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The word
"good" means so many things that we must begin
with a definition of the word. The word "good"
is a general term of approval. It can mean better
than average, as in, "He is a good student." It
can mean something which produces favorable results,
as in, "It was a good business trip." It can mean
that which is effective or efficient, as in, "A
Jeep is good for off road driving." It can mean
that which is genuine or real, as in, "good money."
It can mean something fresh or unspoiled, as in,
"good eggs." It can mean something that is honorable,
as in, "having a good name." It can mean something
that is enjoyable or agreeable, as in, "Life is
good." It can mean something which is reliable
or dependable, as in, "good advice." It can mean
that which is thorough, as in, "He did a good
job." It can mean that which is adequate, ample,
or sufficient, as in, "a good meal." It can mean
that which is morally sound or excellent, virtuous,
kind, benevolent, generous, or sympathetic, as
in, "He is a good man."
The Bible
reveals that goodness is part of God's essential
nature. I will wait on Your name (in Biblical
usage "name" means nature, character, or essence),
for it is good (Psalm
52:9). When we say that God is good, it
means that which is in the nature and character
of God that causes Him to be kind and benevolent.
God's goodness means that He is basically tenderhearted
and sympathetic towards His creation; His underlying
attitude towards His creatures is one of friendliness.
By His very nature He is inclined to bestow blessing
and happiness. By His inherent nature He takes
pleasure in the happiness of His people. He
is good and He does good (Psalm 119:68).
Since
the Almighty is immutable, His goodness can never
change in the slightest way. He will never be
better than He is now, nor will He ever be any
less good. In the beginning He made the universe
and behold, it was very good. Everything that
He does is still very good. Since God is infinite,
perfect and eternal, His goodness is boundless
and can never cease. Everything that He will ever
do will always be good. He has unending goodness
in store for us, for He is the High Priest of
the good things to come.
Some people
assume that God is only good to those who are
good to Him, but that is not true. God's goodness
is not restricted to believers - oh no! The
Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over
all of His works (Psalm 145:9). Rabbi Paul's
message to the pagans of Lystra was that God
did not leave Himself without witness, in that
He did good and gave you rains from heaven and
fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with
food and gladness (Acts 14:17). Messiah Yeshua
told us that He causes His sun to shine on
the evil and the good, and He sends rain on the
righteous and the unrighteous (Mt. 5:45).
The
goodness of God is foundational for all sound
thought about the Most High and is necessary for
our moral sanity: If God was not good, there
could be no distinction between kindness and cruelty;
good could be bad, and bad could be good; heaven
could be hell, and hell could be heaven. But since
the Lord is good, there is a real moral difference
between good and evil, and they are not to be
confused. Woe to those who call evil good and
good evil because there is a difference (Is.
5:20). Depart from evil and do good (Ps.
34:14) is as good advice now as it was when it
was written by King David 3000 years ago.
The
goodness of God is revealed in Creation: Every
good thing that any creature enjoys in the present,
or hopes to enjoy in the future, flows from the
inexhaustible river of the goodness of God. Every
good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is
from above, coming down from the Father of lights
(James 1:17). Just as the universe teems with
life, it also teems with delights. There are very
few things in nature which promote pain for their
own sake. On the other hand there are many things
that God has designed into His creation expressly
for our pleasure. Why did God make a universe
filled with delights and enjoyments? Why was man
created with the ability to experience pleasure
and joy? Because of His goodness. Why is it possible
to enjoy music and art? Why did the Lord enable
us to enjoy the taste of good food, or the smell
of beautiful scent? Why did He make flowers and
plants to please our senses, decorate our surroundings,
and supply us good to eat? Why did He create trees
that are beautiful to look at and useful to build
our homes? Why are there colorful stones and jewels
and metals that make life more beautiful? Why
did God create us with the capacity to have meaningful
relationships with others that enrich our lives?
Why did God make beautiful women and handsome
men that attract us and husbands and wives and
families and children that make our lives richer?
Because of His goodness.
