You Can't Be Good Without God. And Here's Why.

The rally cry of the American Humanist Association is "Good Without a God". A big problem with the "Good Without God" mantra is that a person's definition of what is "good" is determined by what that person believes. A person who believes in the God of the Bible will have a different definition of "good" than a person who believes in a different god, or no god.

And if God is real, as I affirm that He is, than His definition of what is good is the only correct definition. And so if our definition of "good" is different from His; we may think that we're good, but we're not. And the heart of what God calls good is to be in a good relationship with Him - personally. He is concerned not only with our outward behavior, but our inward spiritual condition; which correlates directly with our relationship with Him. So being good requires that we obey God because we recognize Him as our Father. And that requires faith. As the Scriptures say:

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him" Hebrews 11:6.

Some other specific passages that tell us what God considers to be good include:

• The Ten Commandments; Exodus 20:1-17

• The Sermon on the Mount; Matthew chapters 5-7, also see Luke 6:20-49

• The Last Supper Discourse; John chapters 13-17

• The Fruits of the Spirit; Galatians 5:22-23

Some specific passages describing what is not good in the eyes of God include:

• Galatians 5:19-21

• Romans 1:18-32

Now here is another big problem with the "Good Without God" mantra. According to God's definition, no one is good! This is a repeated statement in the Bible. 

• Ecclesiastes 7:20 says "For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin."

• Romans 3: 10-12 says "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."

• Psalm 14:1-3 says "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one."

• Psalm 53:1-3 repeats this verbatim.

• In Matthew 7:11 and Luke 11:13, Jesus calls all the people listening to Him "evil"! He says "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

• In John 7:7, Jesus makes a similar remark when talking to His half-brothers. He told them "The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil."

• And in Mark 10:18, Jesus gives a personal challenge to one man to admit that Jesus is God. When the man called Him "good teacher" Jesus answered "Why do you call me good? No one is good-except God alone."

• The same conversation is also recorded in Luke 18:19

• And finally, Romans 3:23-26 reads "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished - he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."