The Goodness of God

As we continue on this journey together of digging deeper into who God is, we move from looking at the greatness attributes of God to the goodness attributes of God.[1] As a reminder, the goodness attributes are God’s moral attributes. If God was only the things we discussed under the greatness attributes, he would be amoral. He could use his power in an evil way. We would have a cruel and mean God. However, because God is moral and without sin, we see then that he has moral attributes. These are the attributes that we will explore together this week.

            The first goodness attribute of God is that he is personal and immanent. God is involved with his creation in an intimate way. “God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring’ (Acts 17:27-28). God is here with us, involved in our lives, and wanting a relationship with us. He is also the sustainer of life. “If it were his intention and he withdrew his spirit and breath, all humanity would perish together and mankind would return to the dust” (Job 34:14-15). It is because of God's Spirit (breath) that we are able to maintain physical life. We have this conundrum that keeps us in tension of how God is here among us, yet he is ruling in heaven. God is transcendent. This shows the incomprehensibility of aspects of God. We must maintain this tension, however, because if God were not here, life would not be sustained and he would be afar off and unreachable my man. However, if he were not in heaven ruling and he were only immanent, he would then be dependent on his creation. We need both to be true because the scriptures clearly show him as both, so we must maintain this in perfect balance.

            God is holy. He is separate from all that is unclean/sinful. That is why we cannot be in his presence unless we are made holy in some way. That way is through Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf. This holiness is why those who aren’t covered by Christ’s sacrifice cannot be in heaven with him. They must be cast into a place that is the polar opposite of him. God is without sin. “I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44a). This is why we are able to trust that God is not a cruel, mean, or sinful God.

            Our God is righteous and just. He is righteous in three main ways. The first way that God is righteous is personally. God is holy. We have already discussed this at some length. Second, his righteousness is rectoral. This means that God is just in all his dealings with others. We see throughout scripture God showing favor to those that do right and judging those that do wrong. God rightly upholds the law. This, again, is why he had to send Christ as our atonement. God’s law requires blood to atone for sin. Christ was this sacrifice so that we could be made right (righteous) before God. Finally, he is distributivity righteous. He is just in punishing sin. He does not forgive sin because he feels like it without any basis. If he did, he would then not be just or righteous. It was because someone took our place in our punishment that he is able to forgive us. All in all, we see that God’s righteousness is his commitment to act in accordance with his nature.

            God is wise. He always chooses the best means for the best ends. “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” (Romans 11:33). God’s wisdom surpasses anything we could ever imagine. He knows and understands way more than any of us could even begin to fathom. He always knows what is best for each of our individual circumstances.

            God is truthful. We see throughout scripture that God never lies. He always tells the truth. We see that because of this reality, we can always trust his word that is found in scripture. He is always reliable and faithful. We can trust that when God promises us something in scripture or describes the future, it will happen.

            You may have noticed as we are wrapping up that I have missed one very obvious attribute of God. God is loving. Because of the vastness of this attribute, I will spend my next blog post discussing it. There are some complexities that come with this attribute. I want to be able to flesh as much of it out as I can. So, we will discuss this attribute in length next week. I hope this blog post has encouraged you. We have seen that God is a moral being. He is righteous and just. He is holy and immanent. It is because of his goodness that we are able to be in communion with him. At the risk of belaboring the point, oh how good our God is!

[1] We are still using the categories that Millard Erikson uses in his systematic theology Christian Theology 3rd Edition. If you would like to dig even deeper on your own, I would highly encourage you to use this as a resource. He also has an abridged version of his systematic theology Introducing Christian Doctrine that is also beneficial and easier to read and understand.