Charles Lamb was a famous 19th Century writer, as a boy his sister Mary took him for a walk in a graveyard. As they walked round Charles read the headstones; ‘beloved’, ‘virtuous’, ‘charitable’, ‘generous’, ‘beloved’ and so on. As they left the graveyard and began walking home a puzzled Charles turned to his sister and asked; 'Mary, where are all the naughty people buried?'

I guess we all like to think of ourselves as good, though we may struggle to pin down exactly what being good means. It is an interesting question isn’t it, what exactly does a good person look like? Can there be such a thing as a good estate agent, apparently the most hated profession in Britain? Or a good traffic warden, or politician?

Is good something we can just define ourselves? Well, we know that doesn’t work as we watch events like 9/11 or 7/7, or the murder of young Rhys Jones. No-one could justify those acts by simply saying well I think they were good acts. So what does it mean to be good?

A few years ago a study was carried out to test a number of theories about morality and goodness, it posed a number of dilemmas to a group of respondents, here are two of them:

1. You see a child drowning in a pond, there is no one else around. You can save the child but you will ruin your trousers in the process. What do you do?
2. 5 patients are in hospital all dying of organ failure of different organs and all in need of a transplant. In the 6th bed is a healthy patient waiting to be discharged, all his organs are healthy and are suitable for transplant thereby saving the lives of the other five. What do you do?

Have you got your answers? I guess we all made the good choices to save the child and allow the man to live. Not too difficult really. But is that what goodness is? Is it just making choices that the majority say are right?

Imagine your local GP, you’ve know him for years, he treated you as a child and was always friendly with a big beaming smile that put you at your ease. You’ve grown up with him and he is always warm, friendly and caring, a house visit is never too much trouble and he always has time for his patients, always ready to talk and help. Outside of work he is a pillar of the community, leading the local scout group, practically supporting the homeless shelter and always doing a sponsored this or that to raise money for charity. Is your local GP a good man? I guess we’d all say yes.

But what if one night you are out for a walk and as you pass his house you hear enraged shouting followed by crying and then the dull thuds of fists striking flesh, before there is total silence. It turns out that your GP regularly beats his wife until she is unconscious. Question - is your GP a good man? No he’s not because in the most important relationship, the one that matters most he is an utter disgrace.

We can talk about goodness and define it by what we do but what Jesus and the Bible says actually matters is not what we do but our relationship to God.

Jesus one time met a man called Levi and went back to his house to eat, the good religious people of the day were scandalised because he was a tax collector - kind of like the traffic wardens of their day! Jesus said this to the good religious people: "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

Jesus doesn’t use the word good, he uses the word righteous, a word that means someone who is in a right relationship with God. It is not someone who does good things but unlike the GP in our scenario has the most important relationship right.

Jesus goes on to meet plenty of ‘good’ people as the gospels tell us but every time he points them to their need to get that most important of relationships right. To be right with God, to be forgiven for their rebellion and rejection of God.

But there is a problem, I can’t just fix my relationship with God, it needs someone to do that for me. As you read the gospels you are struck by the contrast between Jesus and everyone else he meets, Jesus has that right relationship with God, there is no rebellion, no rejection of God.

That is what I need to be, that is how I need to live if I am to be in a right relationship with God, but we just can’t do it. We are sinners - that’s what the bible calls those who are outside of a right relationship with God, who have that most important of relationships wrong. We do it in a hundred different ways, we ignore God, we just get on with our lives, we decide right and wrong for ourselves. But the great news is that Jesus has come for those people, for us.

How? Jesus lived life delighting God and in relationship with God and yet he died on the cross, in the place of someone who rebelled against God. Why? Because he takes our place - paying for our rebellion and we can take his place and be credited with his right relationship with God. God raised Jesus from the dead as proof that his sacrifice for us was acceptable and paid the penalty for our rebellion in full.

That is what the Christian believes, they are not trying to be good to earn their way into heaven, but they are trusting in Jesus having done it on their behalf, not having made them good but righteous. The church is the new community that Jesus calls to help each other live that new life in the light of that great news.

Christianity & Culture