Theological Term of the Week

goodness
That perfection of God whereby he is disposed to be benevolent and generous toward his creatures.

• From scripture:
  

  5 One generation shall commend your works to another,
  and shall declare your mighty acts.
   
  7 They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness
  and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

  8 The Lord is gracious and merciful,
  slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
  9 The Lord is good to all,
  and his mercy is over all that he has made.

  14 The Lord upholds all who are falling
  and raises up all who are bowed down.
  15 The eyes of all look to you,
  and you give them their food in due season.
  16 You open your hand;
  you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
  17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways
  and kind in all his works. (Psalm 145:5, 7-9, 14-17 ESV)

• From The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 2:

There is but one only, living, and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, …most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him….

• From Knowing God by J. I. Packer: 

God is “abundant in goodness”—ultro bonus, as the Latin speaking theologians long ago used to put it, spontaneously good, overflowing with generosity. Theologians of the Reformed school use the New Testament word grace (free favor) to cover every act of divine generosity, of whatever kind, and hence distinguish between the common grace of “creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life,” and the special grace manifested in the economy of salvation—the point of the contrast between common and special being that all benefit from the former, but not all are touched by the latter. The biblical way of putting this distinction would be to say that God is good to all in some ways and to some in all ways.

• From The Attributes of God, (The Goodness of God) by A. W. Pink:

  Gratitude is the return justly required from the objects of His beneficence; yet is it often withheld from our great Benefactor simply because His goodness is so constant and so abundant. It is lightly esteemed because it is exercised toward us in the common course of events. It is not felt because we daily experience it. “Despisest thou the riches of His goodness?” (Rom. 2:4). His goodness is “despised” when it is not improved as a means to lead men to repentance, but, on the contrary, serves to harden them from the supposition that God entirely overlooks their sin.

Learn more:

1. Bob Deffinbaugh: The Goodness of God
2. John Gill: Of the Goodness of God
3. S. Lewis Johnson: The Goodness of God and the Existence of Evil (transcript and mp3)
4. From my attributes of God posts: God’s Goodness

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking. I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.

God's Goodness

This is another redone and reposted old post.

The term goodness in relation to the character of God can be used in two ways. Some who write on God’s attributes use it to describe the uprightness of God—his moral purity. (I’ve already done a piece on this aspect of God’s character and I called it God’s righteousness.) More commonly, however, this term is used to describe God’s benevolent nature—his generosity. This is the way I’m going to use the word goodness in this series of posts on God’s attributes.

God is by nature a giving God. He gives to his creation and sustains it out of his goodness. He provides all that is needed for everything he has made.

The Lord is good to all,
and has compassion on all he has made.
The Lord supports all who fall,
and lifts up all who are bent over….
Everything looks to you in anticipation,
and you provide them with food on a regular basis.
You open your hand,
and fill every living thing with the food they desire.
(Psalm 145:9,10,15,16 NET)

It gives God pleasure to treat his creatures benevolently. Psalm 104 tells us that God’s provision for human beings and his other creatures comes because God finds “pleasure in the living things he has made (v. 31).”

Our good God is the source of everything that is good:

All generous giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change. (James 1:17 NET)

Every blessing we have and every benefit that exists comes from the heavenly Father. All that sustains us and gives us true joy is given by God. Even when we receive good things through the benevolent acts of others, we are receiving from God’s goodness, for no one can give except from what they have already received as a good gift from the Father.

God’s love, mercy, and grace have their source in God’s goodness. Sometimes those words are even used  synonymously with his general benevolence. In scripture, for instance, God’s providence for both “the evil and the good” is tied to his love in Matthew 5:44. However, these terms are often used specifically for God’s benevolence as it relates to the gift of redemption, and I plan to consider each of them separately later in this series on God’s attributes.

That God is unchangeably good doesn’t mean that every person receives equally from his goodness. Some receive more good gifts than others, and that doesn’t negate God’s goodness. The parable in Matthew 20 suggests that as long as God does no one wrong, he can be more generous to some than others while remaining true to his goodness:

“Am I not permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” (Matthew 20:15 NET)

The truest picture of God’s goodness can be seen when this aspect of his nature is viewed in relationship to his other perfections. God is benevolent, but he is also just, and because he is just, he is never benevolent in a way that overlooks sin:

The Lord , the Lord the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6,7 NET)

Out of his goodness, he is long-suffering toward sinners, slow to be harsh toward our sin, but in the end, our sin must be dealt with and God’s severity expressed against it.

God’s goodness toward those who belong to him has a benevolent purpose that goes beyond providing for their well-being in this temporal world. His generous intent is designed to save them from his just harshness toward sin.

Or do you have contempt for the wealth of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, and yet do not know that God’s kindness leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:4 NET)

God’s kindness is working something of eternal consequence within his own. His kindness is intended to lead to repentance—to turn people from their sin to faith in the good God.

Those without an attitude of repentance show contempt for God’s goodness and for God himself, leading directly to “wrath…in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed! (Romans 2:5 NET).” Considering God’s goodness alongside his wrath against sin should bring sinners to God with an open hand of true repentant faith.

And there is even more good news of God’s goodness toward his own: Every single life circumstance works toward a good end in the lives of those who love him. For those who love God, even life’s difficulties are good gifts serving a benevolent purpose, for they are remaking them into people who are like Christ. (Romans 8:28-29)

How can that not make us thankful to our good Father? He is the source of everything good that we have, and he gives to us because he is good, not because we have a right to what we are given. And  since every single circumstance is a good gift—an undeserved good gift—for those who belong to him, God’s people should be the kind of people who give thanks to him in all circumstances.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loyal love,
and for the amazing things he has done for people!
For he has satisfied those who thirst,
and those who hunger he has filled with food.
(Psalm 107:8,9)

Are we to pray unto God only?

God only being able to search the hearts,[1] hear the requests,[2] pardon the sins,[3] and fulfil the desires of all;[4] and only to be believed in,[5] and worshiped with religious worship;[6] prayer, which is a special part thereof,[7] is to be made by all to him alone,[8] and to none other.[9]

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