.png)
Goodness, like any other quality that describes God, is an attribute unique to our God. Moral excellence beyond measure, benevolence is a quality proper to our Sovereign Father. “No one is good except God alone.” (Mark 10:18). 1 John 1:5 says, “God is light, and there is no darkness at all in Him.” The goodness of our Father is something human brain cannot fully comprehend; no one knows its extent – it is infinite, it is immeasurable, it is eternal, it is universal, constant and free. Words are not enough to describe the magnificent goodness of our God. Usually when we describe something as good, it is in comparison to something else, because it has better features than that to which it is compared, but not without some limits. There is no possible comparison as far as God is concerned and there is no limit to his attributes: they are all infinite, eternal, perfect and unique to his person, just as the Lord belongs to a category of his own. That is to say goodness is an attribute exclusive and inherent only to our God. It defines who God is, his good character, his moral excellence, his benevolence. The Lord is good all the time and in all He does. The goodness of God is manifest in creation, in our redemption and in everything He does – 1 Timothy 4:4 tells us: “Everything that God created is good.” Ecclesiastes 7:29 says, “God made men upright, but they have sought out many schemes.” “He has always given evidence of his existence by the good things He does.” (Acts 14:17). God’s goodness is abundantly revealed to us in the person of his Son Jesus Christ through his redemptive work in response to the depravity that characterizes humanity since the fall of the first man.
The Lord is good and so He loves what is good but hates what is evil and those who do evil. For this reason the Lord does not tolerate human depravity. It is hateful to Him. Proverbs 6:16-19 tells us, “There are seven things that the Lord hates and cannot tolerate: a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that kill innocent people, a mind that thinks up wicked plans, feet that hurry off to do evil, a witness who tells one lie after another, and someone who stirs up trouble among friends.” Because the Lord hates these things, He punishes anyone who commits any of such acts. The Lord punishes anyone who is wicked. And the ultimate punishment is to spend eternity in hell, out of the glorious presence of God. When we look at our lives, these things, unfortunately, are characteristic of our human nature. “As the Scriptures say: ‘There is no one who is righteous, no one who is wise or who worships God. All have turned away from God; they have all gone wrong; no one does what is right, not even one. Their words are full of deadly deceit; wicked lies roll off their tongues, and dangerous threats, like snake’s poison, from their lips; their speech is filled with bitter curses. They are quick to hurt and kill; they leave ruin and destruction wherever they go. They have not known the path of peace, nor have they learnt reverence for God.” (Romans 3:10-18).
This passage of the Scripture gives a clear description of who we are: we are inherently wicked. Although God created us in his own image, we “have sought out many schemes”, like the writer of Ecclesiastes says. We love evil and hate what is good. Now how can a good God deal with people like us? How can we be right with God? We are the complete opposite of who He is. God is good and we are not; we are corrupted souls, full of evil. No one is good. Every single microsecond around the world, countless of people commit countless of sins against the Holy Lord God Almighty. People say all kinds of things against God, they blaspheme his name, they rebel against Him, they do all those things that God hates. And where does that lead us? Damnation. For 1 Corinthians 6:9 tells us: “that the wicked will not possess God’s Kingdom.” This means we all deserve to spend eternity in hell, we all deserve to die, because none of us is perfect. But there are things far greater than all things: the grace, mercy and love of God for humanity, which are revealed to us in the person of his Son Jesus Christ.
