"Good without God?
Over one million Kiwis are.
There's probably no God.
Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."
Neville shared this with us at district assembly last week, reminding us of the social and religious climate of our day and the urgency with which we need to be sharing God's good news.
Just think, someone spent big money to display these billboards all over New Zealand! I checked out the websites listed, and the sign above is one out of many from the official NZ Atheist Bus Campaign and NZ Humanist Society, whose goal is to have these signs and other atheist slogans on public buses and streets all over New Zealand. They raise money from donors who believe in their cause, while constantly battling the government for increasing rights and privileges. Scary isn't it?
David wrote in Psalm 14, "1 Only fools say in their hearts,“There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good!" Without God, we have no definition of good, no way to measure righteousness. There is no benchmark, no standard, no goal. How would we even know what is "good" or "bad" were it not for a loving God who gives us loving laws to keep us safe, who gives us his Holy Spirit to guide us? It is impossible to be good without God.
The Apostle Paul says in Romans 3:9-11: "Well then, should we conclude that we Jews are better than others? No, not at all, for we have already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles,[a] are under the power of sin. 10 As the Scriptures say, "No one is righteous— not even one. 11 No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God.
We cannot be good without God. But thanks be to God that he has given us righteousness (a right and clean standing before God) through Jesus Christ! What a relief! Now the questions is, how do we love people in such a way that they want that righteousness too. . . that they want freedom from all that enslaves them here. . . that they want Jesus for themselves? That, my friends, is our job.
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