The
goodness of God is revealed in His Word: Why
did the Infinite One give us His special communication,
the Bible? Why did God send us righteous prophets
to instruct us? Why did the Almighty send us good
kings like David and Hezekiah? Why did God send
us priests and saints, holy men and apostles,
pastors and teachers? It is because of His goodness.
The
goodness of God is revealed in Redemption:
Why didn't God destroy the world after Adam and
Eve sinned? Why has God saved a people in every
generation? Why did God take Israel out of Egypt?
Why did God give the Jewish people the land of
Israel? Why does the Lord accept our repentance
and forgive our sins? Because He is good - not
because our repentance is so special in and of
itself, and not because God is obligated to forgive
us. For You Lord are good, and ready to forgive,
and abundant in lovingkindness to all who call
upon You (Psalm 86:5). Why does the King of
Heaven answer our prayers? Not because He is indebted
to us in any way, or because our prayers are so
meritorious in and of themselves, but simply because
His nature is good.
The
goodness of God is revealed most clearly in Messiah
Yeshua: God sent His Son into the world to
show us ultimate goodness. Yeshua is the Good
Shepherd (John 10:11). He proclaimed the Good
News. He did many good works from the Father.
He gave good gifts, He sowed the good seed, and
He served the best wine. He made many good promises.
Then in an unparalleled act of pure goodness,
Messiah sacrificed His endless life and died on
a cross. In fact His life and ministry can be
summarized by saying that He went about doing
good (Acts 10:38). What caused God to become
a man? What sent Messiah to die on a cross? What
will cause Him to return to earth, and bring unending
blessing, prosperity, happiness and bliss to the
world? The goodness of God.
How can
we know for sure that the unseen infinite God
is good? The answer is that God is exactly
like Messiah Yeshua. He who has seen Me
has seen the Father Messiah Yeshua dared
to proclaim. Messiah walked on earth so that He
might show us what the Father is like. He came
to make God known to a lost race that had all
kinds of wrong ideas about Him. From Yeshua we
can learn how God acts toward people. The humble
and the repentant will find God good and merciful,
as they found Yeshua. They will find the Father
to be like the father of the prodigal son - gracious,
welcoming, delirious with joy - if they come to
Him like the prodigal son came to his father.
The frightened will find God friendly. To the
poor in spirit He will be forgiving. To the ignorant
He will be considerate. To the weak He will be
gentle. To the stranger He will be hospitable.
To those who mourn over their sins, He will be
comforting, as was Yeshua. But those who think
themselves wise will find out that the All Knowing
One is even shrewder. The hypocrites and the insincere,
those who honor Him with their lips but whose
hearts are far from Him, will find God cold and
aloof - as they found Yeshua. Yeshua will always
be the friend of sinners, but He will forever
oppose the proud and independent. He will not
force His friendship upon those who refuse to
be friendly with Him.
It
is essential to know that God is good: The
Fall of mankind has made us fearful to approach
God. When Adam and Eve sinned they hid from God,
and their children are still hiding from Him.
Years of rebellion against the Creator have instilled
a fear in us that is not easily overcome. A rebel
who has been captured does not enter willingly
into the presence of the king that he has long
tried to overthrow. Someone who has ignored God
for his entire life and who starts to get interested
in the Mighty One may wonder, "If I come to God,
how will He act toward me? What kind of disposition
will He have? Will He be friendly or angry?" The
whole outlook of humanity might be changed if
we could believe that the God of heaven, even
though He is high and lifted up and exalted above
the heavens, is eager to be friends with us. The
greatness and holiness of God should cause us
to fear the Lord, but at the same time His goodness
encourages us not to be afraid of Him.
We
must recognize that God is good and that we are
not: Most people think that they are pretty
good, especially when compared to the next guy.
But compared to the infinite goodness that
is God, the best of men are not very good at all.
