Tuesday, February 7, 2012

God is Good

God, in His divine character, is good.  More accurately, goodness is God's.  Not simply semantics, rather, the definition of good is God.  As Jesus says, "no one is good except God (Luke 18:19)."  Therefore, the perfect and ultimate definition of goodness is God, meaning that any concept of good that is separated from God is fractal and diminished.  More directly, any concept of goodness apart from the Lord is not goodness, it is merely an echo of true goodness.

The goodness of God is self-evident and cannot be overstated.  The evidence of God is throughout the vastness of His creation, both in humanity and beyond (Rom. 1:19).  The most common rebuttal by naturalists and atheists is: "but what about evil?"  The appropriate answer is: yes, what about it?!  The simple fact that those who deny the existence of good still confirm the existence of evil points to a greater objective good that transcends humanity.  General revelation is not able to convey the vastness of the goodness of God.  For that we must make an appeal to special revelation.

Throughout Scripture, especially in the Psalms, the goodness of God is declared.  His goodness is expressed in a number of various ways: He is good to instruct sinners in the way to go (Psa. 25:8); He is good in His steadfast and faithful love (Psa. 100:5); He is good in His abounding and generous mercy (Psa. 145:9).  The goodness of God could be summed up simply in one word: love.

The love of God is the truest definition of goodness, and God is love (1 John 4:8).  Logically, this means that because God's love is the definition of goodness, and God is love, then God is good.   It is the love of God that is the purest and highest possible understanding of goodness.  The work of Jesus then is the moment of supreme good in all of creation and history.  It was for love that God sent His only Son, Jesus, to take on the sin of mankind and thus to restore humanity to a right relationship with Himself (John 3:16).  This is love, good love from an infinitely good God.


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