God Loves… Himself

It is the devil’s master-piece to make us think well of ourselves. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

Imagine professing churches being taught how to study the Bible in a way that profanes the name of God and is in fact an idolatrous action, but being told that it is pleasing to God. That is precisely what is being done across this nation (and beyond). We are taught to study the Bible in a way that makes us think well of ourselves. We are taught to think of the study of the Bible as a spiritual discipline rather than a way of seeking God out of love for God. We study the Bible to gain knowledge rather than to know God. We study the Bible to defend our orthodox positions rather than to love God. We are taught to study the Bible in a way that promotes pride rather than a way that sends us as helpless sinners into the dust crying out for mercy.

The Bible is the Word of God and is the revelation of God. At the same time it is the revelation of man and the sinful nature of man which is seen in the light of the holiness of God. One reason that human beings want to twist the truth about God is because it enables them to twist the truth about themselves. In the study of Scripture, then, we see that principle at work. We must twist the teaching of the Bible regarding our own hearts or we must repent in order for God to change us. The human heart is for full of deceit and those deceitful twists and windings that it can deceive itself at any point using a multitude of methods of reasoning and motives. But in studying the Bible and twisting it to escape the truth rather than as a way of seeing more of God and His glory, that is an act of idolatry and is an act of hatred for God.

The Scriptures speak of men who loved the Law of the Lord and desired for true holiness. But if the devil has gotten his master-piece of thinking well of ourselves across, then people only love the Law of the Lord if it will make them feel good about themselves as well. They will flee from the truth of holiness and of the Lord because those things don’t make them feel good about themselves. When they do things like this, they will study the Bible but not in order to see and find the real God revealed, but in order to sustain their good feelings about themselves and perhaps to make them feel good about themselves. Again, when they do this it is nothing but an act of idolatry in taking what reveals God and suppressing that truth so that they can feel good about themselves in unrighteousness. In a sense, it is diabolical.

The study of the Bible can be nothing more than an act of pride. The deceived soul can study the Bible for the sake of nothing more than gaining more knowledge in order to feed its pride which is to make the self feel good about self. Oh how the soul that wants to defend its orthodox positions out of pride will give itself to study in order to do so. But this soul is studying to defend self, the honor of self, and the pride of self rather than out of love for God. This, once again, is nothing more than idolatry.

The study of the Bible can be nothing more than the acts of a disciplined person seeking to be righteous in his or her own eyes. It can be a person trying to earn some form of righteousness by the act of study or it can be a person wanting to appear righteous in his or her own eyes because of the study. It can also be a person wanting to know more about God in order to appear righteous, which sure seems to be a particularly egregious sin. Oh how wicked the human heart is when it is driven by a desire to feel good about itself. That can be a root of self-righteousness and pride. It is also an idolatrous desire for self rather than for Christ.

It is the devil’s master-piece to make us think well of ourselves.        (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?”           (Jeremiah 17:9).

Imagine professing churches being taught that the way to have fellowship and love each other is to be nice and always speak in a positive manner. Yes, in more orthodox places we know that we must deal with sin, but even that can be done in ways that are intended to make people think they are forgiven and so feel good about themselves rather than repent in dust and ashes and be before a holy God in contrition. Niceness has replaced love and what is being nice but trying not to offend people (to be offended is really self getting mad when self is dishonored or made to face sinful self for a moment)? So people go around being nice to each other and then we try to be nice to ourselves and all we are doing is wickedly ignoring God and who we really are.

The biblical concept, or at least one of the biblical concepts, is seen in I John 1.
1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life– 2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us– 3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete. 5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

The concept of fellowship in I John is not just about being nice, going to sporting events, or perhaps eating together. It may include those things, but the heart of biblical fellowship is in sharing fellowship with God. The focus of esteem is on God. Part of this fellowship is not to practice sin but to walk in the light. True fellowship comes when people are pursuing truth and holiness and in doing that they are walking with God and so they fellowship with each other. That holy and biblical practice has been replaced with casual discussion and the need to be nice and help other people feel good about themselves, which of course helps us feel good about ourselves. The reality, however, is that those things are completely opposite of biblical fellowship.

The concept of feeling good about self is one that governs all things in the modern day (or at least it seems to). If we want to think well of ourselves and feel good about ourselves, then we must love others as we want to be loved. So we are to help them think well of themselves so that they will feel good about themselves. Such says the modern professing Church. But the Bible has something far different to say about fellowship. It is to be in fellowship with God first and it includes the pursuit of holiness. At least one aspect of fellowship is being cleansed from sin.

