God is Good

I recently sifted through a big tub filled with memories from my childhood. I found a story I wrote in first or second grade. My teacher had marked it: “A, Very Good Work, Tara.” By specific sentences in the story, she had also written “Good”. Looking back at some of my punctuation and spelling, I’m not so sure about my teacher’s “Very Good Work” rating and “Good” comments, but at least I kept the plot moving.

Have you ever thought about how often we use the word good or variations like better and best? A dog who comes when called gets a pat on the head and a, “Good boy!” A certain food or one’s health might be described as good. There are TV shows, movies, books, and songs that have good somewhere in the title. There’s even a candy called “Good and Plenty”.

Whenever my husband and I travel, family and friends will ask us, “How was your trip?” A typical response might be, “Good”. But what was good? The food? The weather? The sites? The place we stayed? The flights? All of the above? On a trip to the Oregon Coast for my husband’s and my anniversary dinner, I had a whole crab. I thought it tasted good. If my husband had had to eat it, he would have had a different response than me. He doesn’t enjoy crab, so it would not have been good to him.

That’s the problem. We usually use good in a relative way. What I consider good, you might think it is bad or that there is something better or best. Good might even change for me. When I was younger, I enjoyed roller coasters. I thought they were good. Now they make me dizzy. They are not good.

My early elementary school report cards didn’t have A, B, C, or D letter grades. There was Needs Improvement, Satisfactory, Good, and Excellent. In this context, good meant I still fell short. I could have done better. I could have been excellent.

So, how are we to understand good? Who is good? Is there a standard for good? We must start with the source of all good, the One who defines good, the One who is perfectly good and nothing but good.

“You [God] are good and do good; teach me your statutes” (Psalm 119:68).

Brad Hambrick is helpful here as we begin: “God is the ultimate standard of what it means to be good. Everything that can be genuinely defined as good is, in some way, a reflection of God’s character… When we say something is good, we are saying it is like God in some way. God does not need words like better or bestbecause his worth and standard are not in competition with anyone or anything.”^[1]

From Hambrick’s quote, we note that God is the ultimate standard of good, and nothing and no one can compare or compete with His goodness. Hambrick’s statement also challenges us in how we use the term good. A right usage means we understand that whatever we are calling good is like God in some way. It should shift our focus from the creature/creation to the good Creator.

Mark Jones explains God’s goodness in this way: “God is good and necessarily so. God’s essence does not conform to some external standard of goodness. God is essentially goodness itself… His essence is good, so that he cannot do anything that is not good. Perfect goodness belongs to God alone: ‘And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone”’ (Mark 10:18). Anything truly good in a creature simply mirrors God’s goodness.”^[2]

A.W. Tozer characterizes God’s goodness in terms of His other attributes: “God is kindhearted, gracious, good-natured and benevolent in intention”^[3] as well as infinite and immutable.

Dr. John Frame divides the attributes of God into three groups with different distinctions in each group. Although this is how he found it helpful to organize God’s attributes, Frame notes this is not the only way the attributes can be arranged, and one attribute might also crossover to other groups or distinctions. The full chart is included in Appendix A.

Frame’s first group is “Goodness”. In this group, he includes God’s attributes of goodness, love, grace, mercy, patience, compassion, jealousy, wrath, faithfulness, justice, righteousness, joy, blessedness, beauty, perfection, and holiness.^[4] Frame’s volume is 888 pages, so I’m sure you will understand, and are probably even grateful, that I cannot delve into how each of these attributes connects to God’s goodness, but hopefully, as we work through different Scripture passages, we will make some of the connections.

God’s goodness is at times used interchangeably, more or less, with righteousness: “Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way” (Psalm 25:8).

“All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:12).

“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out” (Romans 7:18).

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

God’s goodness is infinite: “Oh how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind” (Psalm 31:19).

In Scripture, goodness most commonly means benevolence. In other words, outward works is how God conveys His goodness. God delights in giving good gifts to His children (Matthew 7:11).