Through Christ the goodness of God, his grace and love are revealed to us. Through Christ God also demonstrates his righteousness, because in order to pardon our sins and save the human race from damnation, the incarnate Son of God had to die for justice to be satisfied. Through Christ God justifies the wicked we are; He regenerates and sanctifies us. Christ is the revelation of God’s goodness. “God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all: everyone has sinned and is far away from God’s saving presence. But by the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with Him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free. God offered Him, so that by his blood He should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in Christ.” (Romans 3:22-25)
Man has always rebelled against God because man loves evil. Human beings are inherently evil and as such we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It is our nature to do evil, as oppose to the benevolence of our Creator whose deeds are good. There is no darkness in our God. “Every good gift and every perfect present comes from Heaven; it comes down from God, the Creator of the heavenly lights, who does not change or cause darkness by turning.” (James 1:17). Of his own free will God created us good and just. But we refused to obey Him, we refused to submit to his will. Our disobedience led to our condemnation. We got lost in foolishness, disobedience and wrongdoing – as the Apostle Paul says, “We were slaves to passions and pleasures of all kinds. We spent our lives in malice and envy; others hated us and we hated them.” (Titus 3:3). We were all lost. But God in his goodness and love redeemed us through Christ our Lord and Saviour. The Sovereign Lord sent his only Son into the world to set the captives free, to give sight to the blind, to save the outcasts and to reconcile humanity to Himself. Christ took the place of all sinners and bore all the curses, though He knew no sin. He died for us on Calvary so that we may escape damnation. As Paul says in Titus 3:4-7, “When the kindness and love of God our Saviour was revealed, He saved us. It was not because of any good deeds that we ourselves had done, but because of his own mercy that he saved us, through the Holy Spirit, who gives us new birth and new life by washing us. God poured out the Holy Spirit abundantly on us through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that by his grace we might be put right with God and come into possession of the eternal life we hope for.” The result of God's benevolence and love is our adoption: we have become his sons and daughters through his Son Jesus. And as Children of God, we are no longer slaves to sin; we have been granted the most precious of all blessings: the free gift of the Holy Spirit – “The Spirit produces (in us) love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23). We now are new beings, transformed for the glory of our God. We have been reconciled to our God by the blood of Christ the Saviour. God has cancelled the unfavourable account of our sins and has legally declared us right with Him. “In our union with Christ He has blessed us by giving us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world. Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before Him.” (Ephesians 1:3-4). God, in the fullness of his goodness and through the sacrifice of his Son, has clothed us with the righteousness of his own Son in order to bring us to glory. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the revelation of God’s goodness. The Lord Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest. For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light.” 2 Peter 1:3-4 says: “God’s divine power has given us everything we need to live a truly religious life through our knowledge of the One who called us to share in his own glory and goodness. In this way He has given us the very great and precious gifts He promised, so that by means of these gifts you may escape from the destructive lust that is in the world, and may come to share the divine nature.”
The goodness of our Lord is eternal and infinite – there is not a time where He stops being good. Our God is immutable and so are his attributes. He is the same God He was yesterday, and the same God He will be tomorrow, eternally good. The goodness of our God is also universal in the sense that He is good to everyone. Psalms 145:9 tells us, “He is good to everyone and has compassion on all He made.” God does not punish us as we deserve. He gives us rain from heaven and crops at the right times; He gives us food and fills our hearts with happiness. Luke 6:35, “He is good to the ungrateful and the wicked.” Matthew 5:45, “He makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil.” The Sovereign Lord says in Exodus 34:6, “I, the Lord, am a God who is full of compassion and pity, who is not easily angered and who shows great love and faithfulness.” The goodness of God is manifest in the compassion He has for his creatures and is perceived in every purpose God has established for us and in his will. Everything the Lord has decreed works for the good of all those who love Him. There is no darkness in Him, there is no imperfection in what He does and plans for his creatures. As Psalms 100:5 says, “The Lord is good; his love is eternal and his faithfulness lasts for ever.” Psalms 103:13,17-18 says, “As a Father is kind to his children, so the Lord is kind to those who honour Him. For those who honour the Lord, his love lasts forever, and his goodness endures for all generations of those who are true to his covenant and who faithfully obey his commands.” God’s goodness like his other attributes is immutable – the Lord is good forever. Those who trust in Him never lack anything good – the Lord is their helper, He frees them from all worries. The Lord is the Redeemer, the provider, the protector, the healer; He fights our battles. He is always there for us; He is all we have and all we need. The Lord is good in all his acts. “He heals the broken-hearted and bandages their wounds.” (Psalms 147:3) The Lord always provides for the needy; He helps the poor and lifts them from their misery. “The Lord watches over the righteous and listens to their cries; but He opposes those who do evil, so that when they die, they are soon forgotten.” (Psalms 34:15-16) The Lord is always there to help those who call to Him with a sincere heart. He justifies the ungodly, apart from anything that person does.
