We Have No Good Beyond God

(The following is adapted from our F.E. Marsh commentaries)

The believer in Christ must always say, along with the Psalmist, “I have no good apart from you” (Psalm 16:2 ESV). Consider the way this fleshes out in the following truths:

1. In ourselves there is no good thing…

“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.”
(Romans 7:18 )

2. …but the good that has been planted within us…

“That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.”
(2 Timothy 1:14)

3. …which is the outcome of the good work of the Lord…

“being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”
(Philippians 1:6)

4. …is productive of good works…

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
(Ephesians 2:10)

5. …so that by His grace we have a good conscience…

“having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck”
(1 Timothy 1:19)

6. …and fight a good warfare.

“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
(1 Timothy 6:12 )

7. Thus are we good soldiers of Jesus Christ (II. Tim. ii. 3).

“You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”
(2 Timothy 2:3)

From beginning to end—from our saving faith to our good works to the good fight of faith—there is no good in us, and there is no good from us, apart from God.