Let's take a close look at the definition of good. Definitions from Oxford Languages include the following.
adjective: good; comparative adjective: better; superlative adjective: best
1. to be desired or approved of. "a good quality of life", pleasing and welcome; "she was pleased to hear good news about him"; expressing approval, "the play had good reviews"
2. having the qualities required for a particular role. "the schools here are good"
Similar: fine, of high quality, of a high standard, quality, superior, satisfactory, acceptable, adequate, in order, up to standard, excellent, superb, outstanding, magnificent, etc., etc., etc.
This does not even scratch the surface of the myriad of ways that we use the word good! So, if we take what, most likely, the rich ruler meant by Jesus being a good teacher, we see that he thought that Jesus was a good guide and not God himself. The reply of Jesus could be taken as rude or inappropriate, if it were not for the objective of answering the ultimate question of who God is. "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone." At this point in the ministry of Jesus Christ on the earth, it was still difficult for people to see, know and understand him to be more than just a man, more than just a good teacher. So, I appreciate what Matthew Henry wrote about this situation.
The encouragement that Jesus Christ gave to this address: It is not his manner to send any away without an answer, that come to him on such an errand, for nothing pleases him more, v. 17. In his answer, (1.) He tenderly assists his faith; for, doubtless, he did not mean it for a reproof, when he said, Why callest thou me good? But he would seem to find that faith in what he said, when he called him good Master, which the gentleman perhaps was not conscious to himself of; he intended no more than to own and honour him as a good man, but Christ would lead him to own and honour him as a good God; for there is none good but one, that is God.[i] [Emphasis added.]
In thinking of our definition of good, let's lay aside all of the good pieces of cake, or thoughts of being good little girls and boys, or how good that game was. We need to shed all of the misconceptions about God's goodness so that we can focus on the real goodness of God. Is he a benevolent or wrathful God? Is he involved in the world or distant and uncaring? How do we know what God thinks? Can we know? Can we really discern and understand the path for our life? Can we know the will of God for ourselves, for our church, for our world? Is our life just left up to fate? Do things just happen to us without any of our own will or way being involved? Is God just a universe-sized puppet-master pulling the strings this way and that?
When we look at and try to comprehend disasters of biblical proportions, and the phenomenal amount of human life lost in massive pandemics, floods, earthquakes, fires and storms, what does that tell us about the character of God? If God is a loving God, why does he permit these kinds of disasters and things like the COVID 19 pandemic, HIV/AIDS, Hitler's regime, slavery, etc? Who tells us what to believe about God? Is what we believe accurate, true or complete? How do we tell other people about God if we ourselves do not know either him or know anything about him?
Have we had enough questions yet? We are plumbing the depths of the human psyche and conceptions of God's goodness. When things like personal loss, grave illness and human suffering stare us in the face, these kinds of questions distract our driving, wake us in the middle of the night, sometimes make us angry and depressed, or cause us to live with feelings of hopelessness.
So, if Jesus was intent on teaching the rich ruler, and those who were listening in, that God was good, we also need to push deeply into what that means. And there is no better place to start on that than in the first two chapters of the book of Genesis!
Read Genesis 1.
I love the rhythm and pattern of this ancient text. God commands-God proclaims it is good. Nature is made up of many elements: things that we can see and feel and experience, as well as things we cannot. Gravity, for instance, is the physical reality that we experience moment by moment as it sticks us like glue to the surface of this globe. We cannot see it, nor can we touch it, but it works. Trees grow without our assistance all over the world. Volcanoes erupt, earthquakes happen in the ocean, mountains tower, grass tosses a beautiful blanket over dust to keep it in place. All of these are wonderful and terrifying realities that can help us understand that a benevolent Being exists who created everything.
Some scientists have posited theories that the world was created from a "big bang"—celestial bodies colliding in the blank universe—and out of that fusion came one cell of life from which all creation sprang. While I wish to respect their research and theories, I am a simple person and come to a simple question. How did such a life-giving cell arrive in the midst of that fusion, and where did those celestial bodies come from? No good answers have yet arisen.
In another way of trying to comprehend the stuff of earthly life, mythologies have been developed. Every culture has their stories of creation. We can read of the warring and capricious gods in the Roman and Greek traditions. We can read the Enuma Elish which relates stories from the ancient Middle East where gods cast magic spells and create heaven and earth from the split cadavers of their enemies. Victor Hamilton has related this: "The study of mythology helps the believer to see how ancient man tried to answer ultimate questions about life and reality when the light of revelation had not dawned upon him. Interestingly, the answers provided to those questions by ancient man are not all that different from the answers provided by modern but unredeemed man."[ii] Hamilton makes the very fine point of contrast with the Judeo-Christian view of creation and God as completely counter to many mythical accounts. The Christian understanding of God is that he did not create out of violence or jealousy, but he created out of the goodness and greatness of his nature. That, my friends, is the way we begin to truly understand not only our world and its beauty and power, but also God and his goodness.
Read Genesis 2.
In chapter 2 of Genesis, we read a second version of the same creation story. And what we learn from both of these is that God is a creative God, seeking to make good things from nothing. This is the general will of God which we can accept by faith. The ancient and modern persons who live without God may tell you plainly that if God exists at all, his character and will are destructive and not creative. If not, why then would a good God make bad things happen?
