Evil exists always and everywhere

If someone asked you: “Are you good or, are you bad?”, what would your answer be?

I also ask myself this question often. I have not really come to a full conclusion yet. Obviously, I try to be good as a person and as a Christian, but there are always times when I realize that something which I did was not really good. Now and then I don't even realize it.

If I realize it, it is already the first step and sometimes I have the opportunity to fix my mistakes. But, how does the saying go: A word spoken is past recalling. Some things done, cannot be repaired. However, regardless of how hard one tries, everyone does something wrong at some time, everyone fails some time, as a person and as a Christian.

How then do you answer the question posed at the beginning? Are you good or bad? As people, we often see this as a scale between good and bad, where we fall somewhere in between very good and very bad. The harder we try, the more we tend to lean more towards the good side...when our good deeds outweigh the bad ones.

This scale does not apply to God's viewpoint. With Him it is “either, or”. In James 2:10 we read: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

With God there are only “sinners” or “righteous”. And as we are unable to keep the Law in its totality, we are all sinners. Apart from Jesus there is no righteous person in the entire Bible. Everyone has a black mark somewhere, no-one is sinless!

With God there is no “I sinned, but also did a lot of good – therefore the one outweighs the other”. In an anecdote, God's answer to this sentence is: “I created you and the devil will fetch you – that also evens out”...

But, because God knows our dilemma, He sent His Son to earth. Jesus, the righteous One! Whomever only sees Jesus as a person who lived prior to us, regardless of how they live, they have not understood, they do not know, how much God loves us!

Jesus took all our sins upon Himself on the cross, everything that you and I did wrong up until now – and also that which we will still do wrong during our earthly lives. We only need to give it to Him, we must accept for ourselves what He did for us. When we acknowledge Him as our Lord and Saviour, everything on the negative side is erased and deleted, forgiven and forgotten.

As long as we still endeavour to accomplish righteousness within ourselves, we are like the Baron of Münchhausen who wanted to pull himself out of the swamp through his own crest. In contrast to the lying baron, we will only sink deeper into the swamp until we go to ruin completely.

Thus, God answers the question whether you are good or bad quite simply – either, or...

How will you fare at the harvest? Will you be cast into the eternal fire with the weeds, or will you have your eternal place in the barn of God?

I wish you a blessed day with Jesus, your Lord and Saviour.

Rainer Gigerich