TEEN TREE OF LIFE
THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE GOOD
Part 2
June 11, 2017
BEFORE we begin, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, take a moment to name your sins to God the Father. This will allow you to be filled with the power of The Holy Spirit as you read this booklet (EPH 5:18 & 1JO 1:9). IF YOU HAVE never believed in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have that opportunity right now. Simply tell God the Father that you are believing on His Son Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. If you make that decision, you are now a believer and will always be a child of God! When you die, you will spend eternity with Him forever in heaven! (JOH 3:16 & ACT 16:31).
Do you remember what the Old Sin Nature is? Biblical documentation of the sin nature is found in ROM 5:12: Therefore, just as through one man [Adam], sin [the sin nature] entered into the world, and [spiritual] death through [the] sin [nature], so [spiritual] death spread to the entire human race because all sinned [when Adam sinned]. Immediately after Adam sinned, he acquired an Old Sin Nature and became spiritually dead. The Sin Nature of Adam is passed down through his seed to all his offspring (including you and me); therefore, the Old Sin Nature originates biologically from the seed of the father. Only Jesus Christ was born into this world without an Old Sin Nature since He did not have a biological father. The Old Sin Nature exists in the cell structure of the body and each one is unique. The Old Sin Nature will not be removed from the body until the moment of physical death; however, it has been crucified positionally in every believer as we learn in ROM 6:6: …knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin…
All human good in history will be judged because it comes from the same source as sin – the old sin nature. We were crucified with Christ on the cross through positional truth, as GAL 2:20 teaches: I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. But human good was not judged. Human good was rejected on the cross so that it could continue along with evil as an issue in the angelic conflict.
Human good will stand before God and be judged and evaluated by God’s Perfect Holiness and Integrity. This is taught in 2CO 5:10: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body [Human good], according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Human good never accomplishes what it seeks to accomplish. It never fulfills its objective of improving anything. Man had a relationship with the Integrity of God in the garden through Creation and Divine Provisions, not through good deeds. Look at GEN 2:9: Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Notice that there were trees which were for stimulation of the soul and the eyes (provisions for the soul). There were trees that were good for food (provisions for the body). And there was the tree that was related to human spirit and spiritual sustenance which was the Tree of Life and that tree was for the capacity to appreciate what God has provided in Grace. Man had immediate capacity to appreciate God’s Grace provision. And the test – the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil – was there. Good and evil are Satan’s policy. This tree was forbidden because good and evil result in spiritual death. Man – in his creation relationship with God – was under Grace. There were two things man did not need in that relationship. One was good and the other was evil. Evil is the thinking of Satan whereas human good is the application of that thinking. Adam and the woman – the original parents – had a choice to choose God’s Plan or Satan’s plan and they chose Satan’s; therefore, the Salvation Plan of God came into effect.
Because human good originates inside the cosmic system, it becomes dead to God. This is taught in HEB 6:1: Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ [basic doctrines], let us press on to maturity [execution of Pre-Designed Plan of God], not laying again a foundation [doctrines of salvation and spirituality] of repentance from dead works [which do not please God] and of faith toward God… The arrogant believer’s Christian service is classified as dead works. A believer can live a very good and moral life and do good things but what he does in his Old Sin Nature is dead works. It is wood, hay and straw. In order to come to faith in Christ, you must first recognize the bankruptcy of your own works. It is impossible to trust in Christ alone and cling to the confidence in your own deeds.
Human good performed in the cosmic system results in boasting according to EPH 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. If you were saved by works, you would have cause for boasting in the cosmic system, but you were not. People get off by boasting of their production. But human good produced from the cosmic system is never acceptable to God: For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. (ISA 64:6) Human good by the unbeliever is totally unrighteous, as is human good by the believer inside the cosmic system.
Human good cannot save you: He [Our Lord Jesus Christ] saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit… (TITUS 3:5) The person in the cosmic system believes that faith is not enough for salvation. Whole denominations are built on living one’s life inside the cosmic system and performing human good. What a waste!
Human good is not part of The Plan of God as we are taught in 1CO 13:1-3: If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Human good is the product of the cosmic system, the power of Satan, the production of the arrogance of Satan. Therefore, anything related to the cosmic system is outside the Plan of God. A believer who tries to worship the Lord without being filled with The Spirit totally wasting his time! When you are carnal and out of fellowship, your spiritual status is zero. But if you’re filled with The Spirit, you are in God’s Plan and are able to produce Divine Good.
Let’s close with the definition of Divine Good. The Greek word “agathos” refers to Christian service or deeds performed by the believer who is filled with The Holy Spirit, directed by the Truth of The Word of God, and motivated by love for God. It is only such deeds that are accepted by God and rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ. All else accomplished apart from the Filling of The Spirit and The Word of God is human good performed under human power and it is evil and worthless to God.