Roots & Fruits - PART SIX
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G O O D N E S S
G O O D N E S S
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
What is goodness? The state or quality of being good. Well, that’s not helpful, is it?
The Greek word used in Galatians 5 is agathōsynē, which gives us a little more insight. It’s a noun, so it refers to the quality of being good. The root word, agathos, is an adjective. It can be defined as “morally excellent or virtuous.”
Goodness, then, as it is listed here among the fruit of the Spirit, refers to the quality of the character of a person whose live is lived by the Spirit.
In other words, Paul is saying that those who live their lives by the Spirit and produce the fruit that comes with it will be good people. They’ll be virtuous people. They’ll be people of high moral excellence.
Let’s talk about being a good person.
You might have heard someone say that being a Christian doesn’t mean that you’re better than anyone else; it just means that you’re forgiven. That’s true, but simplification like that can often lead us to a place of apathy about morality.
“We’re all sinners.” “No one is perfect.” “Only God can judge me.”
None of these statements are inherently false, but I want to spend some time tonight talking about the relationship between a life lived by grace through faith and a life of high moral conduct.
Let’s dissect this a little bit, because there are extremes that can be interpreted here.
One one hand, there are people who profess Jesus as Lord and attend church regularly and have several Bible verses memorized that are also not very good people.
There are also those who would objectively be considered by the majority of the world to be good people, but don’t profess Jesus as Lord.
In fact, some of the most “good” people I’ve ever met have not only not been professing Christians, they’ve been devout Muslims, or Hindus, or even atheists.
How do we reconcile this? Most importantly, how do we see the true goodness fruit of the Spirit show up in our lives? It’s important that we look at this in the right way. The other pitfall is getting caught in a merit-based mentality that deceives us into thinking our good deeds are what make us righteous.
Your goodness is only authentic when it comes as a result of the work of the Spirit on the inside of you. He transforms you into what God’s made you to be. Because He is good, he is able to cultivate the fruit of goodness in you in a way that develops you into the kind of person that isn’t righteous because of good works, but whose good works stem from a revelation of righteousness.
When our spirits are yielded and in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, we produce His fruit in our lives. Our part is not to strive for righteousness through doing good deeds. It’s to receive identity from the finished work of the cross and allow the grace gift of the Holy Spirit to so deeply dwell within us that the natural byproduct is a life of goodness.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
He is the source of goodness and He created us in Him for good works that are produced as a result of the salvation that we receive by grace through faith.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
We were created for good works, but the three most important words in that sentence demonstrate how we are to live that. It’s not of ourselves or our effort. It’s in Christ Jesus. They’re good works of Him, through Him, by Him, and in Him. Our goodness is merely a result of His goodness working in us and through us. Of yourself, you can’t do anything that has eternal value attached to it. You can’t be eternally-minded outside of the Author of Eternity.
There is nothing good that you can do of yourself that qualifies you to receive God’s goodness. Our lives fall short of deserving the grace of God. God’s goodness is without parallel and rival. Ours simply falls short every time. Isaiah refers to our righteous deeds as “filthy rags” or “polluted garments.”
I’ve known many people over the years who have quit trying to serve God because they were trying to manufacture a life of goodness out of their own souls, and it’s just not possible. The best goodness you can produce isn’t good enough to earn salvation.
If you’ve ever been a part of any of our evangelism outreaches, you know that we ask people that famous question. “If you were to die today, do you know for sure that you’d go to Heaven?” “Why or why not?” The answer we often hear is, “Because I’m a good person.” It’s not enough! The only goodness that matters is HIS goodness. His goodness took Jesus to the cross as a perfect, sinless sacrifice for your every sin. His goodness was without flaw or blemish, because it’s not just something that He performs; it’s who He is. Every part of Him is good, and only that goodness was enough to atone for our failure.
It’s the revelation of that goodness that allows us to live by the Spirit. We have the Spirit available to us simply because He’s good.
7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
The goodness of God gave us the Holy Spirit as a good gift, which means that we can have His fruit in our lives.
Your goodness couldn’t earn anything for you, but His goodness can do such a transformative work on the inside of you that it can then come through you to change your life and everything you touch.
Goodness isn’t selfish. It gives. Goodness doesn’t manipulate. It doesn’t seek to destroy others. It seeks to build them. It seeks to demonstrate Jesus in every way possible. We do the right thing as a response to what Jesus has done for us.
When you have a revelation of just how GOOD God is and how He withheld none of that goodness from you, you won’t want to hide it. You won’t want to keep it to yourself. You will want to make it the mission of your life to demonstrate God’s goodness to everyone.
We demonstrate His goodness through obedience to His Word. We demonstrate His goodness through the way we treat one another. We demonstrate His goodness through our response to Him and our love for that which He loves the most.
Goodness isn’t something that earns you anything. It’s the natural byproduct of a life lived in the Spirit and by the Spirit.
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
One of my favorite verses, because it’s so raw. I know I can relate to this.
Have you ever tried your hardest to make some changes and just couldn’t? And you hate that you don’t have what it takes to do the right thing or the good thing. And then you feel like you’ll never be good enough because you can’t kick that one habit or stop doing that one thing. It’s exhausting.
Trying to be good on your own will leave you demoralized and beat up.
Living by the Spirit results in the goodness of God dripping off of you. It’s the source of everything good you do. If you’re living out of another goodness, it’s temporary and destined for failure.
In order for us to live in this fruit, we have to get a revelation of it for ourselves.
8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
9 The Lord is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.
19 Oh, how abundant is your goodness,
which you have stored up for those who fear you
and worked for those who take refuge in you,
in the sight of the children of mankind!
1 Praise the Lord!
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
