As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No-one is good– except God alone.”

Mark 10:17-18

How could Jesus say this, when Scripture unanimously testifies that he never sinned against man or God in his earthly life?

This stunned me. I wanted to understand what made him utter these words. Over a season of study, here is what I learned:

Why did Jesus state that no man — even himself — was good?

Most likely it is because Jesus clothed himself in humility, even while knowing he was the Son of God. As a human, he refused put himself in the same category as His perfectly good Father. It is clear from Scripture that Jesus assumed a posture of total identification with man, even referring to himself as “the Son of Man.”

Perhaps He was driving home the fact that you won’t find God’s brand of goodness — through and through, steadfast, unchanging — in any human being.

This reveals a great problem for us earth-dwellers, designed in the image of our Creator. Created to reveal His design, to be good, to nourish others with the good we can give. And likewise to deeply value and instinctively crave goodness from others, to thrive on and rejoice in goodness. Every soul seeks it. Every soul keeps an account of its measure in every relationship, even if on a subconscious level.

It is a loaded kind of accounting, pervading everything: our sense of worth, our sense of the trustworthiness of others, of the world, of God himself.

The failure to find the goodness we seek in ourselves and others always provokes a response. One of two very different responses, in fact.

One response to people failing you is that you lose hope in God, too.

We can easily default to losing hope in God when people fail us. When people crush our faith in them, it undermines our faith in God’s goodness as well. Why? Because in spite of knowing that God gives all men free will, we still expect the One who promises love and abundant life to guarantee that will happen.

The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 4:12, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

With these words John acknowledged the connection that invariably exists between our faith in God and our faith in people. If people do not love us well, we take that to mean God’s love isn’t real. Or, even if it is real for others, it’s not real for us.

John says that when we love others well, God goodness is revealed. We enable the full expression of His love for them. Conversely, when we don’t love others well, God’s love is hidden from them. We might mentally agree that God loves us even when people don’t, but frankly, when people don’t love us, we just don’t feel loved by God, either.

God’s Covenant Ways and Heart

Years ago the Holy Spirit called Ron and me to learn about and bring forward knowledge of God’s covenant ways. Covenant is a study of God’s heart, from which flow all his laws and demands upon men. Through the Covenant study the Spirit revealed to us the profound need of the human heart in order to thrive. That need is being able to put faith in others and have that faith answered by faithfulness. When our faith in others is not answered, faith is broken, and a wound is inflicted. In one way or another, broken faith is at the bottom of every broken heart.

The phrase “broken faith” is not mentioned a lot in Scripture, but its realities are revealed in almost every story. We suffer consequences when we break the faith God places in us. We feel the anger and injustice of those whose faith is broken by others. We see God’s people question His faithfulness because of what they expect from Him.

The study of Covenant reveals a huge internal barometer of our human condition, one of which we may be unaware. We are designed to thrive on the faithfulness of others. Which means we are broken by their unfaithfulness.

“Goodness” sums up all the ways in which one is faithful to another.

Goodness runs the gamut from sworn vows between a husband and wife, to the faith we put in strangers to be kind and never harm us.

Because we live among others like ourselves — flawed, and not unfailingly good — wounds come with some regularity. Little ones, big ones, devastating ones. For many this translates into a deep (if unspoken) belief or fear that God himself is not really good, because he doesn’t make people be good as he promised — especially to me.

The fact is, God doesn’t make anyone do anything. Even when scripture says things like God hardened someone’s heart, it essentially means God took what they already chose and established it as their destiny — he cemented their choices.

God draws, teaches, and encourages us like any parent training up a child; but he is not a puppet master. People will do what they want in the freedom God has given them. We can count on the fact that as they do what they do, even hurting us, God will comfort us and give us grace to endure and heal. He gives us numerous promises to redeem and renew us because He knew the world would wound us.

The second, or opposite response: finding comfort in God’s goodness.

The second reaction to being wounded by the un-goodness of others is just the opposite. I can only describe it from personal experience: when people fail me, I find comfort in God’s goodness.

I only learned this through walking with God in full trust for a season. Practically, that meant that I chose to stop gazing at my hurt, meditating on my offense and registering the hit to my pride and value. Instead, I turned to the Lord. Every single time I made this choice, I found rest in His unfailing love. As a result, He always fills up the places in me left empty by others.

It is meant to be so for all who lean on Jesus.

This is the basis for his promise, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” God always satisfies my hunger for love when others starve my heart. Unfailingly good, God is!

I am not suggesting that you isolate on God while giving up on people. On the contrary, when God satisfies my need for goodness, it consistently sets me free to go right back to hoping in goodness from others!

God’s goodness shields you from the crusty bitterness that can cripple the heart. I’ve learned that I can be hurt by others, yet not truly harmed or crushed by them, to the point of being unable to love again. I still risk and register hurt. I sincerely grieve when love and goodness do not come from those I hope to receive it. And in those times, God’s goodness renews my faith, every time.

I’ve been called “Pollyanna” and told I’m a glutton for punishment because I always hope in people. Frankly, I keep hoping in people for the same reason God forgives our sins: for my own sake. He said to His people:

You have burdened Me with your sins, you have wearied Me with your iniquities. I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

Isaiah 43:24-25

Living in hope and expectation of good, opens you to the risk of disappointment. But this way of life is better than expecting the worst from the need to avoid that disappointment. And such a mindset, held long enough, leads to bitterness and depression.

What is depression, if not the tamping down of the heart’s ability to seek and register joy?

Here is the conclusion:

Never lose hope in God’s goodness or the goodness in people. HIS goodness is big enough to cover their failures. Besides, people tend live up to what you expect of them. Perceiving that you have little faith in their goodness, they may not even try; while realizing you have faith in them often stirs a desire to rise to that faith.

Child of God, be mindful of God’s word that you will reap what you sow. If you live in such a way as to sow seeds of goodness in the hearts of others, goodness will surely be your harvest. Be mindful also that God’s reputation, for better or worse, may be in your hands today.