As I approached, camera in hand, to capture the beauty
before me, I was overwhelmed with the fragrance of the white blossoms;
announcing the arrival of spring, a fragrance most sweet; intoxicating. I love
the arrival of spring, new life after a long season of cold and seemingly dead
creation surrounding me. Isn’t that how the kingdom works? When we think
something is damaged or dead, it turns out God is working behind the scene to
fulfill His purpose?
The trees of the Lord drink their fill, the
cedars of Lebanon which He planted, where the birds build their nests, and the stork,
whose home is the fir trees (Ps.
104:16-17 NASB).
Creation is amazing. I love nature. I look at the world
around me, and see the goodness of God. I
see His hand in the beautiful pink and white blossoms of the crabapple trees. I
see His goodness even in the snow storm that killed the very blossoms I
cherished—their fragrance snuffed out—for
a time. Because I see His goodness in the way all of life bounces back from the
wet, heavy, and cold snow. There is
purpose in every season.
Psalm
104 is a beautiful song raised to God for His goodness in creation. The angels cry out that the whole earth is
full of His glory (see Is.
6:2-3).
The Hebrew word for “good” is towb. This word does
not mean ‘good job’ or ‘I had a good time.’ Towb carries with it the
sense of being beautiful. As we contemplate the wonders of His creation, and as
He did call it good, it carries with it the connotation of being beautiful.
A.W. Pink eloquently explains in his Nature Of God, “All
that emanates from God—His
decrees, His creation, His laws, His providences—cannot
be otherwise than good; as it is written, “And God saw everything that He made,
and, behold, it was very good (Gen. 1:31).”[1]
Thus the goodness of God can be seen first in creation. Creation is indeed
good. It is indeed beautiful.
You alone are the Lord. You have made the heavens, The
heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The
seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them And the heavenly
host bows down before You (Neh. 5:6 NASB).
I love the diversity in creation...
The diversity of God’s
creativity is not only displayed in the variety of bees, but in the blossoms as
well. Some are white. Some are pink, some deep ruby red. When the blossoms come to fruition, some will
be leaves, some will be fruit, but they are each a part of the tree. We have to
wait for the fruit to appear. They may look the same at present, but each
blossom is unique and serves a purpose for the tree.
God’s good creation is illustrated most beautifully in man whom
He formed from the dust, and breathed into him His life-giving and
life-sustaining breath. We are His image-bearers the imago dei. God
created us all in His image, yet we are all unique and have a distinctive purpose
in God’s plan. Consider with me the intricacies of the human body:
“The body—the face, the features, the
coloring—contains
marks that identify us as individuals. These marks arise from our DNA and make
us recognizable to the naked eye. But they provide more than a point of recognition
for the sake of others; they are God’s imprint on each of us. These few
features have seemingly infinite possibilities when rearranged in different
shapes and sizes.”[2]
How can one dare say that God is not good? His goodness is
displayed in His Mercy on His imago dei, the very ones that have
forsaken Him, despised and rejected Him. The very image bearers that offer
false incense at the altars of the false gods of secular-humanism, evolution,
and the like. How can the clay question the potter—who are you, O man, who answers back to God? (see Is.
45: 9-11 and Rom.
9: 19-26).
It is comforting to know that God is good. In a world where there is so much evil, and many tragedies are witnessed, it is hard to imagine anything good; but God is good.
It is comforting to know that God is good. In a world where there is so much evil, and many tragedies are witnessed, it is hard to imagine anything good; but God is good.
God’s goodness however, is not just in deed and action—it is His very essence. All
the goodness there is in any creature has been imparted from the Creator, but
His goodness is underived. For it is the essence of His eternal nature.
The lovingkindness of God endures all day
long. Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man? (Ps. 52: 1 NASB).
God is good. He is the summum bonum, the highest
good. The goodness of God refers to the perfection of His nature. It means that
God is the final standard of good, and that all God is and does is worthy of
approval.
No one but God is good (Luke 18:19 NASB).
His nature is so perfect there is nothing lacking or defective.
Nothing can be added to Him to make Him better. He will never be more good than
He is now. He will never be less good than He is now. God is immutable—He cannot change. He will not
change—even for the better—there are no degrees of “better”
in regards to His nature, because He is the summa bonum He is the very
best good. He is the highest good.
Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord,
for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Who can speak
of the mighty deeds of the Lord, Or can show forth all His praise? How
blessed are those who keep justice, Who practice righteousness at all
times! (Ps. 106: 1-3 NASB).