True fellowship and true love, then, is to help people see their sin so that they can walk in the light and love God and others more in line with the truth. True love is to look beyond what a person wants to feel about self to what the person must be doing if that person is to please God and fellowship with God. True love and true fellowship have to do with spiritual things and not just talking about the things of the world. When the desire to think well of ourselves gets involved in what is termed fellowship, true fellowship is destroyed. True fellowship includes the desire to be holy and has to do with fellowship with God. True fellowship has an aspect of being cleansed from sin, which one would hope would be both the guilt of sin and then the practice of sin as well. True fellowship is not about gossip, but about dealing with the sins of both hearts and tongues. If one wants a person to think and feel good about self, the topic of sin will be studiously avoided. But if a person desires to fellowship with God and other true believers, the topic of sin will be brought up so that sin can be discovered, repented of, and God pursued in the light of holiness.

It is the devil’s master-piece to make us think well of ourselves.                                                                          (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?”                 (Jeremiah 17:9).

It is hard to imagine it, but imagine a people that are deceived about an important part of Christianity. They are so deceived that what is an essential part of repentance toward God they now believe is the motive they must have to please Him. The deception is so great that they are in reality bowing to an idol and think that it is how God is really pleased. That is the situation with modern professing Christians. They have bought into the devil’s lie about thinking well of themselves. Ministers are trained in this (or at least it is a hidden part that supports much of what they do) and so it comes down to the people in the professing churches.

It would be hard to overestimate this. People would be up in arms if a minister brought an idol into the church building and tried to motivate people to serve that idol. People would rise up and kick a minister out if he tried to get people to bow down before and idol and worship and pray. What has happened, however, is that the idol of self has been brought into the sanctuary (so to speak) and it is bowed down before and worshipped. When self is the primary motive for “Christian” activity, self becomes the reason for what is done. While God may be brought up and told that it is to be done for Him, He becomes a secondary motive in the whole of the activities of the church.

If the devil has indeed made people feel good about themselves, it is not hard to imagine that professing churches would teach people to worship in ways that make them feel good about themselves rather than to see their sin and know and love God. But beyond the mere theory of the matter, it seems as if the professing Church in the United States has been given over to the worship of self rather than the worship of God. We want to worship in ways that make us feel good rather than in ways that make us bow prostrate before Him and His holiness. We want to worship in ways prescribed by us because they make us feel good and feel good about ourselves. When we begin to think that worship is about us, we have just brought an idol into the church just as much as if we brought in a totem pole or a metal idol and bowed down to it.

Oh how the heart is so ready and easily deceived into thinking that what pleases it must surely please God. How easy it is for hearts that don’t understand spiritual things to be deceived into thinking that as long as God is mentioned and the work is done in His name that it must be for Him and His glory. But the heart that does not truly love God as its core and central love is in fact doing all things for itself and as such all the good works are done for an idol. But then again, it seems to be quite easy for those who are the strictest in their adherence to what appears to be biblical to do those for self as well.

The heart is so deceitful and is the instrument of the deceiver of our souls. Once it is thought that attention must be given to people in order to make them feel good about themselves the idol has been set up and is an idol that must be served in all areas of the church. How easy it is to do religious things and think we are doing them for God when in fact we are trying to use God to make a name for ourselves or try to obtain some form of righteousness for self. When the self becomes my focus, I can focus on others in a way that makes me the focus of self in serving others. It is all so deceptive, but the analogy is something like a politician who takes an opportunity at a soup kitchen for the publicity. The politician has no real concern for the people that s/he is serving, though it may be done in the name of mercy and kindness, but the politician is really only concerned about self. Such is the people of the local church when self is not truly denied. Many good things can be done by self and said to be done in the name of God, but the reality of the matter is that self does them for self. This is self trying to use God for the purposes of self and to get honor for self. It can be self trying to obtain righteousness before God, or to enable self to view self as righteous, or perhaps to get others to admire him for what he does. But when self does something with the self as the real love, it is an act of idolatry and the devil has deceived that person with his master-piece.

