The Goodness of God & The Un-goodness of Man

“Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.” Marcus Aurelius

“There are two good men…one is dead and the other is not yet born.” Old Chinese Proverb

So who is right?  Is man inherently good or is he inherently bad/evil?

Was Michael Jackson on to something, when he said, “Children show me in their playful smiles the divine in everyone. This simple goodness shines straight from their hearts and only asks to be loved.” ?? 

Was Mark Twain on to something when he opined, “Be good and you will be lonesome.”??’

Anne and I often find in our discussions with folk here on the Central Coast of CA that it is still very common for the average person to think being a Christian is about being good. And that that necessary goodness is in all of us. And their great hope is if and when they face God some day in judgment that their “good” will outweigh their bad enough to get them into heaven.

So I want to spend some time in this article exploring the “goodness” of man and I want to begin our discussion by establishing first the goodness of God. Only when we see what true goodness is can we then determine if it is inherently in man. Thankfully it is inherently in God.

In Moses’s early years he was mostly focused on his calling to deliver his people Israel from the cruel reign of the Egyptians. But later in his life he longed to know God having experienced over and over the disappointments and grief of knowing men. In Exodus 33:18,19 we find him praying, “Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you…” God’s response to this great prayer of Moses is that central to His glory and nature is His goodness.

One of the reasons David learned to trust God to forgive his sins, no matter how grievous or serious they might have been is because of His goodness that is tied to His readiness to forgive, “For You, Lord are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon You.”  Psalm 86:5

One day during Jesus’s earthly ministry a rich young ruler walked up to Him and asked, “Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus’s initial response was surprising I’m sure, “And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.” Luke 18:18,19  If you read the rest of their discussion you will see that this young man – based on all of his religious devotion – felt he was good, and thus Jesus saw the need to establish from the outset where goodness lies or lives and where it doesn’t.

God’s goodness is established throughout Scripture. Let’s try to define it, starting with this definition from Lewis Sperry Chafer’s Systematic Theology (p. 206), “The infinite goodness of God is a perfection of His being which characterizes His nature and is itself the source of all in the universe that is good.”      A.W. Tozer in his book “Knowledge of the Holy” (p. 82) wrote, “The goodness of God is that which disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men. He is tenderhearted and of quick sympathy, and His unfailing attitude toward all moral beings is open, frank, and friendly. By His nature He is inclined to bestow blessedness and He takes total pleasure in the happiness of His people.” I would add inherent in His goodness is His lack of any partiality, mixture, compromise, uncleanness or darkness. As some like to say, God is good all the time – no exceptions.

Jesus of course while on earth exemplified this every day, all day. When the rich young ruler addressed Him as “Good teacher” it was because Jesus’s character and way set Him apart from any and every other religious leader or teacher that had ever lived. Jesus didn’t just do good things. Jesus was and is good. His every thought and attitude and inner response to the things people said and did was perfect in goodness. He never once entertained a cynical or unkind or unjust or partial thought or attitude. He never had an ulterior motive or skewed motivation for the good things He did. He never had to apologize for saying or doing something that He shouldn’t have said or done.

Whether it was His tender compassion towards the sick, whom He was constantly healing even into the wee hours of the night/morning, or the demonized whom He regularly delivered from demons, or the rejects of society that He regularly gave attention to, or the corrupt religious leaders whom Jesus boldly confronted regarding their corruption and hypocrisy, few would question that Jesus Christ was the epitome of goodness.

(To learn more about the Goodness of God please see: https://www.kingdomstreams.net/post/the-goodness-of-god-in-the-old-new-testaments )

So how does man stack up biblically to this definition and expression of goodness?  Well we don’t stack up at all. David was quick to state this in the Psalms. Let’s look at one example in  Psalm 14:1,3, “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good…not even one.”  The apostle Paul in Romans 1:18-3:20 in his teaching about the inherent unrighteousness of man quotes this passage from Psalm 14.  Again Jesus was quick to proclaim to the rich young ruler that “…”No one is good except God alone.” (Luke 18:19).

Our problem on planet earth is every society eventually comes up with its own definition and standard of goodness – having decided to ignore God’s. And thus at funerals we make statements like “So and so was a very good man”. When we say that we don’t mean according to God’s standard, but rather according to the standard we’ve grown to know and accept in our given society. A standard which might impress men, but means nothing to God.

The Scripture from beginning to end is crystal clear in both doctrine and in example that man is not inherently good. Some would contend with that conclusion though because of wonderful exceptions in their mind - - and probably the two most often mentioned are Gandi and Mother Teresa. But I’m not sure either Gandi or Mother Teresa would agree with such folk. Listen to their own words re: their goodness or lack of:

“It is an unbroken torture to me that I am still so far from him whom I know governs every breath of my life and whose offspring I am. I know it is because of the evil passions within me that keep me so far from him; yet I can’t get away from them.” Mahatma Gandi

“Do not think that my spiritual life is strewn with roses – that is the flower which I hardly ever find on my way. Quite the contrary, I have more often as my companion – darkness.” (from the book “Come Be My Light”).

So if God is inherently always good; and if we will be judged by whether we attained to and walked out His standard of goodness – what are we to do? Well we must have goodness infused in us or imputed to us. It must come from outside of us and cannot come from any entity that is not utterly good. And our lack of goodness in word, action, thought, motive etc., must be forgiven and covered by the blood of Jesus.

This is why Jesus insisted to one of Israel’s most revered and respected teachers (Nicodemus) that he must be born again to enter the kingdom of God (see John ch. 3). This is why Jesus knocked the knees out from under the rich young ruler re: his thinking that he had attained an acceptable level of goodness with all his “good” works (see Luke 18). This is why we must become “new creatures” as Paul spoke of in II Corinthians 5:17. And the good news is – when we finally are willing to humble ourselves and ask God to forgive our sins and make us new from the inside out – we immediately by faith receive the Holy Spirit and He immediately infuses us with “the fruit of the Spirit” – one of which is “goodness” (see Galatians 5:22).

The bad news from Isaiah is “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; but the wonderful news as this amazing Scripture continues is But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.” Isaiah 53:6  

If you have never asked Him – that is Jesus – to come into your life and give you what you could never attain to on your own – now would be a wonderful time to do so. God bless each of you with ever abounding goodness that can only come from Him!

(If you want to reflect more about the supposed goodness of man you might want to read this post: https://www.kingdomstreams.net/post/goodness-or-depravity-some-or-all )