God's Goodness

Introduction

What is goodness?

Goodness in man is not a mere passive quality, but the deliberate preference of right to wrong, the firm and persistent resistance of all moral evil, and the choosing and following of all moral good.

Lets break that down into its parts:

The deliberate preference of right to wrong

Do we, by ourselves, have a deliberate preference of right to wrong?

The world would have us believe that right and wrong are subjective and that it depends on what is right for you, but the truth is that we all know what is right and wrong. We all have a moral compass.

We can all think of times that we prefer good as long as it is convenient for us, but what about when it is difficult for us? How quick are we to tell a lie so that we can cover our own reputation or avoid judgement? How natural is it for us to wish evil on someone who has wronged us? How quickly do we gossip as soon as someone does something we dont like or agree with?

The truth is that we do not prefer right to wrong or good to evil, but we prefer our own good. This is something that the world encourages, telling people that objective good does not exist but you must decide for yourself what good is. What that really is, is just people giving themselves and others license to be evil with a good conscience.

Does God prefer right to wrong?

When God saw sinful man that is without hope in the world facing eternal destruction that he has brought on his own head, what did he do? He loved those people so much that he acted by sacrificing his one and only son so that those sinners could have life.

Although we prefer our own wellbeing to that of others, God prefers the wellbeing of others (his children) to his own. God is good, but we are not.

The firm and persistent resistance of all moral evil.

Do we, by ourselves, have a firm and persistent resistance to all moral evil?

If you have any honesty with yourself the answer to this one is a resounding “no”

We often give in to temptation far too easily. When we are faced with temptation we are to see an intense battle take place where we are pitted against the enemy and fight through blood and sweat. In reality, as soon as we see the enemy getting ready for war we roll over on our backs and wave a white flag. We are willing to give over any amount of territory if it means we don’t have to fight.

Does God have a firm and persistent resistance of all moral evil?

You have probably heard this story before but I want to point a few things out to you. Jesus endured 40 days of temptation from the devil without eating anything before we ever get to see specific temptations. We often feel like a temptation lasts forever if it is only 5 minutes.

After these 40 days, Jesus was very hungry and was still facing temptation; yet we see that in every way Jesus fought against all moral evil. It says EVERY temptation, so we see that in God’s goodness he resists ALL moral evil.

It is easy to see that God does that here in Jesus, but don’t miss what enabled Jesus to do this. It says in verse one that it was the Holy Spirit who led Jesus successfully through these temptations. The same Holy Spirit that lives in the children of God.

Whereas we will cave in to moral evil at the first sign of difficulty, God has proven that he firmly resists all moral evil and that he has empowered his children to do the same by his Holy Spirit.

The choosing and following of all moral good.

It isn’t enough to simply resist evil and be complacent and do nothing, but in order to be good one must choose and follow all moral good.

Do we, by ourselves, choose and follow all moral good?

The answer, of course, is no. We saw that in earlier.

Does God choose and follow all moral good?

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Not only in Scripture do we see the goodness of God, but look around you! Count your blessings, and see that God has given you far more than you have earned.

So we see that God is good and that we are not. So what? What does that really mean? What are the stakes?

We see that God cannot dwell among evil. Therefore since we are evil, we cannot dwell among God. We see that because of our evil, we are disqualified from being with God at all.

And yet we see that goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives and we shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever?

How is it that the same person can write both of these psalms? This person, by the way, cheated on his wife with a married woman and then killed her husband when he found out that she was pregnant. How can David write both of these psalms? How can he know that he will dwell with God while knowing that he is evil and that evil people cannot dwell with God?

We see that because of what Jesus did on the cross, He took on our evil and became sin so that we could take on his goodness and become the righteousness of God!

This is what David understood, and how he could both understand and grieve over his evil and yet have confidence knowing that he will dwell with God forever. Even before Jesus stepped foot on Earth, David was able to place his full confidence in the goodness of God to save him.

Do you place your full confidence in Jesus’ ability to save you? Are you resting in the goodness of Jesus? Are you reconciled with God? Do you know him has Father? Do you know Jesus as your personal Savior?

If you don’t, set aside 30 minutes a day where you can read the Bible and learn more about God. Ask someone you trust to help walk you through it.

If you do, still set time aside to learn more about God and His goodness and love for you.