His Goodness

by J. D. Terrell, Carlisle | Category: Knowing God | Aug 1977

The character of the God of heaven is many-splendoured; rich in glories beyond human expression; truly ineffable. Among the divine attributes, perhaps that which appeals most readily to the human spirit, as it reaches out to God, is God's goodness. The very term is immediately full of meaning to our simplest thoughts about God. And nowhere else do the simple and the profound converge so perfectly as in such contemplation of His Person and Nature. Goodness, as we shall show from Scripture, embraces many quite specific virtues and attributes, as applied to God. Yet in Rom. 5:7 we have an intensely human distinction drawn between a 'righteous man' and a 'good man'. The former may, and should, prompt admiration and respect; the latter excites the love that lays down life itself for a friend. The former is unimpeachable in law; the latter all expendable in love. So a glimpse is offered of the essential warmth and nearness of spirit in what the Bible calls goodness.

Now let us look more closely at what the Scriptures teach about the goodness of God. We shall examine this in four aspects. Firstly,

Its essence

Our main Scripture reference here is Exod. 33:17-34:8. The context of this passage is solemn. Israel's worship of the golden calf had cast a terrible shadow over the pilgrim people. Moses mourned their sin before God and pleaded for tokens of divine confidence in him to still lead Israel. He dreaded any withdrawal of God's guiding presence. And so he pleads, "Show me, I pray Thee, Thy glory". Clearly, God was ready to respond generously to His beloved and loyal servant and friend. Yet His reply is at first surprising. "I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and will proclaim the Name of the LORD before thee". God did in fact, as we see from vv. 22,23, accord Moses a very limited vision of His glory in physical terms. But the glory He primarily wished to impress on His servant was that expressed in "all My goodness'. Thus we find in Exod. 34, when Moses ascends mount Sinai with the second two tables of stone, God proceeds to fulfil His promise, and in its fulfilment we learn a great deaf about God's goodness. For goodness is not simply a very generalized expression of the summing up of all virtues and graces. When the Lord "stood with him there" and "passed by before him", the first thing that He did was to "proclaim the Name of the LORD". Moses must first be reminded of who this Person was beside whom he stood. In writing of the greatness of God, we touched on the Name JEHOVAH, the covenant God of Israel . The words of Exod. 33 show that Moses' faith had been severely tested, as had Abraham's before him (Gen. 22), when presented with an apparent contradiction about the character of God. Now Moses was solemnly reminded that the very basis of God's goodness is in His covenant keeping constancy and power. Human goodness, however nobly motivated and selflessly offered, so often fails because the willing spirit is frustrated by the weak flesh. Good intentions falter for lack of means to fulfil. Not so with Jehovah. "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy" (33:19). And to Israel the sovereign God of the covenant had made His commitment and would not repent.

This established, there follows in Exod. 34 a statement of the principal content of the goodness which God had promised to display to Moses. This is presented in vv. 6 and 7. "The LORD, the LORD, a God full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger and plentious in mercy and truth; keeping mercy for thousands; forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty. . .". We have here both a galaxy of virtues and a significant sequence in the elements of God's goodness which are set out. Compassionate, gracious, patient, merciful - like a river glorious indeed! Springing from a full understanding of the human condition, a 'feeling with', which the word compassion conveys, the grace of God flows out, as we have seen more fully in an earlier article in this series. The result is patience from the One who "knoweth our frame" and "remembereth that we are dust" (Psa. 103:14); and overflowing mercy in the face of our waywardness and sin. Yet there is no sacrifice of truth for "mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Psa. 85:10). However our human failure expresses itself, whatever word in the judicial vocabulary fits best - iniquity, transgression, sin - all is met by a sweet forgiveness which stills the soul to peace. Untarnished, however, remains divine righteousness, for He will "by no means clear the guilty". Forgiveness does not entirely exclude the repercussions of sin even upon succeeding generations. But ultimately it must be put away, as we shall see, in the Person and work of Christ.

Students of the Word Will profit here by examining the two main New Testament Greek words used for 'good' and 'goodness'. To one of these, often rendered 'kindness', we have already alluded in writing of the grace of God - as in Eph. 2:7. The same word appears in Tit. 3:4,5, "But when the kindness of God our Saviour, and His love toward man, appeared ... according to His mercy He saved us...". Having tasted of the supreme goodness of God in salvation there is then given to the Christian to himself express in his life, something of that goodness which was seen in perfection only in Christ. Thus, while this thought is applied in several places in the New Testament to the disciple, e.g. 2 Cor. 6:6; Eph. 5:9, both Greek words lie beautifully side-by-side in Gal. 5:22, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love... kindness, goodness...". Whatever lovely shade of meaning each word has, the gracious Spirit's work in the heart of the believer brings forth a double crop of fruitfulness to God's glory.

Let us now return briefly to Moses on Sinai, and note with reverence the powerful effect of the passing before him of such surpassing goodness.

