am i good?

The other night NJ asked me one of the hardest questions he could ask, "Am I good?"  He followed it up by, "Are people who don't love Jesus bad?"  There may not be two questions with more potential pitfalls than those two.

If I were to tell NJ that he was good that would lead to doctrinal problems later.  Why is the Gospel good news if I am already good?  That sounds minor, but it is the lynchpin that holds the entire Christian faith together.  If I am already good I do not need Christ's righteousness, and if that is the case Christ died in vain.

If I were to tell NJ that he was not good that would lead to behavioral problems later on.  Kids live up to or down to the expectations placed on them.  If NJ was told that he was bad he could just fit his behaviors to the standard of being bad.  He has already asked in the past why he was not allowed to be bad, so I know he would like an excuse to lower the standards he has to live by.

I discussed this with Golden, and we are going to teach our kids that there are two types of good.  This is a bit nuanced for early elementary-aged kids, but it is something they will need to understand at some point anyway.

The first type of good is righteous good.  Neither Golden nor I are righteous good, NJ is not righteous good, CD is not righteous good.  Our only hope is to rely on Jesus, and his righteous good is credited to us as our own righteous good, even though we are not good in and of ourselves.  Technically, believers are concurrently not righteous good (of their own works), and are righteous good (through the work of Christ) at the same time.

The second type of good is behavioral good.  NJ and CD are deep-down behavioral good because they are generally obedient and respectful.  One does not need to love Jesus to be behaviorally good because apparently good behavior can come from all sorts of motivations.  A lot of people mistake this kind of good, which is really too superficial to mean much morally, for the other kind of good because the word "good" is ridiculously broad.

So, I am hoping that as the kids grow they are able to have a better sense for what "good" is than I had.  I think that would be good.