It is the devil’s master-piece to make us think well of ourselves. (Thomas Adams, Private Thoughts on Religion)

“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

In the past Christian pastors and theologians wrote a lot about the need to deny self and the need not to think well of self. But things have changed. Indeed, the love of self is so widely accepted as orthodoxy today that it gives forth quite an ominous cloud concerning the Church. One reason that this is so ominous (even deadly to a great degree) is that this high view of self and love of self is what deceives people about themselves, their own sin, the nature of God and of grace. If it is a fact (and I think it is) that people basically believe what they want to believe, then a soul that is full of self and love for self has a belief system that is set on automatic to deny the truth about God and His glory. This is why people will not listen to sound doctrine and so gather teachers around them to tickle their ears (II Tim 4:3). People like that turn their ears from the truth in order to listen to myths (II Tim 4:4).

The declaration that God is holy, holy, holy does not allow room for a lot of comfort for self in sin, so people simply turn away from that in the name of orthodoxy or liberalism. The orthodox person can rest in his or her orthodoxy just as much as a liberal can rest in liberalism. Who wants to admit that s/he is in the hands of a holy God that demands perfect justice and there is nothing that s/he can do to satisfy His burning anger and wrath? Oh how self-love wants to believe that a loving God would never treat him or her like that! Oh how self-love has a hard time seeing that its little indiscretions (in its own deceived eyes) are worthy of eternal flames! What self-love does not want to believe self will fight and reason away. Self tells itself that it would never do anything like that and so self has convinced self that God would never do that. But again, that is self reasoning and trying to reason away the truth about God. Romans 1:18-32 is quite clear on this. People suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Those who love self (in reality, the love of self is an idol and is having other gods in His presence) serve self and develop belief systems that allow self to remain at the center.

Ministers will work and work to gain a large number of converts and build bigger buildings and will do that for the honor of self. Oh indeed they say it is for the glory of God, but down deep they are doing it out of self-love. They are able to maintain a form of orthodoxy while they deceive themselves and others in building up large numbers and large buildings. They are so blinded that they use their orthodoxy as a blinder to themselves rather than a guide on how to preach the Gospel. They will speak on the issue of depravity and feel good about themselves in doing so, yet they will deny the reality of depravity in the way they do evangelism (so-called) so they can get large numbers and fund large buildings.

Ministers go to ministerial meetings and conferences (even conservative ones) and there they are made to feel good about themselves. They are told that they are doing great jobs if they preach through a book of the Bible. They are told that they are doing great jobs if they are getting converts or baptizing people, though indeed they may be doing nothing more than deceiving people into thinking they are saved. Beneath and underlying much of what goes on in these conferences is making ministers feel good about themselves. How beneath the Gospel of grace alone these things are. In other words, this shows how the devil has brought his master-piece of getting people to think well of themselves in the Church. When the ministers are trained while in seminary and then taught in continuing education with methods that are built on the rotting foundation of thinking well of self, the devil has made huge inroads into the Church.

Ministers are taught to motivate people and to get people into “Christian” service by getting them to think highly of themselves. Positive speaking and praise is what gets people to move rather than love for self. But when that is the case, one can know that the devil has worked his master-piece deeply in the Church. When self-denial has become denying things for self so that self can think well of itself rather than the denial of self as a whole, the devil’s master-piece has taken root. It is a real and vital question to ask just how much of real Christianity remains in the United States today when so much of what goes on reflects the master-piece of the devil. An orthodox veneer cannot cover over such a rotten foundation. It cannot stand the eternal test and it will not stand for long in this world either. How we need a deep sense of our sin, unworthiness, and utter helplessness before God.

It is the devil’s master-piece to make us think well of ourselves. (Thomas Adams, Private Thoughts on Religion)

“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

At least in America the overwhelming thought is that people need to think well of themselves in order to treat other people as they should be treated. This basic thought has also overwhelmed the professing churches as well. Rather than the biblical teaching which is that love for God is that enables human souls to be aligned with God and then man, this teaching is directly opposite of the biblical teaching. Even worse, or perhaps to add to its evil, the thought that man loves others based on a love for self is really to make man his own god and idol. How deceitful the teaching is that directs man to love himself and tell him that to be moral and treat others he must do that.

As usual this type of teaching can be traced back to the fall where Eve listened to the evil one and ate the apple in order that she could be her own god and determine for herself what was good and evil. This thinking well of ourselves is completely opposite of the reality of fall and what we are as a result of sin. Thinking well of ourselves makes us prone to disregard grace if not despise it. Instead of thinking well of ourselves, we should be like Paul who groaned, thought of himself as a wretch, and wondered who would deliver him from his body of death (Rom 7:24). We should also remember that Jesus taught us to hate our own lives (Luke 14:26) and that we must deny ourselves if we were to be followers of His. We must think deeply on the Gentile woman that Jesus called a dog and she responded humbly (Mat 15:26-27).

