What is the “good person gospel” you might ask upon seeing the title? It is the most preached gospel by a fallen world, influenced by Satan and his minions, it declares that sinners will go to heaven if they are subjectively more good than bad. That God won’t send that sinner to hell because after all “God is love”, right?

Well I will get right to the point, there are many “good people” right now who perished who are awaiting their final judgment from God, which is eternal hell, all because it turned out THEY WERE NEVER GOOD ENOUGH by God’s law. You might have been a great morally good person to the world, but to God you were like everyone else, a BLACK mark on His holiness!

These “good people” rejected the only way to salvation was through the redemption of Jesus, and rested their laurels on their inherent worldly “goodness” of which they demanded God look at and instead of the way He outlined, that He save them by this. They rested their WHOLE eternal future on a failure in other words!

Just ONE sin, which we all have committed which to love God with our whole mind, heart, and soul, not some of the time, BUT EACH AND EVERY MOMENT AND BREATH, landed all of us into His judgment. We were no longer “good people” in His sight! One little lie we told, one lustful thought, one profane or perverse thing we uttered about God, etc. all too are in this judgment.

So by that, the “good people gospel” FAILED, because when we look at an eternal Holy God, there are no “good people”. The problem is again a false comparison which comes from Satan as he tempts you to look at other sinners instead of God, and say “see, I am not so bad that God can’t save me, after all I didn’t murder or rape anyone and I even helped an elderly person across the street yesterday”.

God provided a REMEDY to our badness, His name is Jesus Christ who is GOOD. He promised that if you place your faith alone in Him and repent of your sins, the gift of eternal life is granted. You are now only “good” in the respect that Jesus is GOOD. So when God looks at you after this eternal life was granted, He only sees His Son’s GOODNESS, His perfection, His sinlessness! Yes, this is called GOOD NEWS, the actual Gospel. If you reject Jesus Christ, you reject heaven, you cannot enter no matter what you did or or what you did not do in this lifetime!

If you belong to a false church, the first thing you will realize is that they prod you to save yourself by YOUR goodness, and not Jesus Christ’s. So you do all these religious things and everything else you do is with a condition attached whereby God must accept your good deed as a merit point, and in the end if you subjectively do enough of them, He will allow you entrance. The glaring PROBLEM is, you dismissed Jesus from your salvation, the only person who can get you into that entrance!

As the title of my blog states “Good people don’t enter heaven, forgiven sinners do!”

John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

One of the twisted words that I hear often from many is the word “Kingdom” from Scripture. I’ll admit that before I was born again, I viewed the “Kingdom of God” as heaven, a place. Some even put walls up in this Kingdom with gatekeepers such as Peter.

However, if we study the Greek word for Kingdom, you might be surprised as to what this Kingdom is and where it is. The word is “basileia” pronounced “bas-il-i’-ah”. It is defined as royal power, dominion, kingship, authority, rule, sovereignty NOT to be confused with an actual worldly kingdom but rather the right or authority to rule over a kingdom.

So when you read and study Scripture, by taking the actual definition for “Kingdom” it might open up much understanding for you, I know it did for me! So when Jesus said those before they are born again cannot see the Kingdom, He was stating they cannot “see” meaning understand His Kingship, His dominion, His royal power, rather they will reject it.

Those not born-again are in rebellion to Jesus Christ’s rule, and some will even claim to be “Christians”. They’ll reject placing their faith alone in Him just as the Pharisees did by their legalism, Jesus pointed this out in Luke 17:²⁰ Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; ²¹ nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

Jesus was explaining that when one is born-again, the RULE, the DOMINION of God is within you because the indwelling Holy Spirit has come. So it is not literally viewing as seeing, it is a spiritual surrender to His royal power. So as I said in the past, where the King is, THERE IS THE KINGDOM! If you are born-again, you are a walking and talking and living Kingdom of God because God is dwelling in you! You are a humble subject now to the KING and His authority, His rule, His dominion.

Some claim to be in His Kingdom but have not surrendered their sins, they will not bow to Jesus and to Him alone as King. Rather they would like to add themselves or others as ruling equals. They view themselves as autonomous and equate themselves with Jesus Christ’s royal power. So they are living outside the Kingdom, outside the gates so to speak which are prevailing over them.

