Tom Kirkpatrick
http://lifehopeandtruth.com/god/who-is-god/god-is-good/
The Bible consistently describes God as good. But some say He isn’t good or that some things He’s done aren’t good. Are there different definitions of good?
When God revealed Himself to Moses and the nation of Israel, it was in these terms: “And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth’” (Exodus 34:6, emphasis added throughout).
The Bible says this about the eternal, Creator God: “Everygood gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17). If a gift is “good,” it ultimately comes from God—the unchanging God.
“You are good, and do good” (Psalm 119:68).
“Good” is the consistent scriptural description of the nature and actions of God. In the Bible’s earliest revelation about God and His creative acts, the word “good” is used repeatedly. God described as “good” the things He made on the various days of creation, and the overall work of creation was summarized as “very good” (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25).
According to the Bible, God is good.
What is the definition, and the standard, of “good”?
But what does that mean exactly? In a world of evil, pain and suffering, some question whether God really is all good.
Who defines “good”? Not everyone agrees.
In fact, some claim that the God described in the Bible is cruel and definitely not good. One writer, Christopher Hitchens, has gone so far as to write a book titled God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.
According to Christopher Hitchens, God is not great or good.
Why do people differ in how they define “good”? It can have to do with perspective. If self is the perspective, then a person can define “good” in terms of how someone or something impacts the self. You are “good” to the degree that I am made happier and more content by you. “I” become the point of reference to define “goodness.” The happiness or contentment of others is unimportant.
How people define “good” can also have to do with the matter of time. Some people tend to evaluate life merely in reference to the short term. If you please me now—today—then you are “good.”
This, of course, leaves tomorrow or next year completely out of the picture. It ignores the possibility that something that brings short-term pleasure can produce pain, suffering or loss in the long term. It also fails to see how good in the long term might result from struggles or suffering in the short term.
Others equate “goodness” with “niceness” or good manners—never hurting anyone’s feelings—always saying positive and complimentary things about others. In modern times, the term “politically correct” has come into usage, describing institutionalized “niceness”—though sometimes at the expense of truthfulness or constructive criticism. In its advanced form, it can result in nonjudgmental “tolerance” of behavior, even behavior that results in hurt and damage to others.
The list could go on. Other opinions as to the essence of “goodness” center on attributes such as generosity or humility or loyalty or “spirituality.” There is considerable variation in how people view the concept of “good.”
But how does the Bible define goodness? In what sense of the word “good” is God “good”—according to the testimony of the Bible?
If we are to understand God and the goodness of God, it is important that we study what the Bible teaches about this question. When we do that, we find that the varying human opinions and perspectives about “goodness” mentioned above fall short of a complete understanding.
(To understand the related issue of why there is evil and suffering in the world, see the section on “Why Does God Allow Evil and Suffering?”)
The “goodness” of God in the working out of God’s plan of salvation
According to the Scriptures, we understand the “goodness” of God in the working out of His great master plan of salvation. God has a wonderful plan for His human creation—a very good plan! According to God’s purpose, that plan takes time, patience and endurance. For this wonderful plan to be accomplished, there are struggles along the way for us human beings (Matthew 7:13-14).
It isn’t easy, but it is good—all good. God is good, and that goodness is seen as He accomplishes His purpose to expand His family. Let’s understand.
God the Father and Jesus Christ are engaged in “bringing many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10). They are expanding the God family. Their purpose is to bring human beings to eternal life in a loving family relationship with Them—to make many more in their “image” (Genesis 1:26; 1 Corinthians 15:49;Colossians 3:10).
In the working out of that purpose, God reveals His character—His nature—to mankind. He shows us that we are to become like Him. His character is pure, holy and loving. In this revealing of His holy nature to His human creation, God is good. “Good and upright is the LORD; therefore He teaches sinners in the way” (Psalm 25:8).
God reveals His righteous law to mankind. His law serves as a guide to living in a way that pleases God, and it leads to the accomplishment of His plan. In making this guide and spiritual “light” available to man, God is good. “You are good, and do good; teach me Your statutes” (Psalm 119:68).