The Lord enables us to drink from the river of his goodness – “The Lord provides for those He loves, while they are asleep.” (Psalms 127:2) The earth is full of God’s goodness – anything good that happens to us is a gift from God. Any good thing we achieve in life is possible thanks to God; He works in us to achieve both little and great things. Without our God we are nothing; we cannot doing anything good, we cannot even exist. Therefore, glory should be given to our Lord constantly because his goodness to us never ends. The Lord is always there for us. As a good God, the Lord is always there for those who seek Him – everyone who seeks Him finds Him. 2 Chronicles 15:2 says, “The Lord is with you as long as you are with Him. If you look for Him, He will let you find Him, but if you turn away, He will abandon you.” Psalms 34:8, “Happy are those who find safety with Him.” Psalms 107:9, “He satisfies those who are thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.” The Lord spends his time doing good to people despite the evilness of their hearts. “The Lord is good, He protects his people in times of trouble; He takes care of those who turn to Him.” (Nahum 1:7) About the goodness of God, king David writes in Psalms 31:19-20: “How wonderful are the good things you keep for those who honour You! Everyone knows how good you are, how securely You protect those who trust You. You hide them in the safety of your presence from the plots of others; in a safe shelter You hide them from the insults of their enemies.” “Because the Lord is righteous and good, He teaches sinners the path they should follow. He leads the humble in the right way and teaches them his will.”(Psalms 25:8-9). The words of the Lord are good, his promises are perfect and trustworthy. “The Lord is our protector and glorious King, blessing us with kindness and honour. He does not refuse any good thing to those who do what is right.” (Psalms 84:11) “The Lord is good to everyone who trusts in Him.” (Lamentations 3:25) Isaiah 40:29, “He strengthens those who are weak and tired. Even those who are young grow weak; young people can fall exhausted. But those who trust in the Lord for help will find their strength renewed. They will rise on wings like eagles; they will run and not get weary; they will walk and not grow weak.” “The oppressed look to Him and are glad; they will never be disappointed. The helpless call to Him, and He answers; He saves them from all their troubles. His angel guards those who honor the Lord and rescues them from danger.” (Psalms 34:5-7) “The Lord is righteous in all He does, merciful in all his acts. He is near to those who call to Him, who call to Him with sincerity. He supplies the needs of those who honour Him; He hears their cries and saves them. He protects everyone who loves Him, but He will destroy the wicked.” (Psalms 145:17-20).
The kindness of our God has no limit – because the Lord is good He does not want even the worst sinner to perish. 2 Peter 3:9 tells us: “The Lord is not slow to do what He has promised, as some think. Instead, He is patient with you, because He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn from their sins.” Oftentimes people get angry when the Lord rebukes them, because they are ignorant. Proverbs 10:17 says, “People who listen when they are corrected will live, but those who will not admit that they are wrong are in danger.” Proverbs 15:10, “You will die if you do not let yourself be corrected.” What we ought to keep in mind is this: because of our stubbornness and pride our Lord often uses hardships to open our eyes, to humble us, to bring us back to Him.
Unless you do not agree that all that God does is good, when the Lord corrects us it is in perfect harmony with his goodness and love for us. For when God corrects us, it is out of love. And if you disagree to this fact, this proves that you are not a Christian. For any true Christian rejoices when God corrects them, because this shows how much God cares for their souls, this shows how much God loves them. The Lord shows kindness to those who do not harden their hearts when He calls them. The Lord says in Ezekiel 18:21-22, “If an evil person stops sinning and keeps my laws, if he does what is right and good, he will not die; he will certainly live. All his sins will be forgiven, and he will live, because he did what is right.” In Ezekiel 33:11 the Sovereign Lord says, “As surely as I, the Sovereign Lord, am the Living God, I do not enjoy seeing sinners die. I would rather see them stop sinning and live.” Proverbs 11:19, “Anyone who is determined to do right will live, but anyone who insists on doing wrong will die.”
Oftentimes people ask this question: ‘If God is good why does He allow bad things such as war, famine, flood, disease and other disasters to happen?’ The Lord is good and so He hates evil and those who do evil. Human beings are inherently evil and as such we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. People of all generations have sinned against God. Rebellion against God has never stopped, because people love evil. Despite God's continual call to repentance, despite his redemptive work through his Son on the cross, many people continue in their evil ways: they worship idols; they shut up their ears and harden their hearts to the word of God; they reject Christ. Proverbs 14:27 tells us, “Reverence for the Lord is a fountain of life.” When people live in complete disobedience to the Lord their Creator, when they reject Him to worship false gods, when they reject his teaching to embrace the false doctrines of this world, when people love evil instead of good, they should not expect anything but trouble.