We want to keep our compass rightly oriented toward knowing and experiencing the personal, Judeo-Christian God. As distressing as this may seem to those of us who are really humanistic—human-centered—the personal and universal God does not always have our personal and physical comfort as his priority. There are matters at stake that far outweigh our daily comfort levels.
In Genesis chapter 3 we read how Adam and Eve went against the known will of God. They had been instructed very specifically not to eat from one tree—just one—in the Garden of Eden. That tree was to keep them from knowing good and evil. And guess what? They did it anyway. From that point forward all of humanity entered into a realm of suffering and hardship that God did not intend for his creation. God has always been straightforward about who we are—creatures not creators, workers not lazy, community not individuals—and his good design was set up to work well. All of which can be learned from Genesis 1 and 2.
But when we sin there are consequences for our sins. A tactile example might be found in nature. If you run your hand against the grain on a plank of unfinished wood, you are likely to get a splinter. That principle can be translated into how we do life. If a chemical company operates out of greed and selfishness and does not care what happens to the river they dump their toxic waste into, then thousands of people may develop cancers and illnesses formerly unknown to mankind—just like Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit. These are the kinds of things that are consequences for behavior against the order and will of God.
That does not nor should not make God out to be the bad guy. We not only have the privilege and responsibility to work in concert with God's nature, but in concert with his commands as well. To bemoan the fact that you cannot afford rent when you have spent your income on alcohol does not make it God's fault. To wail about how unfair God is when you have not tried to live for him does not make a miserable life God's fault. To scream about how mean God is when you will not follow his directions doesn't make bad things God's fault. These are examples of sin—deliberate defiance of God’s will and person.
God has made it very clear through his good creation and revelation through his Word that his goodness is available to each one of us as long as we do it his way. The wonder of nature, the joy of birth, the death and restoration of nature as we see each spring, summer, winter and fall, is all evidence of God's character. He is the good God full of grace and truth.
We can experience him through these avenues and learn to follow the laws of nature by applying our intellect and reason to what we can discern. Caring for the earth and the animals properly and making sure our fellow human beings are cared for is all a part of God's will. Even many non-believers understand this. These principles can be learned by experience and can be acquired through the proper use of the good gift of brains and intellect given to us by our good God. Ben Boeckel wrote: "The designation of creation as good separates biblical theology from other cultures of the ancient and modern worlds. Unlike the Babylonians of the sixth century before Christ (who believed creation arose from the remnants of a slain goddess), and unlike the Gnostics in the centuries following Christ (who believed matter was inherently sinful), Christian theology insists that God is a good creator and His creation is a good creation. By extension, the ultimate goal of creaturely existence is not to escape creation or stand aloof from it (as some modern religions teach). Rather, it is to embrace the goodness of God’s creation and seek communion with God."[iii]
One more thing we can learn from experience and applying our intellect is that even in the darkest of human tragedies people can survive. If they cannot survive physically as the giant waves roar over them, they can survive spiritually as they cry out to the one true God of Creation. His Word promises that when we cry out to God he will hear us. Read what the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 116:1-2. I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live. In those desperate moments, if we are earnestly seeking him, he will gather us to himself and keep us for eternity. And those of us who are left, will always find a way to survive and recover. It's happened for centuries that the human will, which is a tiny reflection of God's will, seeks to restore the broken, rebuild the rubble and renew the burned out.
Christian tradition teaches us these things as well. Tradition keeps the reality of truth alive from one generation to the next. As an old carpenter teaches his apprentice that one does not run his hand against the grain of the wood, as a chemical engineer reminds her young staff that the consequences of our human creations are far-reaching, as a grandmother tells her grandchild that attending religious services is a good thing because you can learn about God, tradition is part of how we know God. Traditions—through ritual, repetition, story-telling, preaching, teaching and reading—convey the reality that God's good will is to help us and to guide us. It is his character to be truthful and corrective with us and to show us who he is.
So, he gives us nature to see his handy work, he permits us to experience and to learn from our mistakes, to discover that his way really is the best, and he helps us establish traditions that bring us to the greater knowledge of his will and character corporately.
God has not left us to just feel around by experience, but he has also revealed his will and character through the written Word, passed down for centuries as the revelation of himself to us. We have used and explored his Word already to know more about him. What a good God he is to help us to understand him, to experience his love and grace and to point the lost around us to our good God.
Reflecting back to the story of Jesus and the rich ruler, let's read how Matthew Henry sums up the reality that God is good.
Christ will have this young man either know him to be God, or not call him good; to teach us to transfer to God all the praise that is at any time given to us. Do any call us good? Let us tell them all goodness is from God, and therefore not to us, but to him give glory. All crowns must lie before his throne. Note, God only is good, and there is none essentially, originally, and unchangeably, good, but God only. His goodness is of and from himself, and all the goodness in the creature is from him; he is the Fountain of goodness, and whatever the streams are, all the springs are in him, Jam[es] 1:17. He is the great Pattern and Sample of goodness; by him all goodness is to be measured; that is good which is like him, and agreeable to his mind. We in our language call him God, because he is good.[iv]
Amen
M.R. Hyde
Copyright 2021
[i] Henry, Matthew. Unabridged Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (best navigation) (Kindle Locations 263805-263809). OSNOVA. Kindle Edition.
[ii] Handbook on the Pentateuch, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1982, p. 35.
[iii] Illustrated Bible Life, Fall 2021, The Foundry Press, Kansas City, MO, 2021.
[iv] Matthew Henry.
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