In working out His glorious purpose, God has first made mankind mortal and given him physical life. In that life, all men and women have sinned—violating God’s righteous laws, falling short of the holiness and spiritual purity of God (Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23).
God’s goodness leads men to repentance
When God works directly in the life of a sinning human being, He convicts him of his sins and grants him the gift of repentance—a willingness and commitment to change, to become like God and to seek His forgiveness. In doing this, God is good. “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4).
When people desire to come into conformity with God’s ways and live by His righteous laws and turn from the way of sin, God is gracious, and merciful, and willing to forgive their sins. In this merciful response to repentance, God is good. “For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You” (Psalm 86:5).
Christ’s sacrifice shows God’s goodness
When God calls and chooses a person to know Him and brings that person to repentance and forgiveness, that forgiveness is through faith in the death—the sacrifice—of Jesus Christ. Christ, the Son of God, died for sinners, so that they might live. In God the Father’s merciful acceptance of Christ’s death in the place of the eternal death of a repentant sinner, God is good.
When a person has repented of sin and asked for God’s mercy and the gift of God’s Holy Spirit, God lives and works in that person, through the power of that Spirit. If a person then uses that spiritual power given by God to change, that person can be transformed from within. In doing this, God is good. “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
In every aspect of the working out of His plan of salvation, through Jesus Christ, in the lives of human beings, God is good.
Ultimately, all will understand God’s goodness and His plan!
As we saw earlier, not everyone today understands what “good” is in the same way. Many do not understand it in light of the Bible or of the nature and workings of God. Many do not know and understand the incredible “goodness” of God. But, even in that regard, there is good news!
The good news is that this will change! The Bible reveals that the time is coming when the knowledge of God—of how He is and what He does, of God’s goodness—will be far more widespread than it is today. “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).
In that wonderful time, when the Kingdom of God rules the earth, the goodness of God will be known and understood and praised throughout the earth!
“Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, and I will declare Your greatness. They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness, and shall sing of Your righteousness. The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy. The LORD is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 145:6-9).
What should you do?
To know God is the most important and meaningful relationship you can have. To know His goodness is inspiring—it fills us with hope, and it motivates us to live a life of meaning, confidence and purpose. You can get to know God better. Read and study the material on this site to learn more of God, His plan for mankind and His purpose for your life. Read it with your Bible in hand.
And for personal help and counsel, feel free to write us using the “Ask Us” link below. If you would like, we can put you in contact with a minister near you.
For more on the character of God, read the articles “God is Love” and “Love of God.”
Rick Warren:
http://rickwarren.org/devotional/english/remember-to-say-every-day-god-is-good-and-he-is-in-control
Remember To Say Every Day: God Is Good And He Is In Control
BY RICK WARREN — MAY 21, 2014
193
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who’ve been called according to His purpose.”Romans 8:28 (NIV)
“Why is life so hard?” Do you ever find yourself asking this question because you’re frustrated by circumstances in your life?
Frustration is the result of living in a world that is broken by sin. You can’t avoid suffering. There will be pain, and if you aren’t careful, that pain can lead to bitterness.
Bitterness is a poison that will eat you alive. It’s like a cancer to your heart. When you become bitter towards someone, you don’t hurt that person; you only hurt yourself.
It’s so easy to become envious and jealous of others when life doesn’t go the way we want it to. We begin to think, “It’s not fair. Why does that person have it so easy when life is so tough for me?”
It’s very easy to become resentful in a broken world. But envy and jealousy can quickly turn to bitterness, and bitterness will eat you up.
How do you keep from becoming bitter? You choose. There will be pain in your life. The question is, are you going to allow it to make you a better person or a bitter person? You can moan and groan and become bitter. Or you can stay sweet in a suffering world by remembering these four things:
The Holy Spirit is praying for you. “[T]he Spirit himself speaks to God for us, and even begs God for us with deep feelings that words cannot explain” (Romans 8:26 NCV).