A person that is going to live by grace is not a person that lives by thinking well of self. A person that lives by Christ does not esteem self but esteems Christ. While the bumper sticker and the t-shirt theology tells us that God did not make junk, the Bible speaks of what man has done in the fall and then the continuing sin as a result of the fall. What man is does not reflect necessarily on how God made man, but on what man did when the evil one tempted and lied to man. Now, it would seem to be quite clear, not only did the evil one lie to Adam and Eve in the Garden and get them to focus on themselves rather than (or even opposed to) God, the lies continue. The evil one is opposed to God because God does all out of love for Himself (as triune) and His own glory while the evil one (not triune) does all out of love for himself and his own honor. The evil one wants all human beings to be opposed to God and love and live for themselves like he does, while the Gospel of Jesus Christ saves human beings from themselves (the heart of sin) and delivers them into the kingdom of Christ where He is the one that reigns in their hearts rather than self. God delivers sinners from themselves and grants them that they may love Him and His glory. This is a key divide between biblical Christianity and the false forms of it.

So the devil is at war with God for human souls and their ultimate allegiance. He works in his deceptive and devious ways to get human beings to focus on themselves and to think well of themselves. In modern America he has gotten people to think that they must love themselves before they can love others. The reality of the matter, however, is that this is nothing but another lie that correlates to his original lie to our parents in the Garden. If human beings must love themselves in order to love other human beings, then they are only loving others (which is not true love) out of love for themselves. That is a violation of the Greatest Commandment, the Second Greatest Commandment, and all other commands as well. Human beings are to love God with all of their being and then out of that love for Him they are to love others.

The root and the heart of sin is the love of self and thinking well of self. The devil has brought that basic idea into the Church and in doing so has tricked and deceived human beings into thinking that Christianity is all about them. He has tricked human beings into thinking that God is all about them as well. This means that professing believers strut around thinking well of themselves not knowing that they have been deceived into this by the devil who has them in bondage to the very thing that they need to be saved from. To repeat, the very thing that sinners need to be saved from (self, love of self, pride) the devil has deceived them into thinking that this is what God saves them for. It is a stroke of deception, no doubt and one impossible to be saved from apart from the cross. At the cross is where Christ suffered and died out of love for the Father and His people. It stands against self-love and self-esteem and is in reality the only way to be delivered from the bondage of those things. We must love Christ, not self.

If we sought after truth out of pure love to it, and for the pleasure of it, as is pretended, we should not fear the great teacher, Death, as we do. (Thomas Adams, Private Thoughts on Religion)

“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

The human soul is so full of pride and self that it deceives itself in all areas. It thinks it has a great love for truth, but many times it is simply a great love of the pride of self in knowing more than others. Self can be orthodox only out of a love of being orthodox rather than something else. The human heart is so deceitful because of its love of self and honor for self (either by self or others), it will take on differing drives and appearances in order to appear like it wants to self or before others. It may even be so deceived as to do those things in an effort to appear in certain ways before God.

If we loved the truth with a pure love and found pleasure in the truth, death (at His sovereign pleasure) would be seen as a way of obtaining the highest truth, real joy, and love. This is not to say that death itself must be pursued, but it is to say that when the soul that lives and dies for His glory and in His timing, that soul will find the highest truth along with real joy and love. Romans 14:8 sets out this great truth: “for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”

Acts 20:24 sets out how this would influence our view of life and ministry: “But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.” It is only when people are free from the fear of death (to some degree if not a large degree) that they are then able to live for His glory. As I Thessalonians 5:10 shows us, the issue is not death but it is being with Christ in this life and in the next: “who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.” I John 4:18 tells us that perfect love casts out fear because fear involves punishment.

Jesus also taught that we must be willing to deny self in order not to deny Him. Part of the denial of self is to deny our right to live as we please and perhaps to die in our own timing. To come to Christ in truth is to come to Christ in total submission to Him as our Master who can do with us as He pleases. This is nothing more than to pursue truth out of love both now and forever. It is to say that Christ is my Master and He is the One who chooses when I die and I will not fight Him over that. If He calls me to be a martyr, then so be it. The believer must learn in an increasing way not to fear death but instead to love true life which is Christ Himself. It is in the pursuit of Truth and Life (that is, Christ) that the fear of death will slowly fade away. This does not mean that a person will not fear the pain and certain things about it, but perhaps we can grow to be like Paul who cried out to be delivered from his body of sin. If we pursued truth enough perhaps we would hate sin so much that death would be a welcome deliverance from sin into the arms of Christ.