Proverbs 12:14, “Your reward depends on what you say and what you do; you will get what you deserve.” Proverbs 12:20, “Those who plan evil are in for a rude surprise, but those who work for good will find happiness.” Proverbs 12:21, “Nothing bad happens to righteous people, but the wicked have nothing but trouble.” Proverbs 12:28, “Righteousness is the road to life; wickedness is the road to death.” God sent his light into the world to set people free from the power of sin but they reject the light; they worship the ruler of this world but hate the true and Living God. Judgement is then pronounced on them as a result of their disobedience to the One True and Living God who created them. You cannot reject God and expect to be honoured by Him – the Lord says, “I will honour those who honour Me, and I will treat with contempt those whose despise Me.” (1 Samuel 2:30) “His goodness endures for all generations of those who are true to his covenant and who faithfully obey his commands.” (Psalms 103:17-18).
In Deuteronomy 5:9-10, the Lord Almighty says, “I am the Lord your God and I tolerate no rivals. I bring punishment on those who hate Me and on their descendants down to the third and fourth generation. But I show my love to thousands of generations of those who love Me and obey my laws.” The Lord rewards everyone according to his deeds; his judgements are right. God sacrificed “his only Son so that everyone who believes in Him may not die but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) In his goodness and in the fullness of his grace and love for us, God made his Son to be sin to save us from the power of death, although He knew no sin. But many people continue to treat the blood of God’s covenant as an unholy thing, they reject Christ the Saviour and so remain under God’s judgement. But when punishment comes as a result of their disobedience they wonder why. The Lord says in John 3:18, “Those who believe in the Son are not judged; but those who do not believe have already been judged, because they have not believed in God’s only Son.”
When people rebel against God they bring damnation upon themselves. When people rise against the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in order to elevate the false teachings of this crooked world, when they hinder the truth and promote lies, when they normalize sexual immorality and all kinds of evil practices and twist the word of God to accommodate their natural desires, when people worship false gods rather than the Living God, the result can only be judgement. Our Lord Jesus says in John 3:19-21, “This is how judgement works: the light has come into the world, but people love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil. All those who do evil things hate the light and will not come to the light, because they do not want their evil deeds to be shown up. But those who do what is true come to the light in order that the light may show that what they did was in obedience to God.”
People should therefore keep in mind that their rebellion against God only results in condemnation. Those who reject the truth have no hope. All that is in store for them is Judgement and the fierce fire which will destroy them. For Romans 1:18-32 tells us, “God’s anger is revealed from heaven against the sin and evil of the people whose evil ways prevent the truth from being known. God punishes them, because what can be known about God is plain to them, for God himself made it plain. Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities, both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made. So those people have no excuse at all! They know God, but they do not give Him the honour that belongs to Him, nor do they thank Him. Instead, their thoughts have become complete nonsense, and their empty minds are filled with darkness. They say they are wise, but they are fools; instead of worshipping the immortal God, they worship images made to look like mortal human beings or birds or animals or reptiles. And so God has given those people over to the filthy things their hearts desire, and they do shameful things with each other. They exchange the truth about God for a lie; they worship and serve what God has created instead of the Creator himself, who is to be praised for ever! Amen. Because they do this, God has given them over to shameful passions. Even the women pervert the natural use of their sex by unnatural acts. In the same way the men give up natural sexual relations with women and burn with passion for each other. Men do shameful things with each other, and as a result they bring upon themselves the punishment they deserve for their wrongdoing. Because those people refuse to keep in mind the true knowledge about God, He has given them over to corrupted minds, so that they do the things that they should not do. They are filled with all kinds of wickedness, evil, greed, and vice; they are full of jealousy, murder, fighting, deceit, and malice. They gossip and speak evil of one another; they are hateful to God, insolent, proud, and boastful; they think of more ways to do evil; they disobey their parents; they have no conscience; they do not keep their promises, and they show no kindness or pity for others. They know that God’s law says that people who live in this way deserve death. Yet, not only do they continue to do these very things, but they even approve of others who do them.”
This passage proves to us that there is no cause to all the bad things that happen in this world other than human depravity and rebellion against God. A nation that rejects God will see a growing number of sins, which lead to condemnation, as we learn from this passage of the Bible. When people reject God and refuse to turn away from their sins, they are given over to their wicked minds and as a result their appetite for evil becomes even greater. They even boast about the things they should be ashamed of. Proverbs 10:16 tells us, “The reward for doing good is life, but sin leads only to more sin.” And when sin is full-grown, it gives birth to death. Amos 5:14-15 says, “Make it your aim to do what is right, not what is evil, so that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty really will be with you.”
