Innately Good

1 John 1:8, 10 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. . . . If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”

Don’t we all want to think that we are innately good? Deep down, we want to think we are good people and when pressed we will always try to make people believe we are decent.

Have you ever watched the television show “Moment of Truth?” If you have not then the premise is basically people go on this program and answer questions to win money. They have been previously hooked up to a lie detector test and then they pick questions to use on the show and all the contestant has to do is tell the truth. Simple, right? You would think so, especially if we are all “good.” You can win $500,000 by answering around 21 questions out of 50 you are asked during the polygraph. No one has yet won more then $100,000. Why?

No one has won because they do not want to believe they are as bad as they are. We don’t want to think we are as bad as we are. I watched this woman answer questions about her life that would make a lot of people blush, but when one question came up that talked about her sexual life she could not answer with the truth. She was asked if it was hard for men to get her in bed, and she answered, “No,” because she did not want to be seen as a bad person. You could tell immediately from her disposition and the way she fidgeted in her seat that she knew the real answer.

How would you fare on “The Moment of Truth?” If someone hooked you into a polygraph and pried into your life, would you be able to answer any and all questions and be considered “good.” I am betting no, because all of us have fallen short in one way or another. None of us are as “good” as we would like to think we are. We all have fallen short of the standards of God and sinned, and as the verse tells us, we deceive ourselves if we say otherwise. This new television show is proof of that.

Through Salvation in Christ we find forgiveness, as Christ bore our sins on the cross and defeated death for us in the resurrection. Without this forgiveness we deserve to be punished, because as “The Moment of Truth” proves, none of us are good, which was confirmed in the Bible many, many years ago.

Praise God that tucked between verses eight and ten is verse nine that tells us that if we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us.

The next time you think you are good enough, just imagine yourself sitting before God and having to answer every question about your life. Would you be “good” enough? Would you meet His standards on your own? Or would you fall short, just like all the contestants?

Christ is there for all of us and all we have to do is repent and accept Him as Savior. He bore your sins on the cross, because none of us are “good” enough. Jesus gave us our way out through believing in Him. Romans 10:9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”