S4 E4: The Goodness of God

Season 4 of Spirit-Led Hope is covering the Doctrine of God, or theology, from a Spirit-led perspective. In this episode, Glenn looks at the goodness of God. Glenn discusses how God sets the standard for goodness and that he always acts true to his nature. This episode also discusses that sometimes God acts in ways that do not seem good to us. How can we say that God is good when bad things happen? This is a real question that affects our ability to live a Spirit-led life.

This episode has a transcript. If your podcast player does not support transcripts, please go to the Transcripts section of https://spiritledhope.com/ . These transcripts have been edited for accuracy and are typically of higher quality than those produced automatically by many podcast apps.

Season 4 is part of a long term goal to study systematic theology from a Spirit-led perspective. If you want to know more about systematic theology, or expand your study, Glenn is using the following text as a helpful framework to make sure the main topics are covered:  Foundations of Pentecostal Theology, by Guy P. Duffield and Nathaniel M. Van Cleave.  The book is published by Foursquare Media and Glenn is using the Second Edition published in 2016.      

Transcript

S4 E4 TRANSCRIPT 

THE GOODNESS OF GOD

INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone and welcome to Spirit-Led Hope. My name is Glenn Erichsen, and in this episode, we are looking at:

     THE GOODNESS OF GOD

As we study the doctrine of God, we know that everything we look at will be important. But the topic for this episode, goodness, is critical when it comes to our relationship with God.

If you have listened to many Spirit-Led Hope episodes, you know that I frequently stress that anyone can have an intimate relationship with God. But this presupposes that a person wants to have a relationship with God. And for those who do not want a relationship with God, “goodness” is often the stumbling block.

I mean, if you do not believe that God is good, then why would you want to pursue him? Why would you want him to pursue you? In fact, if you question the goodness of God, you may be motivated to keep far away from him. 

Because of this, it is important that we settle the issue of God’s goodness for ourselves. When we believe that God is good, our faith and trust in God grows. And this is critical for leading a Spirit-led life. This is so important that we will revisit this a bit later.

WHAT IS GOOD?

What do we mean when we say that God is good? If you live in the United States like I do, you will hear the word “good” used in a lot of different ways. If your favorite sport team wins, you say, “That was a good game!” Or if your dinner was tasty, you say, “That food was good!” We talk about good grades, good behavior, a good job, and that we hope for good luck. And then, sometimes, we call someone a good person. So, how do we approach God and goodness?

When we say that God is good, we are saying that God’s very nature is good. You will typically see goodness listed as one of God’s moral attributes. I like how A. W. Tozer defined an attribute of God. Here is what Tozer said:

“…an attribute of God is whatever God has in any way revealed as being true of himself.” A. W. Tozer

So, if goodness is an attribute of God, then God sets the standard for what is good. It also means that whatever God does is good. There is not one thing that God does, that is not worthy of approval. He is always good, and he always does good.

If you listened to Season 3 about the Bible, you may recognize that what I just said sounds like a circular argument. God said he is good, and he is good because he said it.  

And we cannot deny the circular nature of that statement. But we are going to run into this problem over and over, because you cannot avoid a circular argument when there is a single, supreme, standard. If you could hold God accountable to some other standard, then that standard would be greater than God. 

Where we land in all of this, is that God is good. It is the way God is, and he cannot make himself not good. And what this means for us is that we now have a standard for ourselves of what we call good. Whatever God approves of, that is good.

SOME SCRIPTURES ABOUT GOD’S GOODNESS

Now, when we look through the Bible, we find that God’s goodness is evident in the very first chapter. Because everything that God does is good, it is no surprise that Creation is summarized in Genesis 1: 31 by:

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good indeed… Genesis 1:31 CSB

We also see, in the book of Luke, Jesus declaring that God is the ultimate standard for goodness. When a leader came to talk to Jesus, this is what happened:

A ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? ” “Why do you call me good? ” Jesus asked him. “No one is good except God alone.”

Luke 18:18-19 CSB 

This simple response directed the ruler right back to God and his infinite goodness. Jesus was letting this man know that we cannot do anything to earn eternal life but must rely on God’s goodness. 

We also see verses throughout the Old and New Testaments, where the writers declare that God is good. King David is a great example of this. When the ark was brought into Jerusalem, David cried out in praise and said:

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his faithful love endures forever. 

1 Chronicles 16:34 CSB

Because God is infinitely good, God is the source of all good. This is what James, the brother of Jesus said:

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.  James 1:17 CSB

These good and perfect gifts become evident in our lives because God cannot act differently than his nature. Because God loves us and his nature is one of goodness, God takes everything in our lives and turns into something good. 

One of the most popular verses in the Bible is Romans 8:28, which says:

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 CSB

Now this verse is true, but it is one of those verses which can be used out of context or in a way that is insensitive. So let us change gears just a bit and look at some of the difficulties we may have when talking about the goodness of God.

OUR PERSPECTIVE OF GOOD IS LIMITED

I said earlier that God sets the standard for what is good. Well, that means that we are not the ones who determine what is good. God is the one who declares something good. It is very possible that God can do something good, which we think is bad.