In the two earlier posts I covered Love, Joy, Peace, and Self Control. Today I write on the last of the fruit of Spirit which are longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness. As said in the earlier posts, these words have God’s definition and they also have a worldly definition, so it is important not to mix them up by the world’s defined view on them. In the Kingdom, which is Jesus Christ’s Kingship and rule, authority and dominion, the fruit of the Spirit is given to those who were granted a new life.

So let’s examine the last of these fruits briefly.

Longsuffering = God’s patience. This would His type of longsuffering not worldly patience. Probably the closest one will exhibit it is a parent as they raise their children. You don’t expect your 2 year old to act like an adult, or be as knowledgeable by this longsuffering, which is patience. You know the child will grow and mature, just as God knows His children will grow in faith and mature in faith. So with this patience, the restraint of anger and a tolerance is demonstrated because your expectations on another is reasonable according to their maturity. Many churches FAIL this test, because they’ll expect a new creation to be fully mature, but they aren’t, so patience is limited. I can say from a personal testimony, in my former life, I HAD ZERO longsuffering as a fruit. I was extremely impatient. As soon as God made me a new creation, longsuffering was granted, and for the first time in my life I grew in patience. A Christian will always have some form of longsuffering, not only towards their children, but to everyone in their life!

Kindness = The quality of being UNCONDITIONALLY generous, friendly, courteous, and considerate of others. Like love as said in the earlier post, you are kind NOT because you are expecting something in return, but a Godly gracious kindness. As Jesus explained, “don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing”, meaning don’t place a condition on being kind to another. A Godly kindness is a giving kindness, and as Scripture teaches in 1 Cor 9:7, “God loves a cheerful giver”. Meaning you give to another NOT out of a grudge or necessity, but it freely flows from your heart. Self-less kindness is Godly fruit!

Goodness = God’s goodness, or truthful goodness. God is a truth teller, be one! Worldly goodness is not Godly goodness, because that type of goodness is temporary, fleeting, and used to manipulate others. Whereas God’s goodness never fades and it never seeks to manipulate others. Part of this goodness is your desire to share the Gospel, which is power of God unto salvation. If saved, you desire ANY and ALL to hear this Good News, to join you in your new Kingdom! You now realize in the Kingdom what is good and what is bad, and seek always the good for not yourself, but for God’s glory as you now represent His name!

Faithfulness = a Godly loyalty which is the fruit of the Spirit. This loyalty is your supreme priority in life if a Christian. You do not seek to dethrone Jesus, but to submit to Him in faith, and faith alone. Like every fruit of the Spirit, faithfulness starts out as a seed and it steadily grows. So if your fruit is not growing, but dying or is dead, that wasn’t a fruit planted by God. In this type of faithfulness, come hell or high water, you will never break! You are a Job of the Bible! The devil could throw as many hardships your way as possible, but this fruit can never be broken, your faithfulness will always prevail!

Gentleness = In the fruit of the Spirit it is defined as being CALM, peaceful. You aren’t an angry person, going on tirades now. Gentleness will exhibit forgiveness of others, the same way God forgave you of your sins. You are gentle realizing what Jesus did for you on the Cross and knowing if God didn’t treat you with this type of gentleness, where would you be? If you had a bad temper before your rebirth, that fruit of gentleness God granted you turned that on its head, it should be fading to non-existence. This fruit for me I would say grew slowly based on the entanglements in my former life, but I realized the growth. In this gentleness, you are no longer a grudge keeper, because that would be the antithesis to the fruit!

Again, this fruit of Spirit GROWS if you were saved. You aren’t going to have perfectly full bloomed fruit upon the rebirth, but the seedling growth begins and will last a lifetime which is called the sanctification of your spirit as God grows you to the image of His Son. So don’t be frustrated if you aren’t perfect in this fruit of the Spirit, you won’t be, but REJOICE in the growth and maturity and IF saved there is no mistaking the growth if you are self-aware.

Lastly, let us humbly and whole heartedly thank God for this fruit of the Spirit! Without it, where would we be?

Galatains 5:22 tells us that love, joy, and peace are the fruit of the Spirit. Now this love, joy, and peace is NOT worldly love, or joy, or peace, they have totally different meanings. It does seem as if the devil honed in on some common words humans use, and pervert their definitions into secular meaningless and subjectivity so as to take away from their real meanings.

So let’s examine each one briefly.

