The Goodness of God

God is good. I realize that it is impossible for the human pen to express fully the goodness of our great and almighty Creator. He is good to the righteous. He is good to the unrighteous who want to be righteous. He is even good to the unrighteous who have no intention of striving for righteousness. Jesus stated in Matthew 5:45, “For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” John 3:16 and Romans 5:8-9 affirm that He loves us so much that He would allow His Son to die a cruel death on the cross for the sins of the world; a world that was and still is unlovable in so many ways. Yes, God is good. And because of His goodness, He is certainly a God worth praising.

I do not claim to have had a rough life by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I think I have a pretty good one; far better than I deserve, for sure. However, there were times in my younger years (you know, back when I knew everything) that one could have looked at me and said, “there’s not a lot of hope for this boy.” I have done a lot of things of which I am not proud. Although I would not change them because my experiences have helped me be who and what I am today, I do regret the hurt I have caused people over the years. But I am not dwelling on that now (Luke 9:62). By the grace of God and the gentleness of the important people in my life, I have been forgiven. But I bring this up because I am happy and feel so blessed that God allowed me to leave that lifestyle and return to Him. His grace and love were anxious to welcome me back when I was about as unworthy as one can get. Of course, I am still unworthy. The difference is that now I realize it and am more in love with and grateful to God than I have ever been.

I am reminded of Paul’s words in I Corinthians 6; after he lists several types of ungodly activities that embedded the lifestyle of these people to whom he is writing, he says, “Some of you were like this; but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (v.11). Paul also speaks from personal experience as he himself was a recipient of God’s grace that allowed him to be one with Him after leading a life outside of Christ. The point here is that God did not have to allow for anyone’s salvation. But He did, because He is good. The entire history of Old Testament times was so that God could bring all man into a covenant relationship with Him. It is what He wants (II Peter 3:9).

I mention these things for two reasons: (1) hopefully we will always realize the greatness of our awesome God. He deserves our praise and service. The more we get to know Him the more in love with Him we can become. And (2) I pray that all of us as Christians will recognize the need to be a kind and forgiving people ourselves. And gracious! The identifying characteristic of our discipleship should be our love for one another (John 13:35). That leaves out arrogance. It behooves us to remember the golden rule (Matthew 7:12) and how we ourselves had hoped to be treated when taught the gospel or corrected. We would do well to remember that God doesn’t care where people came from because once in, all are great in the kingdom (Matthew 18:1-5). Thus, hopefully we will always be willing to extend to one another the same grace that God has extended to us.

I pray that I will forever acknowledge that I am just as unworthy of God’s loving-kindness, mercy, and longsuffering as anyone. Just because I try to live my life in service to God does not make me any more deserving of salvation than the most ungodly people of this world. I have salvation and for that I am obviously thankful. I will strive to the best of my ability, to maintain it. But I hope that I will also be humble and meek in my efforts to help others contact the blood of Jesus (Romans 6:1-4), always remembering that God desires them to be saved just as much as He does me. It was the unrighteous and the “spiritual zeroes” of this world to whom Jesus reached out during His ministry (Luke 19:10). May I always see the value and necessity of doing the same during my own life while so blessed to be a part of God’s beautiful creation! And may we as Christians be loving, meek and gentle, selfless, joyful, kind, and sincere in our efforts to teach people the gospel (Ephesians 4:15). Sometimes this means accepting people for where they currently are, so that we can later teach them. Without a spirit of humility and disposition of gentleness on our part, the likelihood of the Lord’s church enjoying growth, success, and happiness is dubious at best.