Daily Devotional

I am a huge Christopher Nolan fan. If you do not know who Christopher Nolan is, he is one of the most acclaimed directors of the 21st century. To get ready to watch his newest release, The Odyssey, I decided to watch all of his movies. I rewatched his most popular movies, the Dark Knight Trilogy, which is his Batman trilogy, and one thing I started to wonder while watching it was: why do people do good deeds? I think that if you asked most people that question, you would get a wide array of answers. As a disciple of Jesus, my hope is to do good deeds because of what God has done for me. The reason why you and I should do good works is so that God may get glory for the good He is doing in our lives.

Doing good outside of that reason defeats the purpose of us as Christians being new creations wholly devoted in fellowship with Christ, as He bought us with a price. The reason why Bruce Wayne, Batman, does good in the Dark Knight trilogy is so that no one can go through what he went through, going down Crime Alley where his whole life was destroyed as his parents were murdered. The death of Bruce’s parents is the catalyst that leads him to become Batman. For us as Christians, the reason you and I should do good is that God has done unparalleled good in our lives by giving us His Son, Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and rose from the grave so that we may have fellowship with God and with each other. Jesus is our catalyst for doing good.

In the movie Batman Begins, Bruce becomes Batman to become a legend and a symbol against crime. As Christians, we do good for others so that they may come to glorify God. We do not do good for our own glory, but for people to see God as glorious as we follow His Son Jesus as His disciples. Jesus is not just a legend or a made-up fairy tale, but the fullness of who God is as man (Col. 2:9; Heb. 1:3). Once we put our faith in Christ, we have become the righteousness of God by Jesus’s active work on the cross for us (2 Cor. 5:21). So, we are good because of what God has done for us, and we do good because of what God has done for us. This impacts our lives as we no longer live for ourselves, but for God.

Matthew 5:16 changes our mindset about doing good to prove we are good, shifting our motivation to do everything for God’s glory. We are not meant to be superheroes like Batman. When I have done things for my own glory or for other people to see me as good, I feel a certain amount of misery because I am not meant to be glorified; God is. There is a certain amount of peace I feel in doing things for God’s glory as I rest in Him, and the righteousness that He has bestowed upon me to do good. So, we, as Christians, should do all for God’s glory, as He is deserving of all glory.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.