I read something on the weekend that hit me like a stone. It was in a book written by someone who is troubled that the church no longer fears God like in the good ol’ days of the Old Testament. The problem, apparently, is the result of “overemphasizing the goodness of God.”
Think about that. We have overemphasized the goodness of God. That’s a bit like saying, God is good, but He’s not that good.
I beg to differ.
If I had just one adjective to describe God I would say He is love, but if I were given a second adjective I would say He is good.
Indeed, God is the very definition of good. Look up “good” in the dictionary and it says, “see God.”
The devil – who is thoroughly bad – doesn’t want us to think of God as being perfectly good. But He is good and everything He does is good.
The Jew says, “God is one,” and He is.
The Muslim says, “God is great,” and He is.
But the Christian says, “God is good” and rejoices!
It is the goodness of God that makes the good news good. Just as there is no bad news in the good news, there’s no badness in God.
Imagine where we would be if God were bad, or half bad and half good. We would live under a cloud of uncertainty, fearful of his mood swings. But God is not like that!
God never has a bad day, nor even a bad moment. He doesn’t have a bad temper. He never has occasion to say, “oops, my bad.”
Everything about Him is good and He is good all of the time.
All of His gifts are good. If you think you have found something good and it doesn’t have God’s fingerprints all over it, you are working with an inferior definition of good. God is the benchmark for what is good.
Perhaps you have never heard that God is good. Taste and see for yourself! His goodness will lead you to repentance.
Make the Good Shepherd your shepherd. He will lead you from the front, while His goodness follows you from behind all the days of your life. If you don’t know where the goodness of God is right now, turn around. It’s right there next to His everlasting mercy.
It is not possible to overemphasize the goodness of God. You might just as well try and overemphasize His wisdom or try and grasp the breadth, width and depth of His love!
God is good. All the time.
But that’s just my opinion. What do you think?
Sources: 2 Chr 6:41, Ps 23:1,6, 34:8, Rms 2:4
So good Paul! I agree with you!
God is bigger than the biggest.
He is stronger than the strongest.
He is wiser than the wisest.
He is better than the best.
He is greater than the greatest.
He is always always always ALWAYS good.
In case somebody misunderstood me, this is what I meant: God is always good.
Whooohoooo!
Comment by Cornel — April 30, 2010 @ 8:40 am |
Great points. The goodness of God is the basis of our identity. We believe Jesus’ death on the cross made us good…right standing with God. We were bad. Now we are good. I am good because my God made me good by filling up and living inside my new nature. Only then can I do any good in this world.
Not only that. He sets all things right because he is good. I suppose I am talking about His righteousness now. Peterson defines righteousness as setting all things right. But if we say “God is good” Then we believe He is working all things out for our good. He is setting everything right.
Enjoying your clarity in your writing Paul
Perry
Comment by perry kuey — April 30, 2010 @ 9:11 am |
He is so good that Prov 13:20 and I Cor 15:33 can’t touch Him!
Comment by gerry — April 30, 2010 @ 7:31 pm |
Brilliant Paul. Love Love Love the post!
What an incredibly bizarre thing to say that people have over emphasized the goodness of God! Just makes you laugh a bit.
Blessings mate. Keep up the good work!
Comment by Ryan Rufus — May 1, 2010 @ 12:55 am |
Can’t agree more, and more people need to know that God is good
“No one is good except God” Luk 18:19
Comment by Tung Lee — May 1, 2010 @ 2:22 am |
Cornel, Perry, Ryan and Tung – thanks for the comments. You guys get it. Gerry, I never thought that! Awesome. Thanks for pointing out that our bad company doesn’t corrupt God’s good character. Just as our sin is no match for his grace, His goodness is greater than our badness – and thank God it is! God can take the worst sinner and make him righteous at no risk to his (God’s) own holiness. More reasons to be thankful.
Comment by Paul — May 2, 2010 @ 7:19 pm |
God is Good.. :) All the time.. I think the Cross is more than enough prof of that…
some one said “GOD LOVES U, Jesus came to SHOW IT”..:)
Comment by Samson — July 20, 2010 @ 6:00 am |
I heard this saying once that said ‘God might not seem nice at times, but He is always good.” And it is true I believe. Some things that God does may not, in our human understanding seem nice. Like allowing earthquakes, war, even causing ‘bad’ things to happen. But He is always good. He always has a plan as to why He allows things, and it is a good plan. Its trusting him with our unjust circumstances and painful challenges, knowing He is good. So yes… God is GOOD!
Comment by Tracy — November 21, 2011 @ 4:47 pm |
If God allows these things to happen,He might as well just done them Himself.Just thinking about some of the traditional things we been taught Tracy.Not so sure about the allowing teaching we have been fed.Seems like a pat anwser for things people don’t understand to me.Just can’t see it in the new convenant.
Comment by Sandy — November 22, 2011 @ 3:15 am |
Can you give an example Sandy as to what you mean? If God didnt allow sin for example, we would all be dead. He allowed Job to be tested. He allowed Judas the free choice to decieve Jesus. I dont quite see where you are coming from by saying that God doesnt ‘allow’, and that we have been misled. If you go down that road, God becomes a very distant overseer of His creation, and is not intimately involved with us…..
Comment by tracy — November 22, 2011 @ 12:48 pm |