God uses everything for your good. “And we know in all things God works for the good of those who love Him” (Romans 8:28 NIV). God is bigger than your enemies. He’s bigger than your critics. He’s bigger than your problems. And he’s working it all for good in your life.
God wants you to succeed. “If God is for us, who can ever be against us?”(Romans 8:31 NLT). God wants you to succeed in all those areas where you are failing. He’s pulling for you.
God will give you what you need. “And since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else?” (Romans 8:32 NLT). God solved your biggest problem when he paid for all your sins, including the ones you haven’t done yet. If God cared enough to save you and give you the gift of eternal life, don’t you think he cares about the problems in your daily life? If it’s big enough to worry about, it’s big enough to pray about. And if you pray about it, you won’t have to worry about it.
All of these things should remind you that God is good and he’s in control.
God Is So Good - From the Joy of Knowing God
https://bible.org/seriespage/20-god-so-good
Jesus was on the road, making His final journey to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. This time He Himself would be the Passover Lamb, slain for the sins of the world. As He walked along with His disciples, a young man ran up to Him, knelt down in front of Him and asked, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17)
“Good Teacher”—that was an unusual form of address. In all of Jewish religious literature, no rabbi was ever called good. Only God and His law were considered to be good. Was this a case of empty flattery, or had this young man become convinced of something that the rest of the religious establishment had refused to admit—that Jesus Christ was actually God in flesh?
“Why do you call Me good?” Jesus asked. “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18). His comment was not a denial of His deity, as some have suggested, but rather an opportunity for the rich young ruler to confess his faith in Christ’s divine person. That confession never came, indicating the man’s lack of spiritual understanding. But Christ’s statement tells us something about God that we need to consider if we ever hope to know Him intimately. God is good, and beyond that, He is the only one who can rightfully be called good.
The Nature of God’s Goodness
The word for good which Jesus used refers to what is excellent in its character or constitution and beneficial or useful in its effect. The Old Testament equivalent means pleasant, agreeable, excellent, valuable, benevolent, and kind. Two separate ideas begin to surface as we examine these words that describe God’s goodness. One has to do with the perfections of His person and the other with the kindness of His acts.
Both ideas occur together in one verse in the Psalms: “Thou art good and doest good” (Psalm 119:68). First of all, God Himself is good; that is, He is everything that God should be—the ideal person, the sum total of all perfection. There are no defects or contradictions in Him, and nothing can be added to His nature to make Him any better. He is excellence to an infinite degree, possessing every desirable quality, and therefore of inestimable value. God is good.
Because God is Himself the highest and greatest good, He is also the source and fountain of all other good. He does good things. He extends His goodness to others. It is His nature to be kind, generous, and benevolent, to demonstrate good will toward men, and to take great pleasure in making them happy. Because God is good, He wants us to have what we need for our happiness and He sees that it is available to us. Every good thing we now enjoy or ever hope to enjoy flows from Him, and no good thing has ever existed or ever will exist that does not come from His good hand.
That is why Jesus could say to the rich young ruler, “No one is good except God alone.” No other being is infinitely and innately and immutably good. All goodness that exists outside of Him finds its source in Him. Even a man as godly as the Apostle Paul had to admit that in his natural being there was no good thing (Romans 7:18), and we have to admit it too. If there is any good to be found in us, it had to come from God, for we are incapable of producing it ourselves.
In addition, everything God does is good—specially tailored for our benefit. Asaph beganPsalm 73 by stating quite literally, “Only God is good to Israel.” In other words, God is nothing but good. He can do nothing but what is absolutely best.
A little fellow was heard praying at bedtime, “Help me to be a good boy—but you be a good God too.” But there is no need to remind God to be good. He cannot possibly be otherwise.
