My Thoughts on the Goodness of God
Only God is completely good in His nature and actions. His goodness includes all the positive moral attributes, such as grace, patience, and kindness.
Illustration: When the rich young ruler called Jesus "Good Master", Jesus reminded him that only God could be properly referred to as "good". The good that exists in the world around us truly reflects or expresses the goodness of God (Gen. 1:10). There is no other source of true "good". When God revealed His name to Moses, He described Himself as being abundant in goodness (Ex. 34:6).
The encounter with the rich young ruler has us thinking of our tendency to believe we can earn salvation. Jesus' final command to complete the rich young ruler's call is to sell everything, give everything to the poor, and follow Him. This is not a command that salvation is by poverty or doesn't negate salvation is by faith alone. However, this showed the problem of the rich young ruler thinking he could keep the whole Law. Also, Mark 10:24 addresses the problem that those that trust in their riches will have a hard time entering the Kingdom of God. It's because so many people tend to earn their riches and think that they can earn their salvation. Also, getting saved can mean leaving your comfort zones which also makes the rich young ruler unwilling to follow Jesus. This causes us to realize the impossibility of salvation. Again, this is not about condemning riches but when one would rather trust their riches than trust their riches to God.
We need to see the problem of the goodness of God reflects that man is not basically good. One can argue that there are good pagans. Jesus evens said in Matthew 5:46-48 that don't even the Gentiles (non-Jews, sometimes translated as pagans) do good works. However, their good wors are but dirty rags (Isaiah 64:6).
I was thinking about this video tract from Living Waters. Ray Comfort's witnessing style in using the Law is really amazing. The moment Comfort addresses sins, he really doesn't shy away from using the Ten Commandments. This video "Are You a Good Person?" shows that we're all cut short of God's glory. Whether we like to admit it or not, it's very easy to be relieved reading 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 if you're not a thief, a reviler, a homosexual, but you may be an idolater. Romans 3:10-19 reveals nobody is really worthy to enter the Kingdom of God. The unrighteous shall not inherit God's Kingdom meaning they don't even enter it. Romans 3:19 and James 2:10-11 speak that if we keep the whole Law and offend at one point, we've already been considered guilty of all. In short, it's breaking God's perfect standard.
The big truth is being a good person, humanly speaking, is much different from God's standard of a good person. A good person, humanly speaking, is still considered wicked in God's eyes. I mean, you can be a charitable person, a faithful spouse, a filial child, a consistent disciplinarian but if you're worshiping idols or you reject Jesus as the Son of God (such as Jews and Muslims as well as anti-Trinitarian cults) then you're still wicked. The idea that all religions lead to God is a lie because every other religion rejects the truth. Jesus is the Son of God yet Jews and Muslims are habitually telling people the lie that He isn't. Buddhism and Hinduism may teach doing good to one's neighbor (and I've got nothing against that) but they lie by preaching the wrong theology. It's really that rigid when you think that God's definition of good is nothing but 100% perfection. Nobody really qualifies for Heaven and all they will get is less punishment in Hell. Yet, even the best of the unsaved aren't rewarded with an airconditioned unit in Hell for their good works. They're still going to Hell along with the worst crooks and the only consolation they have is less punishment. I don't deny there are many good people who aren't saved but they only have human goodness. They are still wicked whenever they promote dangerous lies that they don't even know are lies.
It made me think many times of how I really had a hard time believing that salvation was by good works. Yet, I found myself suffering from compulsive lying and getting angry, a lot of sins that would have made me a helpless case. My golden calf was my first communion in the Roman Catholic institution which I felt was "accepting" Jesus. Instead, it was all about putting my trust 100% on Jesus because I know I'm a sinner. I heard the message also from Franklin Graham on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), a network I no longer endorse due to its unequal yoke, and from Danny Bornales of Anabaptist Church though I wouldn't endorse the network. I heard the message more than once and it took me some time to finally believe it. I decided to receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior because of that burden of sin Then the more I read the Bible, the more I realized that doing so changes the path from a bad person to a good person by the grace of God. It's God's goodness, not man's, that truly makes a real impact of genuine good works (Hebrews 10:12-14). God's goodness also serves as a mirror to prove we've all been bad in one form or another and only He can save the person.
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