Joseph in speaking to his brothers said: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” Genesis 50:20. It did not seem good when Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery or Potiphar’s wife falsely accused Joseph, but God meant it for good to place Joseph in a position to provide food in a famine. The famine which would also seem bad, was good because it reunited Jacob with Joseph and led to reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers.

“And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers” (Deuteronomy 30:5). In the ESV, “he will make you more prosperous” is the Hebrew word yātab (yaw-tab) which means “He will do you good”. Not every Israelite was faithful to God. Many worshiped idols, but God still did good as they entered and dwelt in the Promised Land.

God’s goodness was manifested when He created the heavens and earth. As God spoke different elements of creation into existence, He concluded that it was good (Genesis 1:10b, 12b, 18b, 21b, 25b). On the sixth day, after God created Adam, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31a). God is the source of the good in His creation.

Stephen Charnock, a Puritan preacher, observes: “If he loves himself, he cannot but love the resemblance of himself, and the image of his own goodness.”^[5] Then Mark Jones adds: “In creating, then, he necessarily loves his creation, because in its essential (yet derived) goodness, creation resembles himself.”^[6]

Similarly, A.W. Pink states: “All creatures are good only by participation and communication from God.”^[7]

As seen above, God created everything good. Because God is good, everything that proceeds from God is good. His law is good: “⁷The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; ⁸the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; ⁹the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. ¹⁰More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. ¹¹Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward” (Psalm 19:7-11).

The word good is not used in this passage from Psalms, but if we think of God’s goodness in terms of benevolence, there is good throughout these verses. God’s Word revives the soul, makes us wise, rejoices the heart, enlightens our eyes, is sweeter than honey, warns us, and in keeping God’s Word, there is great reward.

In speaking to the Israelites in the wilderness, Moses exhorted the Israelites: “¹²And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good” (Deuteronomy 10:12-13, emphasis added; see also 6:24).

As it was true for the Israelites, so obeying God’s commandments is for our good too. “²Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, ³who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways” (Psalm 119:2-3).

In Genesis, we saw that man as part of God’s creation was very good, but what about post-fall? “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” (Psalm 139:14). In the context of Scripture, we know that this does not mean that man is born good. David who penned Psalm 139 also penned: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). David acknowledged he was a sinner from birth unlike much wrong thinking today that says we are born good.

What Psalm 139 does convey is that we are God’s wonderful workmanship. His goodness is evident in how He makes and forms us. Pause for a minute to consider even one aspect of your body and how it works. For example, most of us take our sight for granted, but in order for us to see objects, multiple things happen: light reflects off an object, passes through our cornea which bends to help with focus, the pupil adjusts its size to control the amount of light entering, the crystalline lens refines the light, focusing it precisely onto the retina, where photoreceptor cells then convert the light into electrical signals, which travel to the brain via the optic nerve, and finally the brain interprets the signals as an object, all within milliseconds. One diagram I looked at had twenty different labels pointing to parts of the one organ we call an eye. That is God’s goodness!

God grants us sleep which restores our bodies. He designed food and water to sustain our bodies. Most of our organs, bones, muscles, etc. function without us ever giving a thought to them. That is God’s goodness.

God is good to His creation: “¹⁵The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. ¹⁶You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing” (Psalm 145:15-16; see also Psalm 104:27-28). This is in the context of the Sovereign Creator caring for all of His creation.

God is good in the variety of pleasurable things He give us. He provides food that not only nourishes but is tasty. He created a variety of flavors in food. He created colors. He created a variety of sounds like waves crashing on the shore or the song of a Nightengale bird. He created hundreds of thousands of flowers, trees, and plants. This is God’s goodness.

“The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made” (Psalm 145:9).

“The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing” (Psalm 34:10).