But for the present, we fear death because we are attached to the world and don’t want to leave it. We fear death because we do fear some punishment and so we have not been growing in love for Christ as we should have. We fear death because we don’t want to leave our families and friends, but in so doing that is idolatry because we should want and love Christ more. Perhaps, then, the real issue with our fear of death is that our hearts are too focused on and cleaving to this world. The modern brand of Christianity is so focused on a God who gives good and easy things now that it will not wrestle with sin and the hard things that God sends to train His people. With that focus the modern brand of Christianity simply cannot prepare people to pursue truth and love hard enough to not fear death. We are too shallow to grow up.

Charity does not oblige us to think any man good, because Christ says, “there is none good.” (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

The words of Christ in this passage should help all see themselves in the right light. If human beings could see themselves in light of these words and the great truths that are communicated by them, it would dash all pride and self-sufficiency. But the Holy Spirit alone can illumine the soul itself and give light to the truths and reality that these words point to.

Jeremiah 5:23 ‘But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; They have turned aside and departed. 24 ‘They do not say in their heart, “Let us now fear the LORD our God, Who gives rain in its season, Both the autumn rain and the spring rain, Who keeps for us The appointed weeks of the harvest.” 25 ‘Your iniquities have turned these away, And your sins have withheld good from you. 26 ‘For wicked men are found among My people, They watch like fowlers lying in wait; They set a trap, They catch men. 27 ‘Like a cage full of birds, So their houses are full of deceit; Therefore they have become great and rich. 28 ‘They are fat, they are sleek, They also excel in deeds of wickedness; They do not plead the cause, The cause of the orphan, that they may prosper; And they do not defend the rights of the poor. 29 ‘Shall I not punish these people?’ declares the LORD, ‘On a nation such as this Shall I not avenge Myself?’ 30 “An appalling and horrible thing Has happened in the land: 31 The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?

If the ministers who are to preach the words of God to His people do not preach the truth that no man is good and that all good must come from God, then what happens? Men will trust in themselves and look to themselves for some good. They will turn away from the Lord and trust in themselves. Regardless of how orthodox a man may claim to be, if he is not preaching and teaching about how men are to be emptied of all hope in themselves and have no good in themselves, that man is not preaching the truth in a truthful way. Sure enough the people will love it as they will rule over themselves and try to determine what is right, but that is not something that is of benefit but instead is a sign of the judgment of God.

It seems like such a small thing to people to bow to the Lord and confess that they have no goodness in them and cannot do one good thing apart from His grace working it in them, but it only appears a small thing because of the great darkness of people in the modern day who read those words. People who do not look to the fact that they have no good in them are full of pride as they think of what good they can do. People who do not know that they have no good in them will try to do good in their own strength. Of course they may say that it is to the glory of God, but it is really to the glory of their own strength and supposed goodness since that is where their strength and wisdom came from.

The very basis for salvation is in realizing that we have no good in us and we must have a new heart. The very basis for sanctification is to realize that we have no goodness in us and we must have His grace work goodness in our hearts so we can do good. It is only when our externally good acts come from a heart moved by the goodness of God in the soul that they are really good works. God takes sinners and raises them from the dead by His grace and as such they are His craftsmanship created for good works which He has prepared for them to do. But if people follow their own wisdom, then what they are doing is not the good works that God has prepared for them to do and they will be doing externally good works in a very wicked way as they are doing them for the idol of self.

Nothing another human being can do should oblige us to call them good when Christ said that no one is good. Nothing we can do ourselves should make us call ourselves good since Christ said that no one is good. Since Christ said no one is good, and “I” and a one, I am not good. But this releases me from trying to be good in my own strength and so is part of being free to love God and do all for His glory. If I am not trying to be good in my own strength, then by His grace I can live by grace and then His goodness flows in and through me.

