There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. But there will be glory and honor and peace from God for all who do good—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism. Romans 2:9-11
There is a God-ordained balance to everything under the sun. From the first rays of creation God chose to
have the results of His work involved in spreading “good” and dispelling
evil. This is characteristic of God’s
nature; He is good!
Adam and Eve quickly disproved that we are capable of sustaining personal
goodness. Jesus chided the man who came to him and called him Good
rabbi, informing the
man that only God is good. Paul the
apostle said the same in no uncertain terms, that we are all sinners, and that
included himself:
And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. Romans 7:18
Fast-forward a couple of millennia and you have our day, truth forever on
the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne…we are still proving Jesus’ point
that humanity is incapable of sustaining “goodness”.
Yet, in today’s reading, Paul asserts there will be glory, honor,
and peace for all who do good.
So, what gives, Paul? Is there a
possibility to enter that category of those who are blessed for “doing good”? Or are we consigned to failure in our epic
attempts to overcome our no-good selves with doing good? The answer is a simple answer (to those with
ears to hear) … yes and no. Well, thanks, that clears it up.
Seriously…the answer is “yes” if all the so-called good
we do is what we can do; we are doomed to fail in our own
strength. On the other hand, that reward
of glory, honor, and peace is available to those whose lives are surrendered to
Christ, being led (empowered) by the Spirit of God, not just personal
advancement thru works.
In Acts 8 Simon, a man who gained fame and wealth by using witchcraft saw the apostles
laying hands on people so they would receive the Holy Ghost. Simon saw the advantage of that power and
offered the apostles money to have that gift of laying on hands. Peter saw through this veiled offer to do
good and told Simon he and his money would be destroyed for such
evil. In this we see the contrast of Peter,
doing good works for the sake of God’s will, and Simon, barging-in with a plan
to do powerful stuff to boost his popularity ratings. An apostle was led and empowered by the
Spirit of God; the other carrying on the tradition of evil with a false face of
good to float a lie.
And the beat goes on…in politics, business, daily life, and even the
church. It is no wonder Scripture
cautions us to pray without ceasing; our hearts are so prone to wander from God and into evil. As the hymn has it:
Oh, to grace how great a debtor daily
I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee:
prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it; seal it for thy courts above.
This is the kind of transparent, honest prayer which surrenders our hearts
and lives to the keeping of God and invites the Spirit of God to do the good
works of God’s Kingdom through us.
It is the Spirit who empowers any genuine goodness.
For You Today
You
chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
Title image, Pixabay.com W Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
For other posts on Psalm 90 see: The God of Equal Opportunity and
The Road that Leads Home
