God alone is "good"

And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
(Mark 10:18 ESV)

Our saviour Jesus knew what was the only thing "good" in this whole world. It was God.

This was the fundamental mistake that Eve made:

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
(Genesis 3:6 ESV)

When mankind called something other than God "good", that is when it fell from its glory and entered into slavery of sin and death.

There is nothing "good" in this world, except God. Everything else is bad, evil, darkness, death, compared to the glory of God's goodness.

To prize God as the only "Good" in the whole entire world. That is what it means to live the life that Jesus lived. To prize Jesus Christ as the only "Good" and to call everything else "evil", that is the worship that honours God.

God shall not have competitors.

God's forgiveness over sin

Sanctification advances when the glory of God's forgiveness appears infinitely more glorious than the deceptive and fading glory of sin. When we see that God's forgiveness and grace is so much better than sin, that is when we advance

Believing in Jesus is like...

Believing in Jesus can be compared to:

Imagine if you are outside, and suddenly it begins to rain. Not only rain but there is thunder and lightening and even hail stones size of tennis balls. You are terrified, so you knock at a stranger's home, and you plead with the owner to open the door and to let you in, to save you from the terrible storm.

Faith in Jesus is to believe, wholeheartedly, that He will come to the door, open it, and welcome you in. It is to trust that Jesus will do that. It is to trust that He will shelter you, and keep you safe, and to protect you. It is to trust in this everlasting mercy of Christ.

To not believe in Jesus, is to imagine that He will not come to the door, because He cannot be bothered, or because you have done things to Him that was offensive. It is to believe that He will let you stay outside and watch you knocking, and that He will not show any compassion to you, or any pity.

See what a terrible picture unbelief paints of Jesus! To trust is to throw ourselves into the arms of Jesus, expecting Him to catch us, and not to let go. It is to trust in His loving-kindness, and His mercy upon sinners. It is to lean on Him with all our weight. It is this faith that gives glory to Him.

Definition of the Christian life

The successful Christian life is impossible. Jesus said Himself that Salvation for man is impossible.

This is because to live a successful Christian life is to live a life of obedience.

But obedience is impossible for a human being, born with Adam's fallen spiritual DNA.

For God to command a human being to do something is like commanding a blind man to see, or a man with no legs to walk. It is not possible.

Yet that is what God did in giving mankind the Law. God in sum of the Ten Commandments asked man to do two things, to love Him and to love others.

Why did He do that? Why would he command the lame to walk, the blind to see, when he cannot? Why command us to do things that He knows that we cannot?

It was to reveal the utter sinfulness of our nature. It was to reveal that we are nothing. God gave an obstacle that is so high to reach, so that we will hurt ourselves trying to climb it, and realize how utterly impossible, how utterly impossible it truly is.

It was to reveal that salvation is by faith alone. Just as Abraham gave up all hope in himself in trying to make a baby by his power, and gave himself to trust rather in God who gives life to his and Sarah's dead body, so must a human being trust in God, that God through Jesus Christ may work in Him to give life.

The successful Christian life can only be achieved by one thing: trusting in God. We must realize how hopeless we are apart from Christ's help, and ask Him to give us the strength, that we may obey His commandments, not only in the letter, but of the spirit, in the heart. This is only possible through the Holy Spirit's help, through our utter dependence on Him.

The only hope for us is to trust in God's grace to work in us to give us the desire and the power to obey Him. Nothing else will work. No amount of "5 steps to a holy life", or will-power will work. A blind man desiring to see, and really seeing is different. It is Christ who gives sight to the blind, and life to the dead limbs, and breathes life into our being.

We cannot wait to be healed before we go to Christ, or we will never go to Him. We must go to Him with our uncleanness, with our blindness, our deadness, trusting that Christ will give life to us. And going to Him never ends. We will go to Him until we are completely healed. He is our only source of true life. Let us give up all trust in our selves, and trust in Him who gives life to the dead!!

God destroys but He has also been destroyed

"Ascribing such destructive activity to the God whose love for people has always been praised is very disturbing, but the world in which we live functions by means of destruction, decay, and death. The New Testament seldom speaks of nature that way [although consider Rom 8:20], but it does continue to say that God’s work with human beings on earth requires destruction and death. This time it is the destruction of the Son of God, and that puts things in a new light. It means that the Creator does not stand outside that circle of life, death, and new life, but participates in it personally"

From Amos: New Interpreter's Bible by Donald E. Gowan