Glory Be to Our Great God | Day 16 - God is Good
Give Thanks to the Benevolent, Generous, Virtuous God
The Lord our God is . . . abundant in goodness and truth - The 1689 London Baptist Confession (emphasis added)
Even when it seems the answer’s no
The promises of God all find their yes
In Christ who worked the Father’s will below
That all who run to him would find their rest
And even when it seems he hides his face
And darkness seems to be our only friend
We look to Christ who suffered in our place
That one day all our suffering would end
God is good all of the time
All of the time God is good
God is good all of the time
God is good
- The Modern Post, “God is Good”All that I need to know is this
You are a good God
The Maker of Heaven calls me His
You are a good God
And Your heart beats in my chest
You are a good God
All that I have to do is rest
You are a good God
- Mission House, “Good God”
“Why Do You Call Me Good?” - Jesus
Before we dive into this essay, How are you doing today? You would most likely say, “Good,” “Doing well,” or “Fine.” We use the word “good” to describe many things: good music, good pizza, good friends, good work, good vibes, etc. It’s used often as a filler word for agreement in conversations, and it is said in various tones that give off different meanings. Good can mean something that is not the best but is adequate. We sometimes use it to describe whatever is acceptable to our standards, leading us to judge whether something is good or bad.
So the word “good” has been used for so many things, but what does it mean for God to be good? In Mark’s Gospel, he recounts how a rich young man came to Jesus and asked, “‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone’” (Mark 10:17-18). If God alone is good, how do we define “good?” Is his goodness the equivalent of fuzzy, warm vibes on a Saturday or eating a steak dinner, or is it something far greater than our best experiences? Also, by what standard should we judge for God to be good? What if God’s goodness grounds all that we recognize as not only good but also beautiful and true?
All The Time, God is Good
Defining God’s goodness as a distinct attribute is tricky given that he is a simple being,1 but we can understand God’s goodness by looking at it from three angles which Stephen Charnock gives:
What is goodness is. There is a goodness of being, which is the natural perfection of a thing. There is the goodness of wil, which is the holiness and righteousness of a person. There is the goodness of the hand, which we call liberaility or beneficence, a doing of good to others.
First, we start off understanding that “God’s goodness is the perfection of his nature and moral excellence. . . . A thing is good to the extent that it is all that it can and should be—namely, perfect. God alone is all that he can and should be. Thus, since God is wholly perfect, lacking nothing, he is the supreme and absolute good.”2 Thus, God is good in all that he is because he alone is the perfect being who is infinite in all his perfections. As Louis Berkhof writes, “He is in every way all that He as God should be, and therefore answers perfectly to the ideal expressed in the word ‘God.’ He is good in the metaphysical sense of the word, absolute perfection and perfect bliss in Himself.”3 Charnock concurs when he wrote, “God only is originally good of himself. All created goodness is a rivulet from this fountain, but divine goodness has no spring.”4 It’s no wonder the Bible states that “the steadfast love of God endures all the day” (Ps. 52:1), and that “the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him” (Ps. 34:8).
But, second, God is not only good in a metaphysical sense (e.g. He is infinitely good and lacks nothing in his goodness) but also in a moral sense. As Stephen Wellum writes, “The absolute-tri-personal God is good; he is the objective standard of goodness, a truth that stands in antithesis to all non-Christian thought. God alone defines what is good according to his will and nature; goodness is not defined ‘outside’ of God, something he conforms to, nor is it defined by our human subjectivity.”5 As we will see in future posts, because God is metaphysically good in his nature, he alone is the absolute standard for what is good, right, and true. It’s no wonder why the prophet Micah proclaimed to the disobedient Judeans, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Mic. 6:8)? It is because God is good that David would pray to him, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer” (Ps. 19:14). In light of God being good, we can see why God’s is the standard for goodness which relates to his righteousness, holiness, love and all of his other attributes that we derive our morals and ethics from.
Third, because God is absolutely good in his nature and character, all that God does is good. As Wellum later writes, “God is good within himself (ad intra) and in his external works (ad extra), and we see God’s goodness in a number of ways depending on whom it is directed.”6 Because this good God is omniscient and infinitely wise, his eternal decree and plan for all history is good which means that all things that happen in time are ultimately according to his perfectly good will. Out of his benevolence, he created all things and saw that it was good (Gen. 1). We can appreciate the beauty in this world being the creator God is beautifully good; as James writes, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (Jam. 1:17). Even when death spread through the sin of Adam and Eve and brought brokenness to all creation, God’s goodness is still seen in that God’s morality and character is still made plain to all humanity (Rom. 1:20) and his provision to all. As Paul and Barnabas preached to the pagans in Lystra, “In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:16). Although God’s goodness leads to his holy and righteous wrath against sin, “In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:5-6). As Charnock writes, “The whole gospel is nothing but one entire mirror of divine goodness. The whole of redemption is wrapped up in that one expression of the angel’s song: ‘Goodwill toward man’ (Luke 2:14).”7
“God is So Good. He’s So Good to Me.”
Growing up, I remember celebrating Thanksgiving with my extended family, and one of the traditions we used to do was sing around the Thanksgiving meal table this song:
God is so good;
God is so good;
God is so good;
God’s so good to me.