When we weigh the innumerable ways God is good every day, we understand that Adam and Eve’s sin didn’t cause God’s goodness towards His creation to cease. Speaking generally, and as someone with multiple chronic pain issues, fatigue, and recurring cancer, most experience more comfort, health, and happiness than they do sickness, pain, and misery. We tend to focus on the bad and then complain instead of identifying all the good and praising and thanking God.

In speaking of God’s goodness towards His creation, Stephen Charnock articulates: “As it is the perfection of his nature, it is necessary; as it is the communication of his bounty, it is voluntary.”^[8] Good can only ever come from within God, but it is entirely His decision to extend His goodness to His creation. Like grace and salvation, we can’t merit God’s goodness.

God’s greatest goodness towards us is in Christ. Jesus did good while on earth: “He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him” (Acts 10:38b).

But God’s goodness in Christ extended further to the cross. Charnock is again beneficial to our understanding: “there is more of his bounty expressed in that one verse, ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son’ (John 3:16), than there is in the whole volume of the world: it is an incomprehensible so; a so that all the angels in heaven cannot analyze.”^[9]

John Owen, a Puritan preacher, explained: “[The Father] was always well pleased with the holiness of [Christ’s] person, the excellency and perfections of his righteousness, and the sweetness of his obedience, but he was displeased with the sins that were charged on him; and therefore it pleased him to bruise him and put him to grief with whom he was always well pleased.”^[10]

This leads to a staggering thought: In a sense, the goodness shown to God’s people in Christ’s substitutionary atonement was greater than what was extended to Christ for the time of His suffering and death on the cross.^[11] Jesus bore God’s wrath so that we would know only God’s love and acceptance. Jesus was declared unrighteous as he bore our sins, so that His righteousness would be imputed to those who place their faith in Him alone. Jesus was forsaken, so that we would never be forsaken and or separated from the love of God. There is no greater gift God could give us. This is God’s infinite, immutable goodness towards us.

As we consider God’s goodness in Jesus’ substitutionary death, we must also consider that God is good to punish the wicked: “⁴Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? ⁵But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.” God is holy. Those who squander and trample on His kindness, grace, mercy, and goodness will be judged. This too is God’s goodness.

If someone was to rear end your car, totaling the car and causing severe injuries to you, you would want there to be a punishment, money to cover a replacement car, and your medical bills covered. If someone robbed you, you would want the person punished and your belongings returned. When a wrong is done to us or someone we love, we want justice. We want the guilty punished. This is right and good. Likewise, it is just, right, and good for God to punish the unrepentant wicked. They have only themselves to blame.

A.W. Pink carries this truth to the next level: “Nor can God’s kindness be called into question because He has not redeemed every sinful creature by His redemptive grace. He did not bestow it upon the fallen angels. Had God left all to perish, it would have been no reflection on His goodness. To any who would challenge this statement, we will remind him of our Lord’s sovereign prerogative: ‘Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ (Matthew 20:15).”^[12] The ESV translates the last sentence as: Or do you begrudge my generosity?”

These can be hard truths to hear, but we can’t ignore truth because it is hard. God is good, and He does good. He can only act in goodness, even if we don’t always see or understand His ways.

In “God is Love”, we covered to whom God shows love which included believers and unbelievers. Most of the verses apply to God’s goodness as well since God’s love and goodness are closely intertwined. We have also already looked at Scripture that testifies to God’s goodness to all in some measure, so we will not spend more time on that now.

Instead, we will turn to how we are respond to and reflect God’s goodness. Our first response should be thanksgiving and praise: “¹Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!... ⁸Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! ⁹For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things” (Psalm 107:1, 8-9; see also Psalm 136:1 and 106:1).

Secondly, we are invited, or rather commanded, to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). The word taste is the same word used in the title of Psalm 34 translated as “changed his behavior”. David experienced God’s goodness by pretending to be insane which resulted in his deliverance from Abimelech, the king of Gath. God is good, but we don’t always see His good because we either aren’t looking or because it can come in unexpected ways.