The Lord is good; He is not angry forever, He is merciful. And we see this many times in the history of Israel. In Jeremiah 32 for example the Lord says to his prophet, “Jeremiah, the people are saying that war, starvation, and disease will make this city fall into the hands of the king of Babylonia. Now listen to what else I have to say. I am going to gather the people from all the countries where I have scattered them in my anger and fury, and I am going to bring them back to this place and let them live here in safety. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them a single purpose in life: to honour Me for all time, for their own good and the good of their descendants. I will make an eternal covenant with them. I will never stop doing good things for them, and I will make them fear Me with all their heart, so that they will never turn away from Me. I will take pleasure in doing good things for them, and I will establish them permanently in this land. Just as I have brought this disaster on these people, so I am going to give them all the good things that I have promised.” (Jeremiah 32:36-42) The Lord is so good that He does not punish us as we deserve. Every single day of our life we grieve his Spirit. But no one has ever got the punishment they deserve. God is always good to his people, to those who put their trust in Him. The Lord protects and saves those who honour Him; He turns what is evil into good in order to serve his own purposes. We see this in the story of Joseph: he was sold by his brothers as a slave, but the Lord raised him to save people’s lives. Speaking to his brothers in Exodus 50:20, Joseph says: “You plotted evil against me, but God turned it into good, in order to preserve the lives of many people who are alive today because of what happened.”
Our God is inherently good. Moral excellence is an essential and unique characteristic of God. Everything, from creation to our daily lives and the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross testify to the Lord’s goodness. Therefore, this calls us to be all the more grateful to our God for his loving kindness and endless goodness to us. For without his grace, his mercy, his love and goodness to us, we will remain prisoners of death for all eternity. No one else but our good and righteous Lord and Saviour could take our place of on the cross, in order to cleanse us of all our filth and to appease the holy wrath of God on our behalf. So for everything, we should always give thanks to the Lord because He is good to us. We must also seek to know Him more, seek to love Him more; we must worship Him, honour his Son Jesus Christ with a joyful heart and serve Him with complete devotion. We should always submit to his will and seek to live by the standard the Lord has set for us, for He alone knows what is best for us and everything He does is good.
We should let the Spirit of God control our lives and constantly give praise, glory and thanks to God the Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ for every good thing we achieve in life. Do not claim any good deed to be your own good work, for it is God’s abundant grace that restrains you from doing evil. “He prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will be clean and bear more fruit.” (John 15:2). Another thing: we must regularly nourish ourselves with the Word of God. In this life we have two options to choose from: either we feed on God’s Word in order to kill evil in us, or we embrace the world and thus continue to feed the evil in us. The first option leads to life and the second leads to death. There is only one remedy for sin: the Word of God. It is Spirit-breathed, it is God Himself. “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living, so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
We cannot do anything good without our Lord because human beings, by nature, are evil. There is nothing good in us. The Lord our God is the only source of goodness. As the psalmist says, “Let us praise his name together!” for the Lord is always good to us. “Give thanks to the Lord, because He is good; his love is eternal!” (Psalms 107:1). We must all thank the Lord for the unparalleled act He did to save us – the cross of Jesus – for the wonderful work of our sanctification by the Holy Spirit and for his constant love, grace and mercy revealed to us in his own Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We have been set free, restored to life and reconciled to God by means of this infinite and eternal love of God for us, revealed in Christ Jesus. “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).
Christ is all we have, our only hope. No one can be reconciled to the Father except by Him; no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless they go through the Son. Believe on Jesus, trust in Him and be faithful to the end. He has redeemed us and called us to take part in the race of glory. Let us keep our eyes focused on the finish line. Let us put our blinders on to prevent the things of this world from stealing our attention as we run the race. Though the road is not easy, it is safe and secure. Let us not lose hope. We must cloth ourselves with perseverance, obedience, patience, goodness, faith and love as we run to meet the King, our Saviour and Lord in his glory. Only those who win the race will be rewarded by the King of glory. If you are not taking part to this race, I urge you today to repent of your sins and to put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ - He is the Saviour, the Way to glory. No one can enter the Kingdom of God unless they throw themselves on the mercies of Christ. He is the means by which sins are forgiven. "Salvation is to be found through Him alone; in all the world there is no one else whom God has given who can save us." (Acts 4:12). So repent and believe in Christ the Saviour, confess Him as Lord; recognize your need of Him and He will take you to glory.