Desk of Dennis PillerFearlessly Courageous3 9 2023Click for Audio Version
Is There Really NO Good in Me, or My Spouse?How can I believe that?
I pray you will hear me out today because this will take God's Grace and some verifying on your part for you to receive today's message. Our Courageous men’s group is doing an in-depth study of Romans. In Chapter 3: 10 -12
“There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understands, There is none that seeketh after God. They are ALL gone out of the way, they all together have become unprofitable;There is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
Matt Henry in his commentary says, “here again, is showing that all mankind is under the guilt of sin, as a burden: and under the government and dominion of sin, as enslaved to it, to work wickedness”We had a hearty discussion about what it means that no one does good …not even one. Even Christians struggle with accepting this. Some Christians have not acknowledged it as even being scriptural.A DefinitionTotal depravity basically states that human beings since the fall, inherited the guilt and sinful nature of Adam and that absolutely everything they will ever do is affected by sin! How we think, how we reason…and how we justify.This does not mean every person is as sinful as they could possibly be. It does mean, that every part of a person has been corrupted – the heart, mind, will, affections, desires, critical thinking, everything! (see, for examples, Gen. 6:5, 8:21, Isaiah 59:3, Jeremiah 17:9, Psalm 53:1-3, Matthew 15:19, Romans 3:10-18, Romans 8:7-8, Ephesians 2:1, John 8:34, John 3:19).
One of the reasons so many reject this is because it presentsA LOW VIEW OF MAN
Human nature loves to be coddled. It loves to be encouraged. Men and women love to be told of their self-worth, self-importance, and innate goodness. We raise our kids that way. Even 5th place gets a trophy. I know that’s true of me.
The truth is what I’m sharing is especially hard for young believers, and even for mature believers to receive. I think that people could never understand this without God’s grace and neither can we! Mankind is not only undeserving but actually worthy of the eternal wrath of God. (You may be beginning to understand why we don’t talk about religion or theology at a dinner party). But may I ask, whoever talks about these things? How can we know them if someone doesn’t teach us, or challenges us, so we can teach others?
Psalm 7:11 says: “God is angry with the wicked”. But we define wicked as a political figure we’re not voting for, but we don’t like that word when it describes the state of all persons outside of Christ. (We could never say that out loud).
The truth is not even Christians want to think about this topic. Because it grates against human experience. Because we too think we do a lot of good things along with a lot of people we know. We are good dads and moms, we help people, we are usually kind, and we believe in God. We know we’re sinners but to say there is nothing good in us?…. Well, I just can’t swallow that… It’s just another myth of a 2000-year-old book that has a lot of good stuff in it.
Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109), the brilliant medieval theologian, saw in this truth compelling evidence for God’s existence. He noted that everyone agrees there is a great variety of goods in the world. There are physical goods, intellectual goods, and relational goods. This is a basic fact of reality. From this fact, Anselm asks, “What makes all of the good things good?” And he concludes that the good things are not independently good. They are not good by themselves. Rather, there must be some ultimate good that makes all the other things good".
In other words, Anselm reasoned there must be a supreme good that is the source of all other goodness. In doing so, he was following in the footsteps of David in Psalm 16. David confesses that there is a Supreme Good that makes all other goods good. And Yahweh is this Supreme Good. Or, as David prays elsewhere, God is my “exceeding joy” — literally, “the joy of joys” (Psalm 43:4). David knows his refuge is the foundational joy on which all other joys are built.
Can we go just a bit deeper? God’s goodness is unique.All created goods are finite, temporal, and changing. But God is infinite, eternal, and unchanging. The apostle James celebrates this fact: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17).Please stay with me…Created goods cast shadows. As good as they are, they are not infinite goods. They are limited, and they fade. But God has no shadow, and he does not change. His goodness is without boundaries or limits. His is an absolute and essential goodness.
We call a man righteous because he meets the standard of righteousness. We call a man wise because he conforms to the pattern of wisdom.But God is the standard. He is the pattern. He is not merely righteous;he is righteousness itself. He is not merely wise; he is wisdom itself.He is not merely strong; he is strength itself. And he is not merely good; he is goodness itself. Or again, the Lord is not merely righteous, wise, strong, and good.He is the Righteous, the Wise, the Strong, and the Good.This is what it means for God to be God, for God to be Yahweh, I Am Who I Am. This is why Jesus can say, “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18). He is the fountain of all goodness, the source, and origin of all pleasure and joy. He is infinite, eternal, unchanging, inexhaustible, self-sufficient, and all-sufficient, without limit or diminishment. Lastly – God has no need of my goodness.Because God is the source of all goodness, my goodness does not benefit God in any way. He is above all needs and all improvement. David in this psalm revels in the fact that he has nothing to offer God but his poverty, his weakness, and his need. He has no gift to give to God that he might be repaid. The Lord is all-sufficient, and it is because he is all-sufficient thathe can be sufficient for me. (I pray you are taking this in).And this means that God is not merely the ultimate and supreme Good.He is my Good. And for him to be my highest good is for him to be my greatest pleasure. My ultimate well-being and happiness are found in him and him alone. Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) expressed this glorious truth as well as anyone else in his sermon “The True Christian’s Life a Journey Towards Heaven”:"God is the highest good of the reasonable creature. The enjoyment of him is our proper happiness and is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here: better than fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of any or all earthly friends. These are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams; but God is the sun. These are but streams; but God is the fountain. These are but drops; but God is the ocean. (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 17:437–38) Great are you Lord. Casting Crownshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZqV6i98SkAExcerpts are taken from 3 Reasons People Reject Total Depravity by:Allen S. Nelson IV is an M.Div student at GBTS and Pastor of Perryville Second Baptist Church in Perryville, AR.