If you are a regular listener of Spirit-led Hope, you know that my wife Monica has Stage 4 cancer. I do not think that is a good thing. And yet, I cannot deny that God has allowed this horrible disease to happen. How does that fit into his goodness? I do not believe we should shy away from asking questions like this.

This, of course, is a form of the classic problem of evil and suffering. If God is all powerful (which we have not talked about yet) and he is good, why does he let these bad things happen? Why doesn’t he use his power to remove all suffering and make everything appear continuously good to us? It seems like that would be a good thing.

As I said earlier, if you want to have a deep Spirit-led relationship with God, I believe you will need to answer that question to your own satisfaction. And do not be surprised if it takes you a while to settle this issue in your mind and heart. But once you have it settled, your faith will grow, and it becomes easier to trust God and hear him speak to you through Scripture and the voice of the Holy Spirit. I cannot answer that question for you, but I can give you a few things to think about.

One of the things Jesus said is that we would face struggles. Jesus always spoke the truth. We live in a world broken by sin. We also know that God has said that one day Jesus will return to earth and renew all that was broken. But until then, there is a lot of junk that we must endure.

And this is where Romans 8:28 comes into play. The verse does not say that everything that happens is going to seem good to us. What the verse says is that God will take all the things around us and somehow work them together for our good. That somehow, ultimately, even horrible events will benefit us. 

But the verse does not say when or how. We might see the good immediately, or not at all in our lifetime. It is up to God to do what only he can do. Our perspective in life is extremely limited, and bad things have a way of shrinking our perspective even more. It is difficult to look very far past something that hurts. It can feel almost impossible, at times like that, to believe that God is good all the time…that his very nature is good.

And that is why we need to be careful when we use Romans 8:28. If someone is in the middle of a horrible event, it is not kind to flippantly say, “It is all going to work out for your good,” even if it is true. We often cannot take in that truth when we are suffering. It can be hard to see the goodness of God in those moments.

One thing I have noticed is that Romans 8:28 is much easier to understand as you get older. As you age, you can often look back on difficult life events and see how God did work them for your good.

Monica, remarkably, is in her 8th year of living with Stage 4 cancer. We have been able to look back over those 8 years and identify good things that have come out of this lousy situation. We have seen some things that might never have happened if it were not for her sickness.

Have we enjoyed the cancer? No, I would prefer that she never got it. At the same time, we find that we value some of the results. It does not seem possible, but this is what the goodness of God does.

Monica and I live with the knowledge that any day her cancer could accelerate and shorten her life. I mean, I do not even like saying that. But it is our present reality.

But one thing I do know, is that God will be Present with us, if or when, that day comes. And good will ultimately come out of even that, because Romans 8:28 has a conditional statement which says this will happen for those who love God and who are called according to his purpose. I love God, and he has a purpose for me, so I know there will be eventual good…although I do not look forward to experiencing any future pain.

If you are in the middle of pain, my prayer for you right now, is that you would experience the Presence of God. It is God’s Presence that gives us hope and endurance to get through the hard times, and to eventually, someday, know that God has worked for your good. But for now, his Presence is enough.

WE ARE CALLED TO BE GOOD

One of the important things about God’s attribute of goodness is that we are supposed to share in this attribute. In other words, we are supposed to have goodness as part of our nature. We know this because goodness is a fruit of the Spirit. Here is what Paul wrote:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. Galatians 5:22-23 CSB

One of the great hopes, at least for me, of the Christian faith is that our character flaws do not have to remain the way they are. One of the things the Holy Spirit does is to transform us to be more like Jesus. Jesus exhibited perfect love, perfect joy, perfect peace…perfection in every aspect of his character. That is how we are supposed to be. God wants our character to be so like Jesus, that our nature is good and that all we do is good.

Can you imagine what it would be like if every Christian had their character transformed to be naturally good? In other words, if every Christian was by nature good? That one attribute alone would change the world.

And that is what God wants for us. He wants our character to be good. He wants us to be like him. And it is possible, because the Holy Spirit will help us as we submit to the Lordship of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit. If that concept is new to you, please listen to Season 1. But I think we will most likely talk more about the fruit of the Spirit as this Season unfolds.

CLOSING AND SIMULTANEOUS ATTRIBUTES

In this episode, we have been discussing goodness as one of God’s attributes and an attribute that is also shared by us. As we continue through the Season, we will be looking at more of God’s attributes. And some of these attributes might seem to conflict with each other.

For example, in addition to goodness we will see that God is always holy and just. And we often categorize God’s behavior where we believe that God did one thing because he is holy and he did something else because he is just, or something else because he is good. But the reality is that we cannot separate God’s attributes. And his behavior is based on all his attributes simultaneously. 

I think this is so important that we should discuss this in the next episode, before we focus on any more attributes of God. We will wrap this episode up now.

As always, you can send me comments, suggestions, or questions, by email at glenn@spiritledhope.com, or simply use the Contact Form at spiritledhope.com. That is spiritLEDhope.com. You can also send me a one-way text message by going to the episode show notes and clicking on the link with your smart phone. This is one of the ways you can encourage me.

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May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Until the next episode, take care.

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