God Does Not Grade on a Curve

Months ago, I had a conversation with some friends about the show “Lost” and one of its main characters, Benjamin Linus. Linus was known for antagonizing, manipulating, lying and murdering hundreds of people. Yet when discussing this character, one of my friends said, “I still think that deep-down Ben is good.”

If Benjamin Linus is good, then what is “bad?” Lostpedia describes him as being a “compulsive liar” and showing “many signs of being a sociopath: excessive lying, manipulation, kills with no guilt or mercy….”

We want to believe that such a person is still “good.” We don’t want to believe we are bad. Why is this? Perhaps we do not really understand what is good and what is not. So maybe the real question is the definition of good and bad. How do we know if we are good or bad?

Well, the Bible gives the answer to this question that God is good and we are not. Jesus says in Mark 10:18 that “No one is good except God alone.” And we also know from the Bible that everything God created is good (1 Timothy 4:4). So what happened, why are we no longer good? Because of the fall… because of sin. It is true that we were created good, but we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23 ESV).” Things changed on that day (Genesis 3).

So the Bible says that God is good, but what else does it say about us? Here are some more passages to indict us:

“The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” –Genesis 6:5 ESV

10“…as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”” –Romans 3:10-12 ESV

“…Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.” –Genesis 8:21 ESV

“…They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good.” –Jeremiah 4:22 ESV

And it goes on. There are countless more passages in the Bible that detail how sinful – and how far from good – we really are.

So what hope is there?

The ramifications for this are huge. We can stop living to please God, trying to be “good” so He will be “happy” with us and bless us. Our righteousness and salvation are not attached to how “good” we are. Our righteousness and salvation are attached to Jesus, the only one that is good and the only one that got it right.

This truth leads those of us who are Christians to stop viewing God as someone we have to please and frees us up to see Him as the loving Father that He is and to be fruitful for His kingdom. This truth leads those of us who are not Christians down the path of understanding our need for a Savior and eventually to repentance and a new life where we are no longer “bad,” as Jesus has gifted us His righteousness.

We can be good through Jesus… because of Jesus… because He died for our sins and we are righteous in Him.

There is no “good.” God does not grade on a curve.

There is only Jesus. He grades on Jesus.