Hey, are you a good person? Do you know people who are good people? Are there good people? Also, what do we mean when we use that phrase? What is good in that context? And I'm asking, because we're in Galatians 3, Paul, the author of the book of Galatians, has referenced Abraham, one of the most famous people in the Bible, one of the most famous, well-known people in the history of ever, really. And the big thing that is said about Abraham is he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Also, Paul says about Abraham, a man who predated him by about as much as Paul predates you and I as we're having this conversation. He also said about him that Abraham is, quote, the man of faith. So those are really nice things to say about Abraham. And then it seems like he's a pretty decent guy, in Paul's view, and I would tend to agree with that. I think Abraham comes off in the Bible as a pretty swell fellow, but not perfect, right? And if you and I were to say, okay, well, is it let's just run the exercise here. Abraham, from what we know about him, is he a good guy? Sometimes usually maybe the balance is good. I don't know, it's tricky, right? Because there are two kind of meanings of the word good when we evaluate a person in life. Way number one is grading on a curve. Is somebody good? Like, ah, that guy, you know, my plumber, he's a good guy. I think that about my plumber, by the way. He's in here working on my sink right now. And I would say about him unequivocally, he's a good guy. He's a new dad, and he seems like he's a great dad, and it seems like he's a great husband, and I think he shoots straight with people. That's the kind of person I would look at and say, he's a good guy. Now, is he perfect? Well, I'm sure not. I haven't seen a lot of imperfections, but he's a person, and I know how people are. So when we say good guy in general, it's on a curve. It's relative to everybody else. It's relative to people we've met who are not those things, who are not reliable. I also think that we all kind of have this sense of maybe it's uh self-preservation forgiveness, like I gotta forgive some people because I want to be forgiven for my dumb stuff. Maybe it's just something innate and beautiful that we can muster empathy somehow to be forgiving of other people. But I think we're all forgiving to an extent. I don't think anybody would look at someone who's made like a couple mistakes and be like, that's not a good person anymore. I think everybody knows that everybody blunders and screws stuff up. And so, generally speaking, when you use the term good guy when you're evaluating other people or your peers, you're doing it on a curve and you're not comparing them to like God because, well, God's a really good guy. He is super because all of his judgments are correct and he's unbound by time or lack of knowledge, and he can call existence out of non-existence, and whatever he ordains is right. So he's gonna get everything right all the time. That is an impossible standard to compare ourselves to. So, on the one hand, when we say somebody, you know, she's great, or he's a good guy, if we're comparing them to other people, we're like, look, on balance, this is a person who's trying to get it right. Do they always get it right? No. Do they, like all people, require a little bit of patience and forgiveness? Do they, like all people, have a couple absolute glaring mistakes they probably wish they could take back? My hand's raised. Yes, but on balance, yeah, it's a good guy, reliable enough, especially compared with some of the turds who have met along the way. But then there's this other way we might use the term good, where the point of contrast would be with God. And I don't think anybody matches up to that at all. I mean, if that's your point of reference, no one is good. And indeed, Jesus even says that, and I might embarrass myself here. I think that's in the conversation with the rich young ruler in Matthew, I think it's nineteen. Nope, I'm gonna look dumb. No, it is nineteen. Starting in verse sixteen. Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life? Oh, so this young man is viewing it in a transactional way, much like the Judaizers and Galatians were viewing goodness. Goodness is a thing I do to get God to give me something I want. Jesus asks. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments. Well, which ones? The man inquired. Jesus replied, Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself. Well, all these I've kept, the young man said. What do I still lack? Jesus answered, if you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven, then come follow me. Then the young man heard this and went away sad because he had great wealth. Now, given the larger context of what's going on here in Matthew and the rest of the teachings of Jesus, I don't think Jesus is literally saying that the way to have right standing with God is sell your stuff. I think, especially if you look at the Sermon on the Mount and how Jesus talks about righteousness, he's saying that's something that belongs to God, and there has to be a righteousness apart from the law. I mean, you see that in Matthew chapter five. That is a righteousness imparted, handed off to us by God. In other words, we have to have God's goodness on us, because there's no version of human goodness that is good enough when compared to God to earn right standing with God or to impress him enough. And in Matthew 19, we get a situation here where this young man just kind of runs into the end of his thinking, the end of his coddled pathway to getting the things he wants. Well, I am mommy and daddy's special little golden boy, and I do all the right things, and I get all the best grades, and I please all the teachers, and everyone's very impressed with me, and I get all the scholarships and all the awards, and now I am going to go and get the same warm fuzzies from this popular rabbi that is all the rage right now that I get from everybody else. Everyone, I know you've had tough luck with his teachings, but watch what happens