Paper Entitled: "God's Goodness"

This is another paper I wrote for one of my classes at the Forerunner School of Ministry. The class was called "The Existence and Attributes of God."

“The goodness of God is that which disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men. He is tenderhearted and of quick sympathy, and His unfailing attitude toward all moral beings is open, frank, and friendly” (Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy p.82). Meditating upon the goodness of God will soften the hardest of hearts. The promises of goodness that God has made to His children in His Word are so extravagant, that they almost seem outrageous when thought about. This is especially true, when we consider the children to which He has made them. The children of God have been rebellious toward God and His infinite goodness almost since the beginning. Yet in Psalm 31:19, David says: “Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!” God has not only chosen to show His goodness toward men, but He actually stores up His goodness and awaits to shower it upon those who would simply turn to Him and fear His name. It is imperative for our hearts to take long and careful thought of the goodness of God. The next few paragraphs will attempt to define “goodness” and address a few areas of life where the goodness of God is most apparent.

In Matthew 19:17b Jesus says: “Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.” Jesus tells this man that the title of “good” is a title only due and properly belonging to Almighty God. As with “God is love” (1John 4:8), so God IS good. It simply is what He is. In the Old Testament, when God is defining and describing Himself to the Israelites, He says: “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). “Not only is God good, but He is goodness itself, the supreme inconceivable goodness” (Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God p.211). He is the highest of goodness, because He does not act for His own profit. He is good for His creations’ welfare and because He wants to manifest His goodness to them. It is why David says in Psalm 33:5 “He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.” The earth is full of God’s goodness because He longs to pour out His goodness upon His creations. His children will “abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness” (Psalm 145:7). They know they have received something of good that they in no way deserve and are incapable of repaying. However, God loves doing good so much, that He gives all and receives nothing. Even the evidence of His Spirit dwelling in a person results in goodness: “for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth” (Ephesians 5:9). The goodness of God is the attribute that can best sum up and define all His attributes into one.

In Matthew 7:11 Jesus refers to God as a good Father who desires to give good gift unto His children. It says: “how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” He is the happy and proud father that just had his first son. He is a father that cannot wait to hold and bless and get to know his new born son, even though this son has done nothing to deserve anything. The son at this point has only cried and screamed and cost money, yet his father already swells with love for him and longs to give to him good gifts. Our Father in Heaven feels the same way about us, and all He asks us to do for these gifts is to come to Him and ask Him and receive of Him. The goodness of God is the motive behind all the daily blessings He gives to us. Simply by His nature, He is inclined to disperse goodness, and He takes pleasure in the happiness of His people. If we will only come to Him, we will say like David: “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him (Psalm 34:8).

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). This verse is the very essence of God’s goodness. Not only has God promised those who fear His name eternal life, but He gave His only begotten Son to provide it. The promise of eternal life to man is a higher reward than can be imagined. Eternal life is a gift, not by obligation but out of an abundance of God’s goodness. It could not be due to man either because of the nature of man or because of any natural right claimed because of his obedience to the law. “The whole gospel is nothing but one entire mirror of Divine goodness” (Charnock, 258). He gave us His son, because He cannot give a greater gift than Himself. No other sacrifice could have justified man to God. “Divine justice laid upon Him the iniquity of us all, but Divine goodness intended it for our rescue. Divine goodness sent Him, and Divine goodness moved justice to bruise Him” (Charnock, 265). God has given the whole of God to us. The Creator gave Himself to us in His Son Jesus. Everything that is great and excellent in the Godhead, the Father gave to us by giving us His Son. This is the good gift God has given to His children. This was more than man could have ever even imagined or dreamed.

Psalm 119:68 “Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes.” Even God’s law and judgments are good. His laws promise blessings to those who fear Him and judgment to those who ignore His existence. His laws are not designed to discourage wickedness as much as they are promises of reward designed to encourage the pursuit of goodness. The subject of threatened evil frightens man, and the anticipation of the promised good allures him to obedience. “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness” (Romans 11:22). The greatness of God rouses fear within us, but His goodness encourages us not to be afraid of Him. God’s judgments are promises of justice to the afflicted and warnings to the on-looking wicked. Still, at the end of the day, it is the “goodness of God that leadeth thee to repentance” (Romans 2:4). His goodness towards us makes us desire “to be perfect (good) as He is perfect (good)” (Matthew 5:48).

In a world full of wickedness and sin and darkness and the opposite of good, we must focus our eyes on Jesus and the eternal bliss awaiting those who believe in Him. We cannot focus on this world, but we must believe and meditate upon the goodness of God. “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13). David says it perfectly because he was a man that lived a life of doing this very thing. Zechariah 9:17a says: “For how great is his goodness, and how great is His beauty!” Zechariah was given just a glimpse into the age to come and was overcome with awe and joy at the goodness of God. We can get wrapped up and lost in the goodness of our God knowing He will forever be good to those who love Him. “He can no more act contrary to this goodness in any of His actions, than He can un-God Himself” (Charnock, 224). The goodness of God may better be admired and meditated upon than sufficiently spoken or thought of.