Christians should stop thinking about pagans as “good people” who just need to follow Jesus. The atheists and humanists are quite fond of touting the idea that they are, “Good without God.” In their minds, basic “goodness” is inherent in people and we don’t need to believe the superstitions of religion to tap into our awesomeness.
Most Christians understand there’s something wrong with believing in human goodness but we don’t like arguing about it because often the godless folks do seem to live pretty good lives. They treat their neighbors kindly. They pay their taxes and serve their jury duty. Most pagans don’t rob banks or murder people. It’s almost impossible to tell the heathen from the Christians by the way they behave. We think “goodness” is created when people act in certain ways. According to scripture, that’s not where goodness comes from.
The Bible teaches that “goodness” exists in God alone.
As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.” – Mark 10:17
Modern Christianity has allowed humanist philosophy to affect our beliefs. We don’t really believe God alone is good. We think people are basically good and faith in Christ is a sort of self-improvement program. Evangelism is the art of convincing “good and decent” pagans that their life would get an upgrade if they followed Jesus. But it doesn’t matter because they’re pretty good people even without Christianity.
We’ve internalized the lie that a loving God wouldn’t send anyone to hell. We don’t see ourselves (or anyone else) as deserving punishment. The atheists scream about the “injustice” of God’s wrath and we acknowledge their point with our silence. We agree that God is sometimes a bit too harsh in His judgment. We suggest that everyone is “in a better place” when they die. Because we genuinely believe the humanists are correct and it’s possible to be good without God.
That’s wrong.
Like sunlight without the Sun, Goodness without God is incoherent. It’s irrational. God is the standard by which we understand what is good. Without God, there is nothing. Goodness isn’t an invisible force that exists by its own will.
It is possible for us to be good, but not on our own. Every good and perfect gift is from above. God is the only source of goodness. Without God, you’re not good.
