God Is Good.
Knowing the goodness of God is extremely important to our faith as we follow Jesus. so, what is God’s goodness and how do we know that God is good?
The Goodness Throughout eternity
When we think of the goodness of God, we often think of the things he does or has done for us, but God is not only good because of how He treats us. Goodness is God’s nature; God is good.
Jesus affirms the exclusive nature of God’s goodness in Mark 10:18, that “no one is good except God alone.” But what is God’s goodness? We see it reflected in His nature throughout Scripture.
In Exodus 34:6–7, we receive clarity into the attributes of God, God Himself declares, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
“God’s goodness is His steadfast love, kindness in action, His mercy, patience, grace, love. In essence that is Goodness and that is God. God’s works are also good because they come from perfect goodness.
The Goodness of God Made known to us in JESUS CHRIST
Ok so we know God is essentially good by nature, but what does this look like? It remains just a concept to us unless we see Gods goodness worked out. Think of the Gospel. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth… ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’” (John 1:14, 29)
These verse shows us Gospel then represents the fullness of God’s goodness toward us. The actions of God’s goodness toward us.
Jesus, as the exact imprint of the Father, represents the fullness of God’s goodness. In other words, the eternal living Gods goodness to us in reality by the historical Jesus Christ. John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” In His identification as our good shepherd, He proclaims His goodness. And if we read the gospel accounts, we see he is overwhelmingly good.
So that’s leaves us with two questions first have we seen this Goodness of the eternal God and have we responded it him remember
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth… ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’” (John 1:14, 29)
We continually bask in his goodness to us. Like sunbathing or watching a sunrise or set, we enjoy his goodness to us, or do we think we are not the model of Goodness.
Remember Exodus 34:6–7,We see the nature of God goodness is applied by amazing grace to us. This is why we can sing of God being a Good father because that’s who he is buy nature and we by his grace have with psalm 34:8 “Taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” We have tased and see that the LORD IS GOOD.
