Joshua 1-3

Mark 16 

“‘Why do you call Me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is good – except God alone.’” —Mark 10:18

Jesus tells us, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). What Jesus is saying is that He is the source of eternal life and the standard by which we are measured and the Judge of all the earth. He explains, “The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father, who sent Him. Very truly I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:22-24). In other words, salvation through Christ alone is radically exclusive.

In our day and age, we do not like that there is only one path to salvation. In our rebellious state we want God to work according to our desires. We think that He should operate the way we would operate. We assume that He should do what we deem as just, wise and good. Yet, do we realize the arrogance of that belief? It is as though we should be able to say to the Creator of the cosmos, who has infinite knowledge and wisdom, that He should stoop so low as to listen to a lecture from us? It is almost like a teenager rambling about how the world works to their parent who has probably lived three times longer than they have. In pastor and author Mark Sayer’s book Disappearing Church: From Cultural Relevance to Gospel Resilience, he writes, “What we are experiencing is not the eradication of God from the Western mind, but rather the enthroning of the self as the greatest authority.” In our narcissistic state, we think that we should be able to determine what good is.

As Christians, how are we among the good? The answer: “We are in Christ”, period. There are only two paths for all of humanity, a dichotomy between good or bad, righteous or wicked, God’s way or the devils’ way. Unless we place our faith in the righteousness of God that is given to us through Christ, we fall short of His glory and are deemed bad, wicked, unworthy.

We either receive the gift of righteousness or we perish. This may sound narrow and absolute, but Jesus was very clear throughout the Gospels that He is the One and only path to reconciliation with God.

Lord Jesus, I confess my rebellious thoughts of thinking my “goodness” is good enough to earn salvation when only You alone are good. Thank You that I am considered righteous because I am in You. Amen!