when Lance, that's what I've decided his name is, the Golden Boy, goes and talks with him. Hello, Jesus, I'm Lance. Here's a question I totally don't know the answer to. What good things do I have to do to get eternal life? I know I've already done all the good things. Why do you ask me who's good? There's only one who's good, and if you want inner life, obey the commands. Which ones? He's just baiting Jesus into listing them off so we can be like, I've done that actually. Already did that, so I guess I'm kind of the exception to the rule. And then Jesus shuts it down by getting to the heart and demonstrating you're not actually good. And even though you willed yourself to do some things that are good, you are not actually good to the core of who you are. My guess is that if Jesus were having this conversation with me and I tried to impress him with all the things I think are most impressive about me, he would have picked a different thing that I gained my identity or sense of self or sense of meaning from, and he would have asked me to give that up and I would have walked away sad because I wouldn't be willing to give it up and it would out me as not being good in the way that God is good. Here's what I'm driving at. Am I a good guy? I hope so. Like in the human sense, I hope people would say that about me. I know there are people who wouldn't. I know there are probably a few people who are listening to this who'd be like, no, remember that thing? No, you're not a good guy, or you wouldn't have treated me that way. I'm sorry, by the way, to whoever that is and for whatever I did. I really am. I'm sorry. I am at a stage in life where I feel deep regret for the stuff I remember getting wrong, and deep regret for the stuff I don't even remember getting wrong. But the more familiar I get with my character, the more I can replay my past and realize, huh, I thought I was right about all that. I probably wasn't right about all of that. Probably hurt somebody the whole time thinking I was the good guy. I hope most people who know me would be like on balance. He's a decent guy. He's maybe a little bit too quick to talk sometimes, and every now and then he gets a little caffeine in his system and he acts like he knows everything and what everyone ought to do, and maybe gets a little bit judgy. But usually after he comes off the caffeine high, he'll settle down a little bit, maybe even apologize on a good day. Everybody would probably have some things that would get said about us, but you hope that on balance people would be like, yeah, compared to other people, I suppose, yeah, he's on the good end of the spectrum. She's decent enough. But compared to God, I would be outed just like this rich young ruler was. I would look like an idiot in front of Jesus. And young me, oh, I would have been the guy to trot ride out with all of my awards and all of my knowledge and all of my accolades and try to impress Jesus because I so desperately wanted the approval of the teachers. Look, uh, goodness before people and goodness before God, I really think these are two separate categories. And Paul in Galatians 3 is raising the question of goodness when it comes to Abraham, or maybe to the next level, righteousness. He's gonna use Abraham as a well-known story example to let this question play out in the minds of his audience, the minds of the recipients of this letter, the Galatian church. And anybody who reads Galatians and then thinks about Abraham and what he did and what he didn't do and what he got right and what he got wrong, and then thinks about the fact that he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, should do some self-reflection. That's what you're supposed to do with this letter. Whether you were hearing it was read the in the first place in the Galatian church on this day, or whether you're hearing it in this conversation right now, it's supposed to make you reflect. It's supposed to make you wonder things about whatever goodness in your life there is, where that came from. Who authored that? Who gave you that gift? It's supposed to make you reflect on the question of if you are a Christian, if you have the Holy Spirit. How did you get that in the first place? Did you get it the way Lance, the golden rich young ruler, was trying to get it? Or did you get it by believing what you heard? To quote Paul from Galatians three, verse two. And further, I think you're supposed to reflect on what being a decent person or a good person compared to other people means versus the goodness of God, about whom Jesus said in Matthew 19, there's only one who is good, he means God. Or Paul reflects on the same thing in another letter in the Bible where he says there's no one righteous, not even one. And I don't believe for a second Paul is saying in that passage that nobody does anything good, or there aren't people of character. I mean, later in the book of Galatians, he's going to talk about the fruits of the Spirit and life by the Spirit and what that looks like when the values of the kingdom and the characteristics of the values of God start to manifest in the life of the person who lives by the Spirit and is indwelt by the Spirit. Basically, what's happening here though with this letter is the same thing we see Jesus do to people several times. They imagine they are good in the compared to other people sense, and good in the compared to God sense. And then Jesus points out, uh, you might be good compared to other people, but you are not good compared to God. You might have sufficient righteousness to impress other people, but you do not have sufficient righteousness to impress God or to earn right standing with God. Paul's kind of running the same thought exercise here with the Galatian church and with you and me, and he's using the story of Abraham to help flesh out that question. And we've got a little more time that we need to spend with Abraham to understand more what he's driving at. All right, hopefully, time well spent. I'm Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Let's do this again soon.