- Paul Makai, “God Is So Good”
As mentioned before, we can easily describe God as “good” based on our standards and definitions of the term, not God’s. However, if God is good according to what he has shown himself to be through the Scriptures, do you believe that he is infinitely, perfectly God in all that he is and does? Let’s even bring this closer to home: Do you trust with your entire life that God, in his being and his dealings with you, is good? Let’s apply God’s goodness to our lives by reflecting on this question in a few ways.
First, if God is truly good, then we must recognize our sinfulness and turn to Jesus, the good God-man, for our salvation. Let’s go back to the rich young man who asked Jesus, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal” (Mark 11:17). After answering him that God alone is good, Jesus replies, “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother”(v. 19). What happens next shows something about the human condition before the absolutely good God:
And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. - Mark 10:20-22
Friends, do you really think that you are truly good in yourself? No one is truly good except God, and we show our incapability because we cannot perfectly obey God’s good law. If someone perfectly obeyed God his or her entire life, then sure, but that is not the case because, “None is righteous, no, not one” and “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:10, 23). But the good news of the gospel of Jesus is that “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Rom. 5:6-8). Turn away from living your life for yourself and trust in Jesus who is the good God incarnate who lived the perfectly good life, died on the cross, paid the penalty for your sin, and rose from the dead conquering sin and death so that you can have eternal life and “peace with God” (Rom. 5:1). By faith in Jesus Christ, we are considered good in God the Father’s sight because we belong to him through Jesus.
Second, if God is truly good, then we can grow in contentment in him in all circumstances. I think living life trusting in God and his plans for me is one of the hardest struggles in the Christian life. So often I would be discouraged by my current status and stage of life or my personal struggles to the point of doubting God’s goodness. How many times have you thought and cried out, “God, why is my life like this?” But if we are honest with ourselves, we are basing our doubts of God’s goodness and our discontentment on our expectations for life, not God’s. And yet, the Bible states how God is good and all his acts and plans for his saints have been ordained according to the purpose of his will and to the praise of his glorious grace (Eph. 1:4-6). David worships God by telling him “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11). In another psalm, Sons of Korah worship God saying:
For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold
from those who walk uprightly. - Ps. 84:10-11
Think about what God is saying to us in this psalm. God gives us good things to the point that he doesn’t withhold anything good from us. To accuse God for not giving us something that we think we lack is wrong because he doesn’t do that. This means that what we have right now is for our good and even the lack of what we think we ought to have is for our good as well. Therefore, we can grow as Paul did who said, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:11-13)
Third, if God is truly good, then we can give thanks to him for all things—even the evil, sufferings, and hardships—which are according to his good plan for his glory and our good in him. Yes, I am going where most Christians often cringe and don’t dare to go. God is necessarily God and not the source of evil, and yet all things, including sin, death, and evil, are according to his design for his glory and our good. Paul states that “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28). In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, he commands the church there to “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you,” but it is easy to think “Ok, Paul, I won’t give thanks to God for the bad circumstances I’m in but I’ll give thank you God while in them.” However, in Ephesians 5:20, Paul states that Christians are to be “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:20-21).
Which number of things? All things.
Even the bad things in my life? Yes, even for those, give thanks to the Lord.
This is a hard reality for us to affirm—that God is good even as he ordained all things for our good, including those related to sin and its effects. But do we believe in what he has said in the Scriptures? Sam Crabtree helps us reckon with this reality in this way:
We need to undersand that God is always working. Even the things that grieve God, the events taht threatedn to crush us, the things that elicit his comassion and comfort for his people—thhose things are not accidents or flaws in the plan. They come from the same God who loved us enough to send his Son to die, the same God who says he will never leave us or forsake us. In the deepest pain, we can still give thanks because our God is still here with us and he is working all things for our good, even it if is difficult for us to see how on this side of eternity.8
The simple song is correct. God is so Good. He is so good to you and me. He ordained all things for his glory and our good which includes his sovereign and gracious rescue of undeserving sinners through his Son’s sacrifice. This also includes all the joys and sorrows you and I will experience because God is good in how he orchestrates them in our lives. Let us not base our standard of goodness on what we deem it to be. Instead, let us trust ourselves to a faithful Creator while we seek to do good in this broken world till he will one day make all things new (1 Peter 4:19; Rev. 21-22).
Father, you alone are the LORD, and you alone are good and your mercy endures forever. You alone determine what is and isn’t good because you are good in all that you are. Yet we, your image-bearers, are not truly good because sin has corrupted us and made us bad in your sight. But thank you for sending your only Son who not only was a truly good person, but also died for us. Thank you for loving us bad people by saving us from our sin and changing our identity as those who are good in Christ. Holy Spirit, remind me that in Christ, I can give thanks to you for all things knowing that you are good and always have been good to me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Grant M. Sutherland, “God’s Goodness,” in Lexham Survey of Theology, ed. Mark Ward et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018).
L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938), 70.
Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God: Updated and Unabridged, ed. Mark Jones (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2022), 1188.
Stephen J. Wellum, Systematic Theology, Volume 1: From Canon to Concept (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2024), 650.
Ibid., 651.
Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God, 1252.
Sam Crabtree, Practicing Thankfulness: Cultivating a Grateful Heart in All Circumstances (Crossway, 2021), 21-22.