God Alone is Good

Musings from the Garden

By Peggy Wyar

Having just enjoyed a day of retreat and rest with my sisters in the Lord, I have continued to consider what God’s Word says about His goodness.

 In three gospel accounts,
              Mathew 19:17, Luke 18:19, and Mark 10:18,
Jesus was asked this question by a rich young ruler:
           “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus answered,
           “No one is good - except God alone.”

 I often thought His response was strange. Since Jesus was God He could be called “good”, but I realized the young man was seeing Jesus as an earthly teacher.  Jesus was instructing him (as teachers do) to see God as the only intrinsically good One - that God alone is purely good.

 Every human being is not good.  We may do good things, have some good ideas, maybe even say some good words, but scripture tells us we are not intrinsically good.

 Genesis 6:5  

“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.”

 Goodness is part of God’s DNA.  Even pure gold is only 99.99% pure because of the world’s corruption.  Only our God is 100% good and no one or no thing can be His equal. As my husband likes to say, “God has no dark side”.

Although we begin our lives naturally bent towards evil, there is hope.  Through Jesus, we are invited into a relationship with our Creator because of God’s goodness. Once we surrender to Him, we are given new natures that don’t want to sin. 

2 Peter 1:3-4

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

We are invited to participate, to be involved, in the good nature of God.  A fruit of the Holy Spirit is goodness along with other divine attributes. With the help of Jesus, our desires can be changed so we want to join Him in blessing others.

In Psalm 84:11, we are promised that God will not withhold good from us as we walk closely with Him. We can trust Him to know what is truly good for us. May we begin to notice the trail of His goodness as it follows us every day in this life here on earth (Psalm 23:6).

 Psalm 27:13

“I remain confident of this:
    I will see the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living.”

 We can tell ourselves that God is good.  We can remind ourselves of all His goodness.  Speaking this truth to our souls is one way we battle the lie that tries to convince us that because God did not respond like we thought he should have, He is not good.

Psalm 116:7-9

"Return to your rest, my soul,
    for the Lord has been good to you.

For you, Lord, have delivered me from death,
    my eyes from tears,
    my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before the Lord
    in the land of the living.”

 Let’s focus on how God has graciously been good to us every day.  It’s too easy to remember the hurts, the failings of others, the lost opportunities, the health challenges, the broken relationships, etc.

 But God has been good!  We are still alive. If we have surrendered our hearts to Jesus, turned away from our “not goodness” (repented) and have accepted His redemptive forgiveness and grace, we will be delivered from eternal death, as well.

 So, in response, let’s leave behind the negative thoughts and take time to remember how good God has been to us.  Remember a healing, or a reconciliation, a simple act of mercy, or a word of encouragement, a kindness, or a meal freely given.  We have all been recipients of God’s goodness because His word tells us He rains blessings on the just and the unjust. Tell your soul today how very good God is to you as you enjoy your next breath of life. 

God is good, all the time.

All the time, God is good.