God is good - What does that mean?
God Himself is the standard and the measure of what is good: "No one is good except God alone" (Luke 18:19). All that is in God is good: "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). God's nature is good and He cannot do anything that would contradict who He is. God is good and all He does is good (Psalm 119:68). He is holy, true, and faithful in all of His ways, desiring to make good out of all situations (see Genesis 50:20; Romans 8:28).When God created the universe, each individual part that He created was good (Genesis 1:4–31; 1 Timothy 4:4). He did not create evil, because evil is the absence of all that is good. God does not get tempted to sin, nor does He tempt us to sin (James 1:13). God gave the Law to the Israelites and it was good (Romans 7:12). The only good that we have in this world is a gift from God: "Every good and perfect gift is from above" (James 1:17).
The Lord is good to us (Psalm 107:1; 145:9). He forgives us (Psalm 86:5); He heals us (Psalm 30:2; 107:19–21); He upholds us through difficult times (Isaiah 41:10). He is faithful and loving: "For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations" (Psalm 100:5).
Our response to God's goodness should be thankfulness (1 Chronicles 16:34), but our natural human inclination is toward living for ourselves, forgetting God's goodness (Psalm 78:11), and loving darkness and evil (John 3:19). The pinnacle of God's goodness is in His perfect plan for our redemption through Jesus Christ. The gospel is known as "good news" because it tells the story of God sending His Son to offer us eternal forgiveness for our sins. It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance: "God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance" (Romans 2:4). He desires for "everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9, NIV).
As we walk with God we will begin to see His goodness operating through our lives, because goodness is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). As we continue seeking Him, He continues revealing more of His goodness to us (Lamentations 3:25). Once we have tasted and seen of God's goodness for ourselves, nothing else will satisfy us (Psalm 34:8).
God is great - What does that mean?
With so much evil in the world, how can I believe in the goodness of God?
The attributes of God, what are they?
Are any of God's attributes above all the others?
What should be a believer's response to the characteristics of God?
Truth about God