Charity does not oblige us to think any man good, because Christ says, “there is none good.” (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

Perhaps one of the issues about our own depravity is our changing the definition from what is good in the eyes of God to what we like or want. When Moses cried out to God to show him His glory (Exodus 33:18), God responded my opening the eyes of Moses to His goodness and the sovereignty of His grace. For example, Psalm 136:1 starts off that important Psalm with these words: “Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.” The language seems to indicate that we are to give thanks to the LORD because He is good. How do we know He is good or what is one way this goodness is manifested? His goodness is manifested in the fact that the lovingkindness of the LORD is everlasting. So the lovingkindness of the LORD flows out of His goodness.

Psa 136:9 The moon and stars to rule by night, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
10 To Him who smote the Egyptians in their firstborn, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
11 And brought Israel out from their midst, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
12 With a strong hand and an outstretched arm, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
13 To Him who divided the Red Sea asunder, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
14 And made Israel pass through the midst of it, For His lovingkindness is everlasting;
15 But He overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
16 To Him who led His people through the wilderness, For His lovingkindness is everlasting;
17 To Him who smote great kings, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
18 And slew mighty kings, For His lovingkindness is everlasting:

In the parts of Psalm 136 listed above, not many people in the modern world would begin to understand how the lovingkindness and the goodness of God could possibly be displayed in those actions. How could it be that the lovingkindness of God in the smiting of the firstborn of the Egyptians was good? How could it be that when the LORD drowned the army of Pharaoh in the Red Sea that His lovingkindness displayed His goodness? How could it be that the goodness of God is seen in killing great and mighty kings? When we are hesitant to think of those things as displays of the goodness of God it displays the lack of goodness in our hearts because our idea of good is not the same as God’s idea of goodness.

God’s idea of goodness is the display of His glory in the good of His people who bear His name. In the modern day the idea of good is simply what feels good for me, though there are some who argue that it is what is good for the greatest number of people. The goodness of God shines forth in the cross of Christ, but so many today think of that as a horrible event and could not be true because of the wrath in it. The wicked heart of man can behold the very essence of the glory of the goodness of God and think of it as vile and beneath true morality. The human heart is so full of self that it does not seem to be able to see anything but what is of benefit to it (as it thinks of benefit) at the moment as good.

How wicked it is of the human heart to even think that its fleshly actions for self can be good. How wicked of the human heart to think that its fleshly actions in religion for self can possibly be acceptable to God. How wicked is the human heart to curse God for His display of justice and righteousness and think of it as evil. How wicked is the human heart to only think of good as that which makes it feel good. In doing so, that is one way human beings try to be like God. Notice how Genesis 3:5, which was the promise of the Serpent to Eve, fits with the present idea of human beings determining what is good: “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When man fell into sin, he thought he could determine right and wrong for himself. However, that is the prerogative of God alone. So man thinks he can determine what is right and wrong for himself and in doing so he judges God as non-good. To the degree human beings follow their own wisdom as to what is good is to the degree that they think goodness comes from them and is determined by them. This is a hideous evil and an attempt to usurp the throne of God. God and His goodness will triumph.

Charity does not oblige us to think any man good, because Christ says, “there is none good.” (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

The mindset of modern America and beyond is to speak in a positive manner about ourselves and others. We are supposed to be nice, kind, and positive so as not to disrupt the positive thoughts others are having of themselves. The great problem, we are told, is that people do not have enough self-esteem or they don’t think positive thoughts about themselves. Behind that type of thinking, however, is an utter denial of Christianity which is at least partially expressed by the words of Christ, as quoted above, “there is none good.”

This is a devastating word from Christ if each person would hear it in his or her heart. One can argue and defend this statement from Christ without having had it driven to the depths of his or her heart. But if ever the Spirit drives this great truth to the depths of the soul a person begins to see what s/he is and how utterly dependent s/he is on the sovereign hand of God. If the Spirit drives this to the depths of the soul, the person will see that s/he has never done one good thing and has no goodness in self to do one good thing. The Pharisees lived in strict observance to the Law as they interpreted it, but what they didn’t see was that they were not good but evil in their hearts and so they did not interpret the Law according to a perfect standard of real goodness. Then they set out with true evil in their hearts (self, self-reliance, self-dependence, self-love) rather than true goodness (God-centeredness, God-reliance, God-dependence, love for God) to keep their own interpretations of the Law and thought of that as good.

If people had ears to hear they could see the link between the previous two paragraphs. Both depend on a view that human beings have some goodness in them or that some goodness can come from them. True love not only does not demand that we think of human beings as having or being good, but it demands that we not think of them that way. External niceness and external religion (even if very rigid) cannot produce the slightest amount of goodness. The only thing that can come from a human heart without the grace of God and without God working in the heart is self and that is evil.

