When people question God, the question is usually “Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?”
And many times, we can get stomped on how to answer this question. I am not going to answer it here. I do want to bring out a flaw in the question.
It’s the “good people” part. None of us are good.
Jeremiah tells us, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.
Who really knows how bad it is?” Jeremiah 17:9 NLT
And Paul tells us, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Roman 3:23 NLT
Jesus even tells us, “Only God is truly good.” Luke 18:19b NLT
“God is summon bonum , the highest good” (Pink,1975 )
Goodness is part of the character of God. He is the standard for what is good. This is where our idea of good originates. The standard of what is right and wrong comes from God. He is the highest authority of goodness. Some people want to admit it or not, God is our source of what is truly good. In today’s culture, wrong things (according to God’s standards) are called good. Just because we “humanity” says something is good does not make it so.
“What is good? Good is what God approves. We may ask then, why is what God approves good” We must answer Because he approves it. That is to say, there is no highest standard of goodness than God’s own character and his approval of whatever is consistent with that character” (Grudem, 2020).
As followers of Christ and God’s children, He passes on this goodness to us.
“The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.” Psalms 84:11b NLT
“The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation.” Psalms 145:9 NLT
“Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.” James 1:17 NLT
God giving us good things does not stop the bad things from happening. We live in a fallen world
where bad things will happen. The good that happens in this world is from God, the source of goodness.
Knowing that God is good is a comfort to me. There are so many things around me that are bad, but there is One in who I can have complete trust and have confidence in who is always good.
And while only God is good, I can strive to do good. “Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.” Galatians 6:10 NLT
References
Arthur, P (1975) The Attributes of God
Grudem, W (2020) Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine 2nd Edition
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This is a very eye-opening and thought provoking post. Thank you for challenging the way we have asked this question. I appreciate you highlighting the character of God.
Yes! Thank you for reading. The more we understand God’s character the better we are able to live for Him.