bear the fruit that Adam and Eve could not bear. This is the good news.
00:14:57
Speaker
So let's look at what bearing fruit entails. John 15 talks about this. I'm going to read a portion of it. Jesus is speaking. He says, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.
00:15:18
Speaker
Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you, abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
00:15:34
Speaker
This is so interesting because this illustration of the vine, when he's talking about pruning it so that it bears more fruit, this is often a very hard pruning, cutting it way, way back so that the plant can put all of its effort into new growth. It looks like they're losing a lot of progress, but in fact, through the pruning, more growth happens.
00:15:56
Speaker
And so in this particular passage, Jesus is using this illustration that if we stay connected to the vine, Jesus, we will naturally bear fruit. You don't see a vine out there thinking, I've just got to work so hard to get these grapes out this year. He's just growing. He's just planted in good soil and bringing forth the fruit of the vine.
00:16:19
Speaker
John 15 16 specifically says this, you did not choose me so you would not have come to God apart from his call but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the father in my name he may give it to you.
00:16:40
Speaker
This is interesting because it means that you came to Christ, not just to be in Christ and like, I'm good, I'm set for eternity. No, we are saved. So we should go and bear fruit and that fruit will abide. It will last. That means there's no such thing as a nominal Christian.
00:16:59
Speaker
There's no such thing as somebody who's just like, I got my salvation. I'm good. It means that if you are in Christ, you will bear fruit. You will be growing. You will be changing. Yes, you will mess up. First John one nine, confess and repent and you'll be forgiven and cleansed. However,
00:17:15
Speaker
you will be progressively growing more and more like Christ and desiring to grow more like Christ. And part of that process is remaining in step with Him, walking with Him, being in Christian community and being in the Word, being in prayer to help facilitate that growth. But we're not striving for the growth itself.
00:17:36
Speaker
God works the growth in us. Colossians 1.10 says, so as to walk, so he's talking to Christians, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
00:17:53
Speaker
Interesting that once again we see the knowledge of God and fruit connected just like we saw in Genesis 1-3. The knowledge of good and evil and fruit connected. Here, the knowledge of God is connected with bearing fruit. If you want to bear spiritual fruit, you have to know God intimately, abiding in Him, dwelling with Him.
00:18:19
Speaker
John 15a, again, John 15 has this to say, by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. That you bear much fruit. When we are showing spiritual fruit, we're showing the goodness of God, the glory of God through our lives,
00:18:38
Speaker
We are proving our discipleship. We're proving that we actually walk with Jesus. Galatians 5, 22-23 is the most famous passage on the fruit, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the work of God in our lives.
Identity Shift Through Christ
00:18:53
Speaker
We know these for the most part, but let's talk about them. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such things there is no law.
00:19:06
Speaker
So here's the thing, you might be thinking, before I knew Jesus, I was pretty loving. I had joy, I was peaceful, kind of patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, I was pretty self controlled. And you will meet people who have these attributes, but here's the thing.
00:19:23
Speaker
They're not coming from the Holy Spirit. They're coming from sheer effort and it's unsustainable. It's unsustainable. Oftentimes it's also a reflection of some kind of performance or behavior management, whether for themselves or for someone else. And the Christian life is meant to be an easy yoke. Now that doesn't mean we won't suffer. We will suffer as Christians. Jesus promised this, but the actual
00:19:52
Speaker
The task, so to speak, of walking with God is not meant to be this heavy burden. It's meant to be intimate relationship. And for some of you, you've been sold a Christianity that is just, I prayed a prayer and now I do it all in my own effort. And my friends, that is not Christianity. It's not. It's a free gift of salvation. And then it's the free gift of the Holy Spirit working his fruit in you.
00:20:20
Speaker
It's the free gift of the Holy Spirit sanctifying you and making you more and more like Jesus as you simply abide in him. The Holy Spirit is so gentle. He will tell you, Hey, I'm seeing a problem with your words lately. Let's work on that. He rarely is trying to assault you with everything to change at once. That's the flesh.
