Goodness or Godliness?

I heard my husband as he was helping our grandson dress for church. "Good men pray," he said. "God's men pray," he amended. Oh, my! To hear my husband teaching this little man to be not simply a good man, but God's man... How it melted my heart. Don't we want our children to be good? After all, goodness is fruit of the Spirit. Being good is a reflection of what God is, but being good as a means to being godly is putting the cart before the horse, as they say. 

Mark 10:17-22, tells us a man came to Jesus wanting to know what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. He addressed Jesus as, "Good Teacher." This guy had goodness on his mind. Jesus responded by reminding him of the Mosaic Law, which this guy said he had kept from childhood. That's good, right? Jesus said the man lacked one thing: he needed to sell all he had, give the proceeds to the poor, take up his cross and follow Jesus. The man was despondent when he left, "for he had great possessions."

First of all, if you were paying attention, the man asked what he had to do to inherit eternal life. Does anyone do anything to inherit something? Isn't inheritance at the discretion of the one writing the will? I mean, you're either an heir or you're not, right? But hang on, we'll come back to that.

Secondly, this guy must have really been something to have kept all of the Law since childhood. He must have really been good. 

Third, Jesus told him the one thing he lacked. Do you remember? Sell all he had, give the proceeds to the poor, take up his cross, and follow Jesus. I know, sounds like four things, right? Well, this is where we see the difference between a good man (or woman) and God's man (or woman). Good was keeping the Law, doing the good things as a means to get something: satisfaction, reward, recognition, even as a way to keep someone off your back. But being godly, or God-like, starts in the heart. If he'd been willing to leave his past life behind --including his Law worship-- if he'd been willing to love on those in poverty by blessing them with the money from the sale of his stuff, if he'd been willing to crucify his own plans and ideas, if he'd been willing to faithfully follow Jesus with all he had, into any circumstance, if he'd been willing to start keeping the Law out of love for God and in humble worship of Him, the man would have become an heir. Without a death --in this case, the death of the man's ego and his method of earning things-- there would be no inheritance. You can't do anything to earn an inheritance. This pathetic man was all about checking the boxes, however; about doing things to be counted good. Perhaps, he had been fairly successful up to this point, but when faced with the choice to continue striving toward goodness or to surrender all and be godly, he went away sad.

God is good. Being a good person is imitating what He is. But when we lay down our agendas and schedules, and follow who He is, Jesus, we become godly men and women, for no one is good but God.