If everything God does is good and all His acts are the outflowing of His goodness, it would seem that this attribute embraces all His other attributes. There is some Biblical evidence for that. God promised Moses that He would make all His goodness pass before him (Exodus 33:19). When God did pass before him the next morning on Mount Sinai, He revealed His compassion, His graciousness, His long-suffering, His mercy, His truth, and His forgiveness (Exodus 34:5-7). Evidently all those attributes were summed up in His goodness.
We readily can see the relationship between goodness and some of God’s other attributes. For example, when His goodness gives of itself unconditionally and sacrificially, it is love. When it shows favor to the guilty and undeserving, it is grace. When it reaches out to relieve the miserable and distressed, it is mercy. When it shows patience toward those who deserve punishment, it is long-suffering. When it reveals to us the way things are, it is truth. When it bears the offense of our sin and absolves us of our guilt, it is forgiveness. When the Bible says that God is good, it is referring to all these qualities and more.
Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good;
Sing praises to His name, for it is lovely (Psalm 135:3).
The Expression of God’s Goodness
Although God’s goodness is unfolded in all that He is and all that He does, the Bible reveals some specific expressions of it. For one, it is demonstrated in His creation. Seven times in Genesis God said that what He made was good (Genesis 1:4,10,12,18,21,25,31). The final statement sums it up: “And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). No one can observe the grandeur of God’s handiwork and deny that it is good. Even though man has managed to mar it considerably, it was good the way God made it and it still reflects that goodness: blue skies studded with fluffy white clouds by day and spangled with sparkling bright stars at night; glistening snow-covered mountain peaks; fields and trees with infinitely varied shades of green and gold; brilliant, multicolored flowers with lovely fragrances. There is no end to the goodness we enjoy in God’s creation: “the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD” (Psalm 33:5 KJV). The beauty of God’s earth reminds us of His goodness.
Then there is man, the zenith of God’s creative genius. God made him with eyes to behold the beauty of nature, ears to hear its lovely sounds, nostrils to enjoy its pleasant aromas, taste buds to relish its infinite variety of eatable delights, a sense of touch to help communicate love to someone precious to him, and a mind to comprehend the meaning of it all, to name just a few evidences of God’s goodness. He affords us no end of good things: the warmth of sunlight, the joy of loving family and friends, the satisfaction of productive labor, the exhilaration of physical exercise and recreation, the refreshment of a good night’s sleep, provision for our daily needs, and so many others that enrich our lives. These blessings turn our minds to Him in adoration and gratitude.
These “good things” are blessings God bestows on all mankind. They are not reserved for believers alone. King David wrote:
The LORD is good to all,
And His mercies are over all His works (Psalm 145:9).
The eyes of all look to Thee, And Thou dost give them their food in due time.
Thou dost open Thy hand, And dost satisfy the desire of every living thing (15-16).
Jesus said He makes the sun rise on the evil as well as on the good, and sends the rain on the unrighteous as well as on the righteous (Matthew 5:45). He deals bountifully and kindly even with ungrateful and wicked men (Luke 6:35). Paul said in a message to a group of unbelievers at Lystra, “He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with good and gladness” (Acts 14:17).
Unbelievers have a tendency to take God’s goodness for granted and exploit it for their own ends. But the person who knows Him personally, who understands and appreciates His goodness, will not only enjoy His blessings fully, but use them thankfully and unselfishly, giving glory to Him. The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude” (1 Timothy 4:4).
Along with the general benefits which God has bestowed on all people, the believer has additional good things to enjoy. For example, he has in his possession the Word of God which is described as good (Hebrews 6:5). He can know and do the will of God which is called good (Romans 12:2). He has the assurance that his good God will work every detail of his life together for good (Romans 8:28), the minor annoyances as well as the major crises. The expressions of God’s goodness to His children are endless.
How great is Thy goodness,
Which Thou hast stored up for those who fear Thee,
Which Thou hast wrought for those who take refuge in Thee,
Before the sons of men! (Psalm 31:19)
The Psalmist goes further: “No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11).
