If you are a good person in yourself do you really need Jesus to cover your goodness?

Question

for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.” Galatians 2:21

Jesus said,“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”Mark 2:17

Jesus did not come for those who are good. Jesus came for the wicked, vile sinful person that can do nothing good on their own. this is the person who really needs Jesus.

Answer 1

All flesh is sin sick and Jesus, the physician, healed our sickness with his perfect life, sinners death, and resurrection. The only enemy left to be put under his feet is death; 1st Cor 15:26.

We are a two-fold being; a flesh man and a spiritual man. The part which needed a savior was our outward man, because our inward man is Christ in us, so we do have a perfect man living within us; 2nd Cor 4:16, "...but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day".

2nd Cor 5:19, "To wit, that God was IN Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, NOT IMPUTING THEIR TRESPASSES UNTO THEM and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation".

To whom was the trespasses of the world charged (imputed)? To Christ Jesus, He couldn't die without sin, but He took our sins upon Himself and died for them all.

Great question. I read all of your answerers, and it is amazing at the differences of thought.

Answer 2

There is no-one good. Goodness is a concept that can never be applied to sinful, fallen humanity. We are born in sin. We die in sin. The main sin we all suffer from is PRIDE. We're so proud, so arrogant, so self-righteous that we tell ourselves we are "good". Define 'good' according to God's standards.

We have all fallen short of God's perfect standards and a holy and righteous God cannot countenance sin. That's why Jesus had to step in. EVERYONE on the face of the planet is sick (spiritually). We are ALL sinners. Perhaps some are more sick than others because they cannot even admit that they need help.

Please do not take the Bible and twist it to suggest that people are good. If you are trying to say that we ALL need Jesus because we are ALL wicked, vile and sinful and can do nothing good on our own, then you need to make that clear.

I haven't read the answers but I suspect that a lot of people will have taken your statements to suggest that Christians are good and those who are not Christians are wicked, vile, sinful and are incapable of doing 'good'. Please clarify.

Answer 3

Not sure where to start. Lets try this:
1. Are you saying that one's amount of goodness gets them to heaven? If so, just how much good is good enough? To make this part shorter, there is a very, very small book out there (so you dont have to read so much in case you do not like to read books!) called "How good is good enough". Buy it. It is a great book in plain english and any religion can relate to it. If you believe you get to heaven by being the best "good" person you can be, you will Always have doubt. You can even ask people who call themselves Christians the question of are you sure you will go to heaven and you will get answers like "I sure hope so!", "I think so" etc. It is sad because Christianity has one big difference from ALL others. It is the fact that it is by God's grace ONLY that we go to heaven when we become "saved" or "born again" or "circumcision" (this means of the heart not physically) it has many names. You can only do this through Jesus Christ. Nothing else will get you there. The Bible clearly tells us that if you do not know his son, then you do not know Him.
2. I think if you look up what righteous means, you will see that the definition is not the word "good". In order to be a righteous man/person you would have to be saved and have a relationship with God. This does not have to be the case to be what the WORLD calls a good person. You can read in your Bible what God thinks about you recipercating gifts or love to someone who has given to you or loves you. Does that make you a good person? What is the big deal about loving someone who loves you back? There is no greatness in that, etc. etc.
3. So no, Jesus did not come for those who were righteous and already believers, but he came for the non-believers. Just as the example given where the well do not see a physician, but the sick do. This is also the reason he chose the apostles that he did. He could have chosen believers, but he did not. Our wordly version of those chosen would be he could have chosen good people in every sense of the word (good do-ers, super educated, well known, etc.). But what type of witness would they be to the non-believer?
4. Christ did die in vain if righteousness comes through the law. The Pharisees were stuck on law and tradition. You can read for yourself what God thought of their timely and great sacrifices to the altar, but yet they went to the altar leaving things undone or had wronged someone; making their sacrifice worthless. They missed the boat. Saul (who later became Paul, one of the greatest in my opinion) was an extemely religious man. He followed the law to the "t" and persecuted the christians as well for his beliefs. You see what happened to him and how God used him?!
5. You are not a saved person by being a good person or by doing good works. But instead, when you are saved you have a circumcision of the heart/change of the heart. Therefore, you want to do good and do good for others.
I hopes this helps you understand the scripture you chose above and more.