Love – The fruit of the Spirit is God’s love, meaning completely unconditional self-lessness. Fallen man produces conditional strings on everything and desires SIN, so the perverted “love” you hear and see so much is actually LUST. Now lust does not only mean something sexual, it is a self-seeking conditional desire which some think is love, but it is just lust. With love comes TRUTHFULNESS! God is completely TRUTHFUL in His love. He doesn’t try to protect fallen human feelings, He always told the truth. So if you are exhibiting this fruit, you are a truth teller, not a liar, not a fibber. Example, you don’t tell someone they are on their way to heaven, when you KNOW they aren’t based on their unbelief. Love seeks the highest standard for another, and again, without condition! You don’t seek a “thank you”, because you love that person unconditionally. You seek absolutely nothing in return. You grant gifts because of this love without self affirmation. You hold absolutely NOTHING over the person you love. You freely forgive without the slightest condition to be met! This is God’s love!

Joy – There is worldly joy such as your team winning a game, the birth of a child, getting accolades from a career, a joke someone told, etc. And there is Godly joy! The joy of being in Christ, being part of His family for an eternity. It is an often inexpressible joy since it encompasses a peace without always understanding. The joy of Jesus knowing you personally, caring about you, walking with you! And this joy naturally exudes from you if you possess this fruit of the Spirit. You are JOYFUL because you are God’s child now, JOYFUL because He granted you repentance, JOYFUL to being led by the Spirit, JOYFUL to be in the fellowship of other Christians, JOYFUL BECAUSE YOUR ETERNAL HOME IS HEAVEN NOW!

Peace – There is worldly peace such as an end to a war, an end to a conflict with another, an end to an addiction or problem. Notice what the common word “an end”? Now the fruit of the Spirit of peace is a BEGINNING, not an end. It is KNOWING that whether good, bad, sad, indifferent, or ugly, God is sovereign. It is KNOWING God has granted you eternal life in Jesus, and nothing will separate you from the love you have in Him! (Ref Romans 8:38-39). It is a total calm in your spirit as you are led by the Spirit! You don’t need to understand the whys now because of this peace, you know and trust in God’s will and purposes. That WHATEVER the case or circumstance may be, God has it under His control, a peace without always understanding. The calm grows as your seed of this awesome fruit grows.

Now with all love, joy, peace being a fruit of the Spirit, the fruit GROWS. It isn’t in full bloom when one becomes a Christian, it starts as a growing seed. Meaning, one won’t be fully perfect in any of them, but the fruit should be growing, not dying, not staying stagnant. How do the fruit grow? By the literal watering of God’s word! The saved sinner being completely engrossed in this word, will see this fruit grow faster or slower depending on how disciplined they are by God’s will and purpose. Some will experience faster growth in love, some with peace, some with joy, some with all 3 or just 2 while some of the fruit growth will grow slower. Again it is all part of God’s purpose. The growth is called sanctification!

So to those who believe one can be sanctified without being fully justified, I ask why would God plant the seeds of the fruit of the Spirit if they didn’t grow? And to those who believe salvation can be lost, why would God plant the seeds of the Spirit if they just died eventually, and do you really believe God would plant defective and powerless seeds?

A fruit listed by Paul in Galatians 5:22 is self control. Before one is indwelled with the Holy Spirit, there is a facade of self-control. Being fallen in nature, totally depraved, we pursue sin, we seek ways to get away with sin.

Our desires in a fallen nature will only have an accountability to our fellow man, not to God, so our self-control will only encompass this. It is easy to deceive man, but not God. We might believe we have self-control, but in our thoughts, yes thoughts of which God knows intimately, our self-control is non-existent. We might not proceed to the sinful action, but we thought about doing it, thus we sinned.

When indwelled by the Spirit, self-control actually becomes realized. Now it is not only your actions which are restrained but the THOUGHTS on those actions have changed. Your desire for sin has a disdain now, so you seek the opposite which is holiness. Your thoughts coincide. Thus why it is always perplexing to me when a professed Christian man will say he is still addicted to porn or became addicted to porn for example. I would say he was deceived, and most likely not a Christian because the Holy Spirit would have changed that desire.

Now I am not saying self-control comes upon you in a perfect manner, like a lightswitch and BOOM when you are born-again, you will have perfect control. No! But this grows like a seed! The constant conviction in thoughts, words, deeds, actions, an inaction is felt by your core, and that is the indwelling Holy Spirit who is growing your fruit of self-control.

Lastly, a form of self-control in a fallen state is also under God’s sovereign hand! He is restraining evil actions, and the evils of a fallen heart as well. If not for that restraint, the evils of the world would be on a level never witnessed! So we must always thank God for self-control, it truly IS A FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT!