By Karen Patrick
Introduction
Data from the most recent American Worldview Inventory conducted by Professor George Barna, researcher at Arizona Christian University, reveals that 46% of people surveyed believe that “people are neither good nor bad when they are born, but become either good or bad through their accumulated life choices.”1 Additionally, 24% believe that “the best indicator of a successful life is being a good person.”2 Given the prevalence of these beliefs, it’s not surprising that people are motivated to do good things every day. Wealthy philanthropists contribute generously toward causes like alleviating hunger, curing diseases, and promoting their view of justice around the world. Unnamed heroes risk their lives daily to save others while neighbors unselfishly help a friend in need without expecting anything in return. Some of these people give glory to God for their good deeds, but many do not. Is this evidence of some other foundation for goodness besides God? Is doing good the same as being inherently good? Are outward acts the same as inward righteousness? Let’s think about it.
Defining Good
Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that a thing is good to the extent that it fulfills the purpose for which it was created—its telos. A good knife cuts a straight edge, a good piano plays all its notes in tune, and a good car transports its passengers safely to their destination. Catholic priest Thomas Aquinas took Aristotle’s definition one step further, combining philosophy with theology, and believed that good is defined by how well someone or something fulfills God’s purposes for his creation.
When we consider morality, people are usually thought to be good if they conduct themselves in ways that demonstrate qualities like self-sacrifice, generosity, or kindness. All these virtues allow humans to exist alongside each other in ways that promote the common good and lead to human flourishing as defined by the society in which they live.
From a biblical standpoint, good is whatever lines up with the objective, unchanging nature of God. Good is not just what God does, good is what he is. God is also holy. The holiness of God is, “on the one hand, entire freedom from moral evil and, on the other, absolute moral perfection.”3 Theologian A.W. Tozer says, “God is holy and He has made holiness the moral condition necessary to the health of His universe. . . . Whatever is holy is healthy; evil is a moral sickness that must end ultimately in death.”4 It’s not difficult to look around and see that all is not well with the world; however, the Christian worldview offers the most compelling answers to how this happened and what our good, holy, and perfect Creator did to fix it.
In the Beginning. . .
The opening verses of the biblical story reveal how God created a world out of nothing and then called that world good seven times in the first chapter of Genesis. The Hebrew word for good, tov, means what is desirable, beautiful, or right. God affirms from the beginning that everything he made was in right relationship with him. The creation narrative also indicates that humans were formed with a certain purpose, or telos. Their telos was to image God, know him, and make him known. Centuries later the psalmist writes that our purpose includes worship when he exclaims, “Oh, come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!”5 C.S. Lewis expresses it this way: “Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. . . . God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”6 Despite God’s good design, the first humans chose to fracture this perfect relationship with their Creator.
Evil, the deprivation of good, entered the world when humans succumbed to the temptation to distrust God and define their own purpose. Much like rust is the absence of metal in the frame of a car, or rot leaves a threadbare spot in a piece of cloth, evil is a hole in the human heart where goodness was meant to dwell. When humans decided to take it upon themselves to judge good and evil by their own standards rather than by God’s objective unchanging standard, good was redefined pragmatically by what works or subjectively by what brings personal satisfaction. How is it, then, that we can sometimes do good things that align with God’s moral standard?
Written on the Heart
Scripture affirms that every person knows how to do good because of the ways in which God graciously reveals himself. The Apostle Paul writes, “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.”7 This inherent knowledge of right and wrong is referred to as “natural law” and so even those who don’t believe in God can still choose to behave in ways that conform to his moral law. Professor J. Budziszewski writes that “natural-law theory assumes that the problem is mainly volitional—that it has to do with the state of our will. It holds that by and large we know what’s right and wrong but wish we didn’t, and that we try to keep ourselves in ignorance so that we can do as we please.”8 But are we good just because we sometimes make the choice to do good?
No Good People
The biblical metanarrative contains four parts: creation, fall, redemption, and new creation. The entire story points to humans’ inability to meet the requirements set forth by their Creator God to be in right relationship with him. It provides evidence that there are no good people, but there is good news: “The gospel is the story of a rescue, of a path of salvation which God has opened up to a world that has forsaken him and cannot save itself.”9 The gospel writers Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell the story of a man who comes to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. In each account, Jesus holds the law up as a mirror to demonstrate how, despite his best efforts, he is incapable of achieving the perfection required to enter the presence of a perfectly good and holy God. The same is true for every person who has ever lived. Scripture confirms repeatedly that no one can achieve “righteousness” or right standing before God on her own merits. According to Romans 3:10–12, “as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’”
The Great Exchange
The heart is the “center of the physical, mental, and spiritual life of humans.”10 If this is true, then the condition of our hearts is vitally important as we relate to each other and to our Creator. Sadly, since sin entered the world, our hearts have been corrupted by its debilitating effects. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”11 Scripture also states, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”12 Thankfully, there is a cure: “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”13
We must believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths the gospel—the truly good news that Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, came to earth, lived a sinless life, and accomplished for us what we were unable to do for ourselves. He took the punishment we deserved because of our sin and died an excruciating death on the cross as the perfect spotless sacrifice. Jesus exchanged our sin for his righteousness: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”14 He was buried and came back to life three days later just as he predicted and secured eternal life in the presence of a good and holy God for all who choose to place their faith in him.
Conclusion
Our only hope in this life and eternity is in the finished work of Jesus. “We must hide our unholiness in the wounds of Christ as Moses hid himself in the cleft of the rock while the glory of God passed by. . . . Above all we must believe that God sees us perfect in His Son while He disciplines and chastens and purges us that we may be partakers of His holiness.”15 While we can sometimes do good things, our goodness rests solely in our good God and his good purposes for us.
References:
1. George Barna, American Worldview Inventory 2023-25:The Annual Report on the State of the Worldview in the United States (Arizona Christian University Press, 2025), 35.
2. Barna, American Worldview Inventory 2023-25, 35.
3. Merrill F. Unger, “Holiness,” in The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary Revised and Updated Edition, ed. R.K. Harrison, Howard F. Vos, and Cyril J. Barber (Moody Press, 1988), 802.
4. A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (HarperCollins Publishers, 1961), 106.
5. Psalm 95:6
6. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (HarperCollins Publishers, 1980), 50.
7. Romans 2:14–15
8. J. Budziszewski, Written on the Heart: The Case for Natural Law (InterVarsity Press, 1997), 185.
9. Budziszewski, Written on the Heart: The Case for Natural Law, 179.
10. G. P. Cowen, “Heart,” in Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, ed. C. Brand et al.(Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 731.
11. Jeremiah 17:9
12. Romans 3:23
13. Romans 10:10
14. 2 Corinthians 5:21
15. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, 107.