00:20:43
Speaker
The flesh works through guilt and shame and a heavy burden, but Christ works through freedom and a new identity and knowing I'm adopted. I'm loved. I'm favored. I'm under grace. And so all of the fruit that I'm going to bear is just out of who I already am.
00:21:03
Speaker
When I was addicted to erotic novels, so the spicy novels that are very popular on the market now, were around 20 years ago when I was first exposed. When I was addicted to these, I could not get freedom from them as long as I believed that my identity wasn't what I did. And this is the same problem that so many people have before Christ. They literally believe that what I do is who I am.
00:21:31
Speaker
Now, that could be bad things. You know, I'm a liar. I'm a cheat. Or it can be good things. I'm a hard worker. I'm a loving daughter. I'm a good wife. We think these things that I do define me, they're my identity. But to keep the identity, you have to keep doing the things. In Christ, it's different.
00:21:56
Speaker
In Christ, you've been handed an entirely new identity. You've been handed an identity you didn't deserve and you couldn't earn. You've been handed an identity that says you are a daughter and a son of God. You were chosen, appointed, anointed, and adopted, and nothing can take it away.
00:22:20
Speaker
And then out of that identity, suddenly you make choices that align with who you are. And that is when I was able to get freedom from addiction because I realized I.
00:22:33
Speaker
am a holy and chosen saint of God. I'm a set apart one. And then it dawned on me that it didn't make any sense for someone who's holy to participate in unholy things. It was like all of a sudden I woke up to the reality that I am holy because of what Christ did. I'm holy.
00:22:58
Speaker
So why would I behave in these unholy ways? But it also goes the other way, right? If I am patient and kind because of Christ, I choose those things because of my identity. I am a good person because Christ saved me and he called it good. He called me good. So I choose goodness.
00:23:22
Speaker
But before Christ, I was only good as long as I did good things. I had to keep my identity through my behavior. Do you see the difference? In Christ, identity always precedes behavior. In the flesh, behavior determines identity.
00:23:40
Speaker
So if you want to bear fruit for Jesus, it all starts simply by abiding in Him.
Spiritual Practices and Recommendations
00:23:47
Speaker
And if you're thinking, okay, that doesn't sound practical, I don't know what to do, start with prayer. It's an ongoing conversation with God. And we have a whole episode about it that you can listen to in this Beginner Believer series.
00:23:58
Speaker
It's an ongoing relationship conversation with God. God, I'm struggling so much with patience right now. I need your spirit to supernaturally empower me to this discipline, to this choice. And then you step out in faith that he'll help you. And the strength comes as you obey.
00:24:20
Speaker
See, you're not waiting until your feelings change, but you're also not doing it on your own because you know that God is going to enable you to choose patience. Now there's so much more I could say about this, but I really want you to sit and think about what I've said in this episode and the difference between the life before Christ that's all by effort, by keeping a good identity through good behaviors and what life in Christ looks like.
00:24:48
Speaker
where all you're asked to do is abide in Him. And out of that abiding, good fruit is born. If this was helpful to you, and I hope it was, and you want to learn so much more about what the Bible says about bearing fruit, the difference between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit, I recommend our Galatians Bible study.
00:25:10
Speaker
This verse-by-verse study, called Who the Sun Sets Free, walks through what freedom in Christ actually looks like and what the identity you have in Christ does to your behavior. All of our studies are chapter by chapter, verse by verse, with prompts that will take you through all of the chapters of the book you're studying. In this case, Galatians is only six chapters, so this is a very accessible study, especially if you are new to the faith.
00:25:35
Speaker
You can order in bulk if you want to do a group study, or you can do this on your own. All of our studies are gender neutral, so you can do them, whether you are a guy or a girl, and you can grab it in our shop at FeliciaMasonHeimer.com forward slash store. As always, thank you so much for listening to Verity Podcast. We so appreciate when you leave comments, when you leave reviews. It helps other people find both our YouTube channel and find Verity Podcast on iTunes and Spotify.