Wonder at God's Goodness

​Just recently coming through the Thanksgiving holiday it is easy to be mindful of the goodness of God. We are reminded of the blessings God has bestowed upon us over the previous year. I don’t know about your local church but here at Liberty we have an annual praise dinner and this year we listened to testimonies of God’s goodness from our people. We heard stories of how God worked in the life of one of our college students; directing them to ministry. We heard of God’s healing power in the life of a man that was losing blood faster than they could put it in him with little to no chance of survival. We heard the praises of a mother for her new born child they never thought would come. And those were only the praises we heard in front of the record crowd that had gathered; there were numerous other praises that rang out from table to table as we reflected on God and His goodness. The question was raised however if God had not done all these seemingly impossible things would He still be good? 
 
Of course, we know that God is good all the time. In the past I have talked about His immutability, His never-ending love, His sovereignty, His infinitude, His wisdom, and other attributes for us to wonder at; but although He is great in all these things we need to be constantly reminded that what we are dealing with is a good God. God can be loved and trusted because He is good. It is so hard to explain the goodness of God in a blog but when we look at His goodness we see that it boils down to basically three moral attributes; His holiness, His righteousness, and His justice. Let’s wonder at these characteristics of God that make Him truly good. 
 

1. Holy, Holy, Holy. We all know the passage in Isaiah 6 where the seraphim are calling to one another holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is filled with your glory!  The Hebrew word for “holy” means “marked off” or “withdrawn from common use”. Our God is like no other. He is untarnished from the world. We are to be like this; free from any wickedness or evil. Paul tells us that those whom God has called to be His people should separate themselves from unclean things and to be perfectly holy (2 Cor. 6:14 – 7:1). When we truly see the holiness of God we will see God. 

 

1. Righteousness in His rule. The Law of the Lord is perfect. Another way to say that is; His teaching is right. Psalm 19:7-9 tells us that because His Word is perfect; it revives the soul, it makes wise the simple, and it causes the heart to rejoice. When God only teaches what is right; that is what is best for the believer who obeys. I am thankful that God’s righteous Word is all good. I am in awe of how pure and enduring it is. I know that I can trust Him because He is honest in all that He does and says. 

 

1. He requires moral justice. Since God’s law is perfect and it is leading us in the right direction it is only reasonable to note that a good God requires others to conform to it and if we do not then there are consequences. Romans 6:23 tells us, the wages of sin is death. We see this patterned through the entire Bible; God punishes sin. We may think in this day and age that God’s rule does not always seem just, but as the Psalmist discovered the wicked will ultimately be destroyed.

 
There are so many ways to describe God’s goodness. I have tried to help us think on these three qualities that really encompass so many other attributes as a jumping off point. Prayerfully when we think of the goodness of God we remember His holiness, righteousness, and justice and we desire to emulate Him in these areas. I encourage you today to spend some time alone wondering at the goodness of God!