Our family has seen innumerable evidences of God’s goodness through the years. One small but unforgetable incident occurred when our youngest son was about five years old. We were spending the week at a Bible conference and Tim had gained a new friend named Peter. One evening we overheard him say, “Peter, let’s pray that we will find a treasure on the beach tomorrow.”
My wife and I thought that maybe we ought to plant something in the sand for him to find, in order to help God out a little and bolster our young son’s budding faith, but we completely forgot about it. As we relaxed on the beach the next afternoon we heard Tim suddenly exclaim, “I found it! I found a treasure!” He had dug a nickel out of the sand, and as an added bonus it had been minted in the year of his birth. It was just a little thing—but another evidence that a good God loves to do good things for His own.
The Objections To God’s Goodness
Of course, not everybody agrees that God is good, and it should be no surprise that His goodness is being called into question today. It was probably the first attribute of God to be attacked in human history. When Satan met Eve in the garden, he implied that God was less than good for denying her the luscious fruit of that one forbidden tree (cf. Genesis 3:1-5). Men have been challenging God’s goodness ever since. How can a good God allow evil to exist in His world? How can He permit disease, pain, suffering, poverty, hunger, prejudice, greed, exploitation, crime, violence, war, bloodshed, catastrophe, and destruction? They argue, either He is not very good or He does not have the power to stop it.
It is difficult for us to understand how these human tragedies can possibly be good, and quite frankly, we may never fully understand it. God tells us that His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9), therefore we cannot expect to understand everything. We do know, however, that God is not the author of sin (Habakkuk 1:13; James 1:13; 1 John 1:5). We also know that God in His sovereign good pleasure created man with volition—the ability to choose good or evil. The first man chose evil of his own will, and his sin affected all of God’s creation. All of the heartache and suffering in this world today are the direct result of that choice, the consequence of living in a world affected by sin.
In addition, our suffering is intensified by repeated sinful choices; not only our own, but those of individuals and nations around us. We may suffer when a drug addict decides to secure the money he needs for his next fix or when the leaders of some nation decide to enlarge their sphere of influence. The only way to remove all suffering from the world would be to deny everyone all of their freedom, to make them all automatons. None of us would opt for that.
God knew before He created him that man would choose evil, but He also knew that creating him was the best way to demonstrate the greatness of His person and the perfections of His nature—in other words, to show who He really is and to bring glory to Himself. He even has the power to overrule man’s sin to accomplish that good purpose. In fact, He promises to overrule all things for good: “And we know that God 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). That is so difficult to accept in times of great trial, even for true Christians. “If God is so good, why did He let my mate get cancer, or why did He allow my child to be taken away from me, or why did He let my marriage fall apart, or why did He let me lose my job, or why did He let me lose my life savings? I’m not guilty of any great sin.”
The cause of our dilemma is our failure to understand what is truly good for us. We may have the notion that our ultimate good would be to have things go smoothly for us all the time, to do anything we please, knowing that everything we do will turn out for our happiness, comfort, convenience, health, affluence, and success. But God in His omniscience knows that the choices we make in our human wisdom and with our sinful natures will not always make us truly happy in the end.
God’s good goal for us is to make us like His Son. We should never separate verse 28 from the great promise of Romans 8:29: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren.” Our highest good is conformity to the model of humanity that Jesus presented to us. That will bring us maximum happiness. We can be growing toward that goal daily; any choice we make that fails to contribute to that goal is going to increase our unhappiness. In other words, we do not always know what is best for us.
Parents especially understand that. Children think they know what will make them happy, but since parents have lived a few more years and know a little more about life, they know better what produces true happiness. So they insist on what they know will be for their children’s good, because they love them. Sometimes parents even have to make life unpleasant for them so they will learn to do what is best. To do less than that would be inconsiderate and neglectful.
When I was sixteen years old I wanted to buy a motorcycle. I pleaded with my dad for permission, but he refused to grant it. As I look back, I know his decision was best. With the lack of responsibility I had at that age, I probably would have killed myself on a motorcycle. I couldn’t understand it at the time, but now I know that what he did was good and has worked out for my benefit.
