Just how good is good?

And how good is good enough?

In the book of Genesis, chapter 1, we read several time over as God creates that “God saw it was good.”

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. - Gen 1:3-4

Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. Gen. - 1:9-10

Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. - Gen. 1:11-12

God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. - Gen. 1:16-18

Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. - Gen. 1:20-21

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. - Gen. 1:24-25

God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. - Gen. 1:31

all emphases mine

On each successive day, God added to His creation, and each time, He “saw that it was good.” On the sixth day, He looked at all He had created over the past several day, and He saw that “it was very good” (emphasis mine). Some believe the word “good” here means pure or perfect even in a moral sense. Before sinning, perhaps Adam and Eve  could be considered “good” in a moral sense. Many have extended it further, however, to claim that Adam and Eve  were created perfect. Nothing in these passages, however, indicates such. The clear and simple understanding of this refrain is that God was pleased with His handiwork. Nothing more is necessarily implied in these words, and trying to read such into them is unwarranted and can lead to a problematic understanding of Scripture.

Consider, if Adam and Eve were truly perfect, as was Christ, they would not have sinned. Some may say, “but they had a choice whether to obey, and they chose to disobey, otherwise, they would have been and remained sinless, just like Jesus.” That, of course, begs the question, if they were perfect, how or why did they choose to sin? If they were perfect, they would have resisted any temptation to sin and there would have been no fall.

Here I’m going to color outside the lines a little, but really, there is no indication whatsoever that Adam and Eve were not created with a proclivity for sin. What?!?!?! There is Scriptural reason to believe this, though I will gladly retract that statement if someone can show me anything in Scripture that says or indicates they were not. Here is my reason for making such a statement.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. - Eph. 1:3-4

For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. - 1 Pet. 1:20-21

Some translations of 1 Pet. 1:20 (for instance, the KJV) have foreordained rather than foreknown. Regardless, if God had a plan for a savior before the world was created, then it stand to reason that He knew Adam and Eve would sin before He created them. It could potentially be inferred as well that He even intended that they would sin - after all, if God knew prior to creating Adam and Eve that Adam and Eve once created would sin, yet He still chose to create them, does that not imply that this was intentional? Could He not then have chosen to simply not create them or to change the way in which Adam and Eve were created to avoid them sinning? Instead, He chose to create a plan of salvation and still create the two humans who would fall into sin and bring a curse upon the rest of creation. This could grow into a much longer discussion, but that will have to be for another article. I’ll repeat my previous statement here: if someone has Scriptural evidence contrary to what I am positing, I will gladly consider it and, if warranted, revise or retract this section.

So, how good is good enough?

We know that, since the fall, none are good:

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good. - Ps. 14:1

What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written,“THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE. THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING, THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS” - Rom. 3:9-13

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God - Rom. 3:23

Jesus affirmed that no man is good:

And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. - Mark 10:18

But Jesus alone, in the form of a human, born under the law, lived a sinless life under the law. Jesus alone, unblemished by sin, could serve as the needed sacrifice for our sins:

If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. - 1 Pet. 1:17-19

Jesus alone is our savior. Jesus alone mediates with God for us. We must have faith in Jesus for our salvation, because it is this faith along by which we are saved. Jesus alone is good enough.