Human Goodness Beside the Goodness of God

If we want to establish the force of this view with still clearer proofs, consider this. In the Gospel we read of many things that are called good: a good tree, a good treasure, a good man, a good servant. For he says: “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit”; and, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings out good things”; and, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” There can certainly be no doubt that each of these is good in itself. Yet if we take into account the goodness of God, none of them will be called good, as the Lord says: “No one is good except God alone.” In his sight even the apostles themselves, who in the excellence of their calling went beyond the goodness of mankind in many ways, are said to be evil. For the Lord speaks to them this way: “If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him.” [a]

Finally, just as our goodness turns into badness in the eyes of the Most High, so too our righteousness, set beside God’s righteousness, is thought of as a menstrual rag, as the prophet Isaiah says: “All your righteousness is like a menstrual rag.” And to bring forward something plainer still: even the life-giving commands of the law itself, which are said to have been “given through angels by the hand of a mediator,” and of which the same apostle says, “So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good,” are declared by God’s own word to be anything but good when they are compared with the perfection of the Gospel. For he says: “And I gave them commands that were not good, and ordinances by which they would not live.” The apostle also affirms that the glory of the law is so dimmed by the light of the New Testament that, compared with the splendor of the Gospel, it is not to be thought glorious at all. He says: “For even what was glorious was not glorified, because of the glory that surpasses it.”

And Scripture keeps up this same comparison from the other side too, that is, when it weighs the deserts of sinners. Compared with the wicked, it counts righteous those who have sinned less, saying: “Sodom is counted righteous compared with you”; and again, “For what did your sister Sodom sin?”; and, “Rebellious Israel has shown herself righteous compared with treacherous Judah.” So then, the merits of all the virtues I listed above, good and precious though they are in themselves, grow dim beside the brightness of contemplation. For when the saints are taken up with earthly concerns, even with good works, these greatly hinder and hold them back from contemplating that sublime good.