There is an infinite distance between the goodness
of God and fallen humanity. The Lord has looked
down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see
if there are any who understand, who seek after
God. They have all turned aside; together they
have become corrupt; there is no one who does
good, not even one (Psalm 14:2-3). Yeshua
reaffirmed this when He said: no one is good
except God alone (Luke 18:19). God is absolutely
good. Man is only relatively good to the degree
that we conform to the goodness of God. We are
evil to the extent that we deviate from the God's
goodness. If we will not admit that He alone
is truly good, and we are not, we will never come
to Him the way that we should. If we insist on
claiming that we are good, we will never experience
the totality of His saving goodness.
Why
do bad things happen to relatively good people?
Sometimes people question the goodness of God
when bad things happen, or if they experience
a disappointment. They wonder if the Lord is good
if He allows evil to exist in the world. But consider
this: sin and evil are bad in themselves. The
amputation of an arm or leg is bad in itself;
but if it is necessary to save a life, it is good.
Pain is something bad in itself. But if it warns
us not to put our hand in the fire, it serves
a good purpose. In a similar way, God is so powerful
and so good that He has the ability to use sin
and evil to bring about a greater good! Whatever
others do to us, even if they mean it for evil,
God can turn it around for good (Gen. 50:20).
He causes all things to work together for good
to those who love God, to those who are called
according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).
If evil
can be used to bring about a greater good, then
it is consistent with the goodness of God to permit
sin and evil to exist for a time. Eventually the
evil will bow down before the good (Proverbs
14:19), and then all sin and evil will be completely
eliminated from the new heavens and the new earth.
A universe of pure goodness is the final goal
of God's plans.
Until
we reach our final destiny, God will discipline
us so that we will not miss that eternity of joy.
It was after he was afflicted that King David
was able to say: it was good for me that I
was afflicted (Psalm 119:71). Whether we are
experiencing pleasant or difficult circumstances,
we need to have the attitude of Job who said:
Shall we indeed accept good from God, and not
accept adversity? (Job 2:10). When we suffer
we should trust that our Heavenly Father is still
good and has our best interests at heart.
In
light of God's goodness, He must become our supreme
good: While it is true that the Lord is the
source of every good thing that we enjoy, we
need to seek Him not only for the good things
that He gives us, but because He Himself is the
ultimate good. Since the Creator is infinitely
better than everything in His creation, we should
be willing to give up the lesser good in order
to obtain the ultimate good. It only makes sense
to develop the attitude that King David displayed
when He prayed: Lord, You are my Lord; I have
no good beside You (Psalm 16:2). Compared
to the Infinite One, everything else in a finite
creation should fade into relative insignificance.
A man must be willing to sell all that he has
in order to buy the field with the hidden treasure.
A merchant must be willing to sell all that he
has in order to purchase the pearl of great price.
We must even be willing to give up our only son,
like Abraham did, in order to have the Lord as
our God. Like rabbi Paul we need to be able to
say from our hearts, whatever things were
gain to me, those things I have counted as loss
for the sake of Messiah. More than that, I count
all things to be loss in view of the surpassing
value of knowing Messiah Yeshua my Lord, for whom
I have suffered the loss of all things, and I
count them as rubbish in order that I may gain
Messiah (Phil 3:7-8).
We
need to imitate the goodness of God: Like
children who grow up by imitating their parents,
we are to imitate the goodness of God. Love
your enemies Messiah told us, and do good,
and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your
reward will be great, and you will be sons of
the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful
and evil men (Luke 6:35). Through studying
and applying the Word of God, we can have our
senses trained to discern good and evil. We can
learn to avoid evil, and cling to what is good.
By being transformed by Yeshua's Spirit, we can
be equipped for every good work. We can be empowered
to do good to all men and bear fruit in every
good work.
Do
you still have any doubt that God is good?
Try Him out! Taste and see that the Lord is
good (Psalm 34:8). Make your first feeble
gestures of doing things His way. Pray to Him.
Read His Word. Draw near to Him. You will discover
what the Psalmist did when he declared that the
nearness of God is my good (Psalm 73:28).
I am indebted to The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W.
Tozer for this article.
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