Verse 8 continues with our good God blessing those who take refuge in Him, and those who fear Him will have no lack (verse 9). Our circumstances may not seem good in the moment, but we must cling to the truth that God is good, He does good, and that those who fear Him will have no lack.

Unbelievers, and even many believers, would not call the cancer I had above my left eye and the six resulting surgeries good. I’m not going to tell you it was a walk in the park. I had a couple days where I sat and cried because the pain and exhaustion were so intense. But, I can say with the psalmist: “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (Psalm 119:71). My faith grew over those few months. I know God in more personal, deeper ways.

I saw goodness in the doctor catching the cancer at stage one. Given the location, the cancer could have gone further into the skin layers and metastasized into my eye or brain. If it had gone to my eye, I would have had to have my eye removed. I saw God’s goodness in my husband’s, family’s, and friend’s support. I saw God’s goodness in my primary dermatologist who is a Christian. She, her husband, and kids all prayed for me. She also shared my testimony with the pathologist who has done all my biopsies and was concerned for me. The dermatology surgeon was not a Christian. In the first two surgeries, she would steer away my attempts to talk about God. By the third surgery, out of her concern for me, she listened as I shared my faith.

I saw God’s goodness in being treated with surgeries not chemo and radiation. I saw God’s goodness as He helped me understand further that my identity is in Christ not in a scarred face. I saw God’s goodness in comforting me that I could comfort others with the comfort I had received. I even see God’s goodness in the scar because it reminds me of all the ways He showed me goodness at the time.

God’s goodness often comes in unexpected ways. Look for it, and then go back to the first response of thanksgiving and praise.

In contemplating tasting and seeing God’s goodness, we should think of the Lord’s Supper. It is a tangible reminder of God’s goodness in Jesus’ substitutionary atonement. Don’t forsake or take lightly this means of tasting and seeing God’s goodness.

Tasting and seeing God’s goodness and thanking and praising Him is not the end. We are to reflect God’s goodness. God is good and does good. We should also do good both in the sense of righteousness (choosing obedience) and in benevolence. In fact, we were created for doing good: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

Goodness is a fruit of the Spirit which means all those in Christ are to be growing in exhibiting goodness: “²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23). This is not a mixed fruit tree where we pick the ones we want. We are to be growing in all of them.

“⁹And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. ¹⁰So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:9-10). I am thankful for these verses. I often get weary of doing good, but God doesn’t give me an out. I am to persevere in doing good as are you.

As we are to look for evidences of God’s goodness, so we should seek out opportunities to do good to others, especially our church family. Don’t wait for what is convenient or the perfect moment or means. Be proactive in ways you can do good to others.

To do good works that mirror God’s goodness, we need to be specific in what are good works. The Westminster Confession of Faith supplies a helpful summary: “Good works are only such as God hath commanded in his holy Word, and not such as, without the warrant thereof, are devised by men, out of blind zeal, or upon any pretense of good intention” (16:1). Only our good God has the authority to define what constitutes a good work, and God reveals this in His Word.

As women, we reflect God’s goodness as we intentionally seek the well-being of others. We look for ways to care for both the physical and spiritual needs of those particularly in our homes and in our church families, although we can also reflect God’s goodness to co-workers, employees where we shop or eat, and any other place we encounter people.

We do good to others without trying to garner recognition. We do good even when it is costly or inconvenient.

Proverbs 31 says that the woman who fears the Lord does her husband good, and not harm, all the days of her life (vs 12). Most of the ideas below are things single women can also cultivate, which will equip them to show goodness later on in marriage if that is God’s will. Most of the following could also be adapted for mothers showing goodness to their children.

A wife can do good by speaking to her husband with respect, not contempt. She avoids sarcasm and belittling. She responds with patience, not irritation. She chooses gratitude, not criticism. A wife does good to her husband when she prays for him, encourages him with truth, and looks for consistent ways to bless him. A wife does good to her husband when she offers humble, respectful input. She does good to her husband when she extends grace and is quick to reconcile. A wife does good to her husband when she is faithful in her responsibilities. These are a handful of ways wives can show goodness to their husbands.

