Good as God

“Now behold, one came and said to Him [Jesus], ‘Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?’

“So He said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter life, keep the commandments.’. . .

“The young man said to Him, ‘All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?’

“Jesus said to him, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’”

(Matthew 19:16–21)

My six-year-old son Ian received a sucker this week in Sunday school. It was one of those specialty suckers—made entirely of sugar, of course, like all the rest—but this one not only was fashioned in the form of a snail, but you could eat the stick as well. He was thoroughly impressed, and I was too.

As we prepared to sit down to Sunday dinner, his mother investigated: “Now why again did you get this sucker?” I had not thought to ask this. I had thought it was merely a gift, but my wife knows many things I do not—she senses them, intuits them.

I think Ian had probably forgotten momentarily the why part of the equation as well. He seemed more interested in that he had gotten a sucker rather than why. Nonetheless, the truth was called forth from the now-ancient (three-hours-earlier) past.

“It was because I was good as God.”

I know he was not meaning to be blasphemous. Even I can intuit that much. Language is a really funny thing with six-year-olds. He says things like this all of the time—like, “Let me ‘tell’ you a question”—the grammar teacher has learned much patience. The theologian in me gets a little more anxious, however. Regardless his actual meaning, I was quick to the correction. “I am proud of you for being good, Ian—What? All of the other kids got suckers, too? Well, whatever the case, look—nobody is as good as God. But we are all supposed to be trying to be good like God. Maybe you mean to say you were being good ‘like’ God.”

Maybe. Who knows? And who knows what lessons of mine really sink in? Sometimes he soaks up a lot more than I give him credit for.

It is a lesson hard for grown-ups to grasp, not just six-year-olds. There are some people who act like they really do believe they are “as good as God.” Indeed they are like God in this way: they never apologize, never ask forgiveness, never even admit fault. Intellectually, they know “we are all just human” and “nobody’s perfect”; but, practically speaking, they function as the exception to the rule, having built up seemingly sturdy walls of defense against the reality of their own actual imperfections and uglinesses and sins.

Here is another problem, though. Because we all know we are not as good as God, and because we know good and well we ain’t never gonna be (see, I can let my grammar hair down), we tend to be altogether too lax about shooting for the goal—which is, guess what, to be as good as God. Jesus said to His disciples, “You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” The mark is set high, and, looking to God for grace, we are to jump with a sincere desire to reach it. Our desire should be to be as good as God, and our actions will always reflect our true desires. In fact, because of the Christian’s desire to be like Christ in all His ways, he is that much more inclined to admit and grieve over the so many ways he is not. He desires to be morally pure like God, and that desire drives him at the same time both to confess that he is not and to strive with all his might for that very goal.

“Good and Holy and Perfect Father, thank You for your goodness. Forgive us our sins, which are many, and forgive us for our pride in not admitting them. Help us to be good like You are good: help us to follow in the steps of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”