Why is there such disagreement over what is good?  How can one culture see the flying of a plane into a building as “good”, while another condemns it as pure evil?  How would you define “good”?

The Bible tells us that “good” is not merely an idea, or one person’s moral convictions; the essence of good is God Himself.  Therefore, it should not be surprising at Jesus’ response to “the rich young ruler” in Mark 10:18 – “Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”  It’s important to differentiate between “relative good” and “absolute good”, or the “essence of good”.  Now, we all know some people who do things worse than us, thus relative to them we might call ourselves “good”.  Jesus, however, is holy.  He is absolutely the essence of good.  1 John 1:5 – “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”  Therefore, while we may be good relative to one another, none of us approaches the “goodness” of God.  When the prophet Isaiah is confronted with a vision of Christ on His throne, He describes two angels circling Christ crying out – “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”  In Hebrew, when a word is repeated twice, it’s like our use of the word “very”, but when a word is repeated three times, it is meant to describe the very essence of a thing.  Even the word holy means to be separate.  God, as the very essence of holiness, is good in a way none of us can fully fathom, because we are all sinners.  There will be a day when we will be without sin, and able to delight fully in the holiness of God, but that is another topic for another day.  So God alone is good.

Where does this leave us?  As fallen sinners, we begin with acknowledging that our definition of “good” is deficient, and that only God is truly good.  Therefore, we cannot sit in judgment of the “goodness” of God who is eternal, omnipotent, all-knowing, and the very essence of good, when we don’t even know the meaning of the word.  He is good.  If you want to know what is truly good, look to the One who is good, Jesus Christ.  What do you see?  You see a man who lived to the glory of God in all things.   You see this plainly from the High Priestly prayer of Christ in John 17

Vs 3-6 – “this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.  “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.”

Therefore, only what is done to the glory of God can be viewed as good.  How does this redefine “good” for us?  The God who created all things, who holds all things in His power, guides the steps of man to accomplish His glory in all things.

Proverbs 16:9 – “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps” 

James 4:13-15 – “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”

In this way, even what is evil to us, is good to God, in that it will be used for His glory.  Let me explain this another way, when I sin, my sin will ultimately be used to the glory of God, either through the mercy extended through Christ to me as a believer, or through the display of the righteous judgment of our holy God against my sin.  Sin, suffering, the entirety of God’s plan of judgment and redemption through Christ from the dawn of time until its close will all have worked together perfectly for the glory of God.  After Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, and they feared his retribution, his response was full of the knowledge of the goodness of God – Genesis 50:20 – “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” God purposed Joseph’s brothers to sell him into slavery, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that he would not allow the Israelites free from Egypt (Exodus 9:12, Romans 9), God led Adam to fall – why?  Because He was looking towards the glory of the Jesus Christ crucified!   Is that hard to take in?

Isaiah 55:8-10 – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Some will say then, well I will continue in sin, since all will be used for the glory of God, to which I would respond, yes, God will be glorified in your judgment…  Hope you brought your SPF 1,000,000 sunscreen! No, that response is ridiculous.  No one who has tasted the goodness of the glory of God can continue in sin – we see that sin separates us from God, our delight, and that Jesus died to reconcile us to a holy God. Why would we forgo a treasure to run back to garbage?  Why would we turn from joy back to bondage to death?

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 – “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”

2 Peter 2:20-22 – “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

Romans 6:1-6 – “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?  May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?  Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;”

My exhortation is to purpose yourself to know the Lord.  Press on to know the Lord, that you may not hear the words “I never knew you”, but rather “well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master!”  It is for your joy that these hard truths are pressed into you, let your joy be rooted in the fullness of the glory of God.  God’s ways are higher than our ways, He is sovereign over all, He is altogether good and loving.

Grace and Peace,

Adam