I’m a basically good person.
If you buy the premise that you are basically good, you will miss the grace of God. If you believe you are fundamentally good, you don’t need grace.
This mindset forces you to rationalize, defend and try to prove to others that indeed you are basically good. Some would call this perfectionism.
I believed I was basically good. Before fully embracing the grace of God, I tried to spin my past in such a way that would put me in the best light possible. Defending my fragile ego was hard work. It was an endless task.
I missed out on truly knowing and experiencing God’s forgiveness.
The truth is that in and of ourselves, we are not basically good. Jesus was very clear on this point: “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18).
Our hearts, as Jeremiah wrote, are wicked and beyond cure. But not beyond the cure of God’s grace. God in His goodness reached you in Christ and forgave your sins. He changed your status from sinner to child of God.
This is truth that will set you free.
Do you spend time trying to convince yourself or others that you are “basically a good person”? Are you willing to accept the truth of Mark 10:18 and fully embrace Romans 4:5? “And to the one who does not work but believes in[a] him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,” (Romans 4:5).
