When I shared my frustration with those who list all the bad character traits of an individual and then add the qualifier, "But they're a good person," because there are no good people, he told me, "That's a terrible attitude!" But it wasn't my attitude I was sharing -- it's God's truth. There are no good people. Only God is good. Jesus said so, it must be true (Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19). The prophet Isaiah, hundreds of years before, said: "We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment" (Isaiah 64:6). Even when we do what looks good, it is filthy!
So I hear in his response to truth a boastful attitude, a blindness to badness: "Why try to be good if we are just bad?" And I think most try because deep down somewhere they know they are bad, it's just self-pride which keeps them from embracing all their broken bad.
He came for the sin-sick, not the ones who see themselves as good (Mark 2:16-17), and He said there is more rejoicing in heaven over the sinner who repents than all the righteous who don't need to (Luke 15:7). There just seems to be no room in heaven for those who boast in their goodness.
He came to be broken so we could be healed. So, yes, I boast only in Him, knowing no good in me. "Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth" (Jeremiah 9:24). He practiced His love, justice, and righteousness in the earth by breaking Himself on a cross for those who know they are broken through and through. #sistertalkfaith #nogoodpeopleallowed #boastin Him