Each and every person should read those words of Christ and immediately fall on his or her face, but the very fact that people are not good means that they will not interpret this verse with its devastating meaning in accordance with truth. The heart that loves self will defend self from all attacks upon it and its perceived goodness and righteousness. But the heart that the Spirit is working in is losing its desire to defend self and is beginning to see what it is really like in the mirror of the Word. It sees through its own veil and veneer of niceness and self-righteousness to see the flood of evil (self) that is at the root of all it does. It sees through the defenses that self throws up so that self will not have to die and it begins to see that until self dies there will be no true goodness come from him or her.

Luther spoke of how one little word will fell him in speaking of the devil. In the text above Christ speaks (yes, speaks) four words that have the ability to fell all self-righteousness, self-love, and self-reliance from the hearts of human beings. Human beings are born dead in sins and trespasses and are not good. The problem is that human beings have developed a different idea of what goodness is than the Bible. Modern American has its own idea and the Pharisees had theirs. But both are nothing but illusions and they will deceive until the Day of Judgment when all illusions will dissipate in the glare of pure light and holiness as the morning fog is burned away by the sun.

The words of Christ (above) dealt a death blow to those who were deceived by the way of the Pharisees. The words of Christ deal a death blow to those who are deceived by the way of modern America. Human beings are not good and they have no access to true good apart from the goodness of God in making them new and then Christ dwelling in them by His Spirit. While it may not be nice in the American sense to tell people that they are without goodness, it is true love to do so. While it may not appear to be kind in the modern American sense to tell people this, it is true kindness to do so. Proclaiming the Gospel is not just telling people the easy and positive things, it is also telling them what they must know about themselves so that they will not trust in themselves but Christ alone.

Charity does not oblige us to think any man good, because Christ says, “there is none good.” (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

Indeed this should rake the heart of every saved sinner and every unsaved sinner as well. When Christ says that “there is none good”, we can know that there is not one person who is good in and of himself. That, of course, though more painful, for each person means me. Of course Jesus meant that no one had a nature of perfect goodness and no one could do good in and of themselves but God alone. But the implications for that are simply staggering and humbling. No human being is good and no human being can do good apart from God working that in the soul. Oh how that should strike at our hearts and deliver us from all pride. The only thing that I can do in and of myself is non-good, which means that I am utterly dependent on God alone for any good that comes from me.

Romans 3:12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”

While this verse indicts all human beings, it also indicts each and every human being including me. Not only am I not obliged to think of myself as good, I am obliged to see myself as utterly dependent on God for all good that I may do. But apart from God, I am utterly useless and worthless to do one good thing. I have turned aside and I have become useless and worthless to do one good thing. If there is not one human being that does good, then I don’t do good as well. The conclusion, then, is that I am not good and I don’t do good. What room is there for pride in the evil I have done? What room is there for pride if something good does come through me? The depths of humility is what I need, not pride or pats on the back.

Titus 3:3 For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.

This verse is a puzzle to many people, but it brings the light upon the lives of those who are not Christians and on the former lives of those who are now. It tells us that outside of Christ we were foolish, disobedient, and deceived. It tells us (me) that as unbelievers as we lived in our deceived state we had malice toward others and hated them even when we thought we loved them. We (I) were so deceived that in all we did toward others we hated them in doing what we thought was love. In doing so we have broken the second Greatest Command in all we did. Oh how terrible it is to think of how much I was guilty of hating others. Indeed, I should not think that others are good or that I was or am good. Any good that any human being can do has to be originated in God.

Luke 18:19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.

Indeed there is no one who is good in and of himself except God. He is goodness itself and all He does is perfectly good. Yet no man can claim that for self and no man can lay a legitimate claim to a good work apart from it coming from God who is good. This should decimate all claims to goodness of human beings.

1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

In this passage we have the apostle Paul telling us that whatever he was it was because of the grace of God. Not only that, but whatever his labor accomplished or did was not Paul but was the grace of God. The Scriptures are abundantly clear that no one should view others as good in themselves or that good can be done by them apart from the grace of God. But more pointedly, the Scriptures are just as clear in telling each person (me) that I have no goodness in me and I can do no good unless it is the grace of God working in and through him or her. How utterly helpless human beings are to do anything good apart from grace and we must recognize that to see true goodness.