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is
good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary (Ps. 107: 1-2).
For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
The Lord gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from
those who walk uprightly (Ps 84:11 NASB).
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and
you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who
asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or
what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will
give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a
snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is
good to those who ask Him! (Matt. 7: 7-11 NASB).
His goodness is revealed in His mercy, patience and grace—His goodness He pours out on
humanity, “God’s mercy is his goodness toward those in distress, his grace is
his goodness toward those who deserve only punishment, and his patience is his
goodness toward those who continue to sin over a period of time.”[3]
The Goodness of God appeared most illustriously when He sent
Jesus Christ to us,
To redeem them that were under the law that we might
receive the adoptions of sons (Gal. 4:45 NASB).
“Christ walked with men on earth that He might show them
what God is like and make known the true nature of God to a race that had wrong
ideas about Him. This was only one of the things He did while here in the
flesh, but this He did with beautiful perfection.”[4]
In the face of evil, it is hard to see good; remember the
words of Sam to Frodo, when he felt hopeless and in despair of the times;
Sam: It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it's only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (New Line Cinema, 2002).We have a greater assurance than Sam and Frodo; the goodness of God is at the heart of every believer’s trust. The evil we face is not just some shadow, it is a real evil that Christ Jesus has defeated. Christ is coming, and He will wipe out all the wickedness from the earth. It is the excellency in God which grabs hold of our hearts, because His goodness endures forever, we need never to be discouraged:
The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day
of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him. Nahum 1:7
The presence of evil in the world does not negate that God
is good. Nor is it reasonable to question God’s existence in light of evil:
“When you say there's too much evil in this world you
assume there's good. When you assume there's good, you assume there's such a
thing as a moral law on the basis of which to differentiate between good and
evil. But if you assume a moral law, you must posit a moral Law Giver, but
that's Who you're trying to disprove and not prove. Because if there's no moral
Law Giver, there's no moral law. If there's no moral law, there's no good. If
there's no good, there's no evil.” ~ Ravi Zacharias
Just because there is evil in the word, does not mean that
God is not good. It is not the absence of God that evil proves, rather it is
the expression of our sin and fallenness—our
evil choices. But even to the worst of sinners, God’s Mercy is reaching out offering
redemption.
“Nor can the benevolence of God be justly called into
question because there is suffering and sorrow in the world. If man sins
against the goodness of God, if he despises ‘the riches of His goodness and
forbearance, and longsuffering,’ and after the hardness and impenitency of his
heart treasurest up unto himself wrath against the day of wrath (Rom. 2: 4-5),
who is to blame but himself? Would God be good if He punished not those who
ill-use His blessings, abuse His benevolence, and trample His mercies beneath
their feet?”[5]
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing
salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly
desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present
age (Titus 2: 11-12 NASB).
“To allow that God could be other than good is to deny the
validity of all thought and end in the negation of every moral judgment. If God
is not good, then there can be no distinction between kindness and cruelty.”[6]
The goodness of God. God is the Creator of the world, and is
its Source and Sustainer. Goodness has its source in God. Those who know and
love God, understand that all goodness comes from God. We do not believe that
God loves us because we are good, but because He is good.
“Since evil must ‘use’ good in order even to exist, it is
appropriate that good, being superior, should be able to return the favor. But
good does not ultimately ‘use’ evil by manipulating it, but rather by absorbing
it through sacrifice. There is a price to be paid for good to overcome evil; and
God, precisely because He is good, is willing to pay it.”[7]
So then as through one transgression there
resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there
resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s
disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the
obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. The Law came in
so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace
abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace
would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord
(Rom. 5: 18-21NASB Emphasis mine).
This is the goodness of God—that
He loves us, and though we are fallen—offers
redemption through the loving sacrifice of His Son. So beautiful. So Good.
Taste and see that the Lord is good. Ps. 34:8
My scribbling....
[1] Ravi Zacharias, The Grand Weaver: How God Shapes Us Through The Events Of Our Lives (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 24.
[2] A.W. Pink, The Nature Of God (Chicago: Moody Press., 1999), 70.
[3] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 199.
[4] A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge Of The Holy (New York: HarperOne, 1961), 84.
[5] Arthur W. Pink, The Attributes Of God (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1975), 59.
[6] Tozer, 82.
[7] Donald T. Williams, Reflections From Plato’s Cave: Essays In Evangelical Philosophy ( Lynchburg: Lantern Hollow Press., 2012), 142.
