“Good and upright is the LORD; therefore He teaches the sinners in the way.” Psalm 25:8
There is a common phrase many Christians love to repeat: God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.” The truth that God is good is biblical but unfortunately it has also become a cliché statement. I would like to focus in on this attribute of God so that we might actually understand what it means instead of merely knowing it as statement.
So what exactly does it mean that God is good? We love to say something is good because of how we feel towards it. Pizza is good because we enjoy the taste. A person is good because they meet our criteria of what is moral. A movie is good because it entertained us or met our expectations. This way of using the term “good” is not what it means to say that God is good. That’s not to say that God isn’t good in these ways. I would argue that He is definitely capable of being good in this manner for it says: “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good” (Ps. 34:8) and “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (Jas 1:18) We can see that God is good in a pleasing manner as we experience His good gifts. All that He has made and done is good, pleasing, and perfect.
But when we see what else scripture has to say on the subject, we clearly see that there must be a different way to be good. Jesus Himself says, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” (Mark 10:18) The Greek term interpreted as ‘good’ is agathos which means virtuous. People can be virtuous and morally upright. But Jesus states that only God is good. Not man, not creation, not angels, nor experiences. If only God can be good than we must examine what this goodness actually is so that we might differentiate it from the familiar goodness that we experience. This goodness is only found in God because it is perfect. God is pure. There is no hint of sin or deceit within Him. All of God’s actions, intentions, thoughts and words are good. They are without shadow, there is no evil or malice in them. God is not capable of doing anything that does not end with a good and righteous outcome. He is upright in all He does. We may strive to be virtuous and to do good, but our sin nature always taints our actions despite what we might have intended. Selfishness and deceit run too deep within mankind for us to avoid flaws within our virtuous acts and intentions. But with God, all that He does is perfectly good for sin cannot touch His motivations. His intentions are good and His actions and their consequences are always just and righteous. God is goodness itself, it is a part of His unchanging nature.
This doesn’t mean that we can’t experience negative feelings or circumstances. It merely means that if God has allowed something to happen to you, then it is beneficial in some way, whether you are able to recognize it or not. J. I. Packer says in Knowing God, “We should not, therefore, be too taken aback when unexpected and upsetting and discouraging things happen to us now. What do they mean? Simply that God in His wisdom means to make something of us which we have not attained yet, and He is dealing with us accordingly.” He is not harming you for evil but as it says in Hebrews 12:11: “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Discipline is the best example of God’s goodness at work, for it is unpleasant and painful to go through, however, it results in good things for us, namely: righteousness and maturity.
If we wish to correctly comprehend His goodness, we must be careful to keep separate the concept of His moral and virtuous character from pleasant experiences. Should we fail to do so then we will lose faith in every experience that includes pain or loss. All that God does is for our good and everything that happens to us, even if it is bad, is turned around for our good.
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Rom. 8:28)
We can take comfort in the truth of God’s goodness, for all that He does is good and all that happens to us, even if it is bad, will be turned around for our benefit. All we have to do is trust in His goodness. So no matter what you may be going through, you can rest in His goodness towards you by having faith that He will make everything turn out for your good.
The Walk of Enoch 