"And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped" (Exod. 34:8). An awesome display indeed of God's goodness for Moses, yet similar was the effect upon Abraham's servant when God's "kindness unto my master Abraham" began to unfold before him at the well by the city of Nahor (Gen. 24:12,26). "And the man bowed his head and worshipped the LORD". Must we not pause worshipfully before such incomparable goodness as we have known in Christ? The perfect complement of worship remains as the final effect of God's goodness to which we wish to refer, namely praise. Go to Psalm 107 and its oft-repeated refrain, "Oh that men would praise the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men". Of all Scripture, the psalms express this most superbly. Outstandingly, in the closing verses of the psalter, our spirits are lifted high in a crescendo of praise and exaltation of the Name of our God; with the resounding climax, "Let everything that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD".

Its endurance

We stay with the sweet psalmist of Israel for our further contemplation. A confident peace, born of experience and faith, exudes from those words of undying comfort, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever" - a many-jewelled crown indeed for a psalm of unique preciousness. A sure sense of divine all-embracing care commands the psalmist's lips; and all has been said, the shepherd psalm closes on the perfect note.

David writes in similar vein but in wider, universal context in Psalm 65; and, as in Psalm 23, we observe the link between the goodness of God and His house. "We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house", and "Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness" (vv.4,11). We venture to submit that in both these inspired poems, David points to a very significant truth about God's goodness. Nowhere can this blessed and variegated expression of God's care and love be better appreciated than in God's house. The magazine in which we write has devoted much attention over many years to the great truths of the house of God. And in recent numbers this has again been dealt with in relation to the kingdom of God. In no other context can the fulness of the glories of God be better apprehended on earth. The passage of God's goodness before Moses on Sinai was the prelude to the revelation of the pattern of the earthly dwelling-place of God on earth. We do well to keep this clearly in mind as we rejoice in that same goodness today.

Its expression

The expression of God's goodness, as revealed in Scripture, is twofold. In the first place let us look at the words of Psalm 145. In this psalm of praise, of David, there is a majestic vista of God's glory in, and care for, all of His vast creation. So the men of v.6 who "speak of the might of Thy terrible acts" are also those who "shall utter the memory of Thy great goodness" and "sing of Thy righteousness'. Observe next how closely the following words in v.8 of the psalm follow the Exod. 34 passage discussed above. "The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy". Then follow the words, "The LORD is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works". This is the common goodness of God, common to all His creatures and throughout His creation. "Thou openest Thine hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing". This is parallel with the amazing revelation of Matt. 6:26 and 10:29 concerning the sparrows of the field - all provided for; the demise of each accounted by God. "Ye are of more value than many sparrows". We see a world of rich provision for all, in God's universal goodness, though a provision sadly distorted and frustrated by human folly and greed.

Yet His care for His creatures extends away beyond this daily material bounty to a vastly deeper concern to meet far deeper human needs. For, "the LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth" (v.18). Men must consciously place themselves in the hand of God if they are to experience the fuller blessings of His goodness in the inner man, in spiritual terms. The divine invitation is matched unerringly

to the divine promise. "He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him" (v.19). And so in our thoughts we move to the special unfolding of the goodness of God in Christ, the One who, when Moses wrote, was still to come; in whom all the goodness of God in all its finest manifestations, was to be fully expressed. "Why callest thou Me good?", the Lord Jesus demanded of the ruler who enquired, "Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" "None is good save one, even God" (Luke 18:18,19) - clear challenge this to the ruler's faith in the deity of Christ. We may be uncertain about the vital response in the young man's case, but there is no doubt he had been genuinely attracted to this gentle, good and gracious Man. He had doubtless witnessed something of what Peter recalled to Cornelius and his household - "who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him" (Acts 10:38). All the compassion, patience and forgiving mercy which had passed before Moses on Sinai were here revealed in glorious perfection, and in completely human terms. Furthermore, His prime objective was a cross of suffering where the righteousness of God would be finally vindicated and full atonement made for sin. At Calvary we pause reverently as a God of infinite love causes all His goodness to pass before us; and we gladly show grateful acknowledgement as did Moses who "bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped" (Exod. 34:8). Yes, Lord, we ask no more than a vision of Thy Son in life and in death to behold the glory of all Thy goodness!

Its effect

The first effect on man that God expects to see flowing out of His goodness is repentance. The solemn text here is Rom. 2:4 which stands as part of that trenchant statement on human responsibility to God and His Self-revelation "... the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance". Man will not remain guiltless in rejecting a God who has so generously opened His hand in so many ways. There is a closely related message of warning later in the epistle to the Romans, to the favoured and called Gentile Christians who had been grafted into God's dispensational purpose. "Behold the goodness and severity of God: toward them (Israel) that fell, severity; but toward thee God's goodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off' (Rom. 11:22). Without any reference, we are persuaded, to the matter of eternal salvation, the place of prominence in God's favour requires this second response to His goodness, namely constancy in our appreciation and reflection of divine goodness.

J. D. Terrell, Carlisle | Aug 1977
Knowing God