Psalm 23 ends with: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (vs 6). Follow in the Hebrew is more impactful. It means to pursue or chase. I think we can tend to view God’s goodness towards us as sporadic events or blessings, but the image here is not that.

Do you remember playing tag as a kid? The person who was “it” would chase after the other players as hard and as fast as he or she could to tag them. God’s goodness is chasing hard after us. What a beautiful picture. As we reflect God’s goodness, we should have the same mentality. Chase hard after others with goodness.

I want to end with the chorus from  CityAlight’s song “The Goodness of Jesus”.

Oh the goodness, the goodness of JesusSatisfied, He is all that I needMay it be, come what may, that I rest all my daysIn the goodness of Jesus

Reflection

1.    The goodness of Jesus is all that we need. We can rest in His goodness, but what do you think you still need besides Jesus? What whispers in your head, “If I just had                        I would be satisfied?”

2.    How do you typically respond when life feels unfair or difficult? What areas are you living as if God must prove His goodness to you?

3.    How can you help your husband or others flourish in his/their responsibilities? What are ways you may be making his/their responsibilities heavier? Church leaders in particular would be good to consider.

4.    What are people or things you call good? What likeness to God in the person or thing shifts your praise from creature/creation to the good Creator?

For Further Reflection

1.    What do you naturally define as “good” – comfort, approval, ease, or what pleases God? What do you tend to define as “good” in your marriage? Family? Church? Friendships? Work?

2.    How have you seen God’s goodness in something that the world would consider bad?

3.    Is the goodness you show towards your husband, children, family, church family, friends, co-workers, or others rooted in God’s character or dependent on how they treat you? How can you be proactive in doing good instead of reactive?

4.    What is one specific way you will pursue goodness in your home today?

5.    What is one relationship where you need to intentionally do good this week? What specific good will you do?

6.    Read the lyrics or listen to “Hallelujah, You Are Good” (Steven Curtis Chapman), “Praise to the Lord the Almighty” (hymn), “His Eye Is On the Sparrow” (hymn), “I Choose to Worship” (Rend Collective), “Open My Hands” (Sara Groves), “The Goodness of Jesus” (CityAlight) and “Good and Gracious King” (CityAlight)

Appendix A

^[1] Hambrick, Brad. God’s Attributes: Rest for Life’s Struggles (Phillipsburg, NH: P&R Publishing, 2012), 17.

^[2] Jones, Mark. God Is: A Devotional Guide to the Attributes of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 135.

^[3] Tozer, A.W. The Attributes of God Volume 1: A Journey Into the Father’s Heart (Camp Hill, PA: Wing Spread Publishers, 1997), 42.

^[4] Frame, John. The Doctrine of God: A Theology of Lordship Volume 2 (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2002), 399.

^[5] Charnock, Stephen. The Existence and Attributes of God, in The Works of Stephen Charnock (1864; repr., Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2010), 2:290.

^[6] Jones, Mark. God Is: A Devotional Guide to the Attributes of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 136.

^[7] Pink, A.W. The Attributes of GOD In Modern English. (Dolores Kimball, 2020), 66.

^[8] Charnock, Stephen. The Existence and Attributes of God, in The Works of Stephen Charnock (1864; repr., Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2010), 2:290.

^[9] Ibid, 2:319.

^[10] Owen John. The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, in The Works of John Owen, vol. 10, The Death of Christ, ed. William H Gould (1862), repr., Edinburgh Banner of Truth, 1965), 285.

^[11] See Charnock, Stephen. The Existence and Attributes of God, in The Works of Stephen Charnock (1864; repr., Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2010), 2:322 for a more thorough explanation.

^[12] Pink, A.W. The Attributes of GOD In Modern English. (Dolores Kimball, 2020), 69-70.