Answer 4

We have all sinned.

Being a good person or a bad person is not as black and white as (particularly American) society would like things to be.

Very good people have sinned. Bad people do good things. We are all human and have Adam and Eve's DNA so we all carry the original sin in us. Read the following two excerpts in particular the sections between ***.

1 John 1:6-10

6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 *** If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. ***

Romans 3:20-24

20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no ° flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
23 *** For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; ***
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

Answer 5

good point about jesus not coming for those without sin...but "all have sinned and fallen short the glory of God." The comment about Jesus not coming for the blameless is orientated to those who believe they have done no wrong and therefore are too self-righteous to see the Truth. This is why Jesus didn't waste His time with the Pharisees and Saduciees.

Hope this helped

Answer 6

Time to get off your high horse. All of us are fallen since the fall of Adam and Eve. We are mortal and have animalian desires. It's great to be a good person, but nobody can be good enough to reach God's presence without Jesus. It is He who overcame death for us. It is He who overcomes the sins of the repentant. Try to get there on your own and you'll never get there.
We all need Christ's Atonement to reach salvation. If not, should Christ not have spent his time with the Pharisees and priests of the day? He was with the humble, the poor and downtrodden to teach us that the glory we seek is not worldly fame and glory, but greatness of character and truth to God.

Answer 7

Galatians 2:21 This verse shows that righteousness comes through the grace of God, not by good works or the law.

Remember, we do not go to heaven for being good. We go to heaven by the grace of God only. We do good works because our love of God compels us.

Mark 2:17 If righteousness comes through God's grace, those that have not accepted it need the Lord. We are all sinners, but they are sinners who have not accepted the covering of their sins (Christ's death on the cross).

Answer 8

You are missing a few key verses..
Romans 3: 23 "for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;"

James 2:10 "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all."


You would have to be perfect, to have never even had one wrong thought, in order to not need Jesus.

Answer 9

That is a good scripture topic and I hope to be able to share my view. In Gal.2:21, if we was to go back and read the whole chapter in our bibles we would see the whole picture of this matter. Apostle Peter was acting like a biggot and when the Jews was around him he related to the Jews in Christ. Now when the Gentiles in Christ came around he seperated himself like they did according to the law of Moses. Notice it was the law of Moses, Paul was refering to the works of this law. How do we know this ? Just checkout verse 8 and 12 and16 these pertain to circumcision and ceremonies which the Ten Commandments has none. The Ten Commandments say, thou shalt and shalt not, honor, and remember. The law of Moses shadowed Jesus' death and need for the blood for atonment, these was sacrafices. I agree that we need no more sacrafices and ordinances that pertain to works for salvation. Jesus died for me and all who will accept him in faith of his ultimate sacrafice on the cross ! Now as for keeping the Law of God, not the law of moses that was nailed to his cross we need to be saved and be Holyspirit filled to obey it. Only a sinner who has repented and see their need to "sin no more" that is in Christ, born-again can keep the Law of God. Being good has nothing to do with salvation, to qualify you have to be a sinner.(Mark 2:17) Now should any sick person after their healed go back to things that made them sick ? No ! Naturally that makes no sence and spiritually that makes no sense at all my friend. I think you got this matter wrong and need to relearn for truth's(Jesus) sake.

Answer 10

I am not a religious person at all, nor do I want to be, I feel that I am born with two paths to follow, the bad or the good, I chose the good, I think that when someone is doing good deeds in their life and conducting themselves in a honest and righteaous way, there is no less value in your actions then that of someone who truly believes that Jesus is their savior. I live my life the way my heart tells me to, and if my heart is the creation of a higher being I don't believe I have anything to worry about.