Let me illustrate it from the world of medicine. Medical studies have determined that the disease known as Hansen’s disease or leprosy does not damage the limbs and make the fingers and toes drop off as people historically have believed. It attacks the nervous system and destroys the victim’s ability to feel pain. As a result, lepers damage their own limbs by such careless practices as grasping things too tightly, cutting themselves seriously and not treating the wound, or putting their hands in a fire to pluck something out. On some occasions their limbs have actually been chewed off by rats while they slept, and they never felt a thing.
Medical technicians have experimented with devices that inflict an electric shock whenever a vulnerable part of the patients’ bodies is being abused. But the patients would switch off the current whenever they anticipated doing anything that might produce an unpleasant sensation, so the device did them no good. The only way a patient could be protected from destroying his own body and thus adding to his misery was to put the signal out of his reach. The pain of that electric shock, as unpleasant as it might have been for the moment, proved to be good and contributed to his ultimate happiness.5
Most of us would like God to turn off the current, to turn down the heat, to get us out from under our burdens. But that would not necessarily be good. It might be inconsiderate and neglectful. If we had an on/off switch, we could take care of it ourselves, but that would not be very smart. True happiness can be found only when we get to know God and grow in the likeness of His Son. Nothing reminds us of that more dramatically or encourages us to grow in Him more effectively than pain and suffering. Without it we might drift away, live our lives apart from Him, and never know true happiness. Suffering does not cast doubt on God’s goodness; it demonstrates it. The Psalmist saw it clearly:
It is good for me that I was afflicted,
That I may learn Thy statutes (Psalm 119:71).
Not only do we learn the truthfulness of His Word, we also learn firsthand the joy of His presence and the reality of His grace. It is often through suffering that we begin to appreciate God’s goodness as never before.
Our Response To God’ Goodness
When we become aware of God’s goodness, it should elicit a certain kind of response from us. We see the proper response in a group of weary exiles who had made their way back to their promised land after seventy years of Babylonian captivity. Their goal was to rebuild the temple of God. Progress was slow, but in the second year of their restoration the foundation was finally completed. Those who had lived long enough to see Solomon’s temple knew that this one would not begin to compare with it in size or beauty. But that made little difference to them. They were back in their land, and their temple was under way. “And they sang, praising and giving thanks to the LORD, saying, ‘For He is good, for His lovingkindness is upon Israel forever.’ And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the LORD because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid” (Ezra 3:11). God’s goodness prompted songs of praise and thanksgiving. And that is exactly what it should do for us.
Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;
For His lovingkindness is everlasting (Psalm 106:1).
(Cf. also Psalm 100; 107:1; 118:1,29; 135:3; 136:1; 1 Chronicles 16:34; 2 Chronicles 5:13.)
The word praise comes from a root that means “to be boastful.” When we praise God, we are boasting in the good things He has done, not necessarily because He has done them for us (as though we deserved anything), but simply because they demonstrate who He is. People who know a good God have no cause to grumble and complain. Praise becomes a way of life for them.
Our response to God’s goodness is not only praise, but also thanksgiving. If we take a few minutes each day to do nothing but thank God for some of the good things He has done, we may never get depressed again. So take a thanksgiving break! Thanksgiving is like a tonic that brightens the entire complexion of our lives. Learn to practice it. It may require discipline at first, but soon it will become a joyful and satisfying way of life. There is no better way to get it flowing than to rehearse the evidence of God’s goodness.
God is so good! If you have not yet discovered it, heed the exhortation of the Psalmist:
O taste and see that the LORD is good;
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! (Psalm 34:8)
Action To Take
Sit down with someone close to you and rehearse some of the good things God has done for you through the years. Then respond to Him with thanksgiving and praise. If you are presently facing some trial, think of some of the good things God could be teaching you through it.
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Thank you for your comments. I will review then in a few days! I hope you see God's blessings for you this week!