So God is sovereign, he is infinite, all powerful, knows everything and is in control. But that still doesn’t answer the question ‘what is God like?’ This all-powerful God could be a sort of gentle giant or a mean ogre. In fact, for many people, the description of an all-powerful God is likely to suggest the latter. A God who is in control becomes a controlling deity. A God who knows everything is complicit in evil, manipulating or interfering. Either that or God is big, powerful and infinite but distant, disengaged and impersonal. In summary, God may be great, but we still haven’t answered the question, “Is God good?”
And so we come to some more attributes that describe God and tell us something about His goodness. In this section, we will return to the wonderful truth that God is love. Then we will go on to see that God is good because He is wise, holy, righteous and just. These things all reflect his goodness. But first of all, a little conundrum.
How do we know what goodness is?
Or in other words, is God good because he matches up to some given criteria of goodness? If so, is God really good? Surely this would mean that there is a standard which God has to conform to, but who or what sets that standard?
Or if God is sovereign, doesn’t that mean that He gets to decide what goodness is? But if God sets the standard for goodness, then doesn’t that make the concept as a moral ideal meaningless? It becomes an arbitrary quality. This is sometimes referred to as the Euthyphro problem, as John Frame explains:
“So Plato, In Euthyphro, poses the question of whether piety is what the gods say it is, or whether the gods command piety because of its intrinsic nature, apart from their own wishes. In Plato’s mind, the former makes the nature of piety arbitrary, one that could be changed on the whim of a god. But the second alternative, which Plato certainly prefers, means that piety is independent of the will of the gods, something to which the gods’ opinions are subject. So either piety is arbitrary or the gods are subject to something higher than themselves.”[1]
As Frame argues, the problem comes from failing to see the attributes of God as personal. They become abstract and separate from him as a person. In Greek thinking, and in the end in much of polytheism, personal gods were limited and finite. They were not the true divine power. True divinity, true otherness was impersonal and distant. In the end, even the gods were subject to abstract concepts such as fate.
Frame puts it this way:
“In my view, the problem arises from the inability of Plato and other philosophers to see goodness as something personal. Many of them never seem to question the view that goodness, truth, etc., are impersonal. They reason that since goodness is an abstract entity, it cannot be identical with a person.”[2]
He acknowledges that “A form of circularity here is unavoidable”[3] because:
“There is always a kind of circularity when we are dealing with an ultimate standard. If one’s standard of truth is human reasons, one can argue for that standard only by a rational argument, an argument that presupposes the truth of its conclusion.”[4]
This is something that our contemporary world struggles with. We don’t like the idea of an ultimate standard or authority. So many times I am told when I make a statement “but that is just your opinion.” But if I treat everything subjectively, then what I say is that I and I only will provide the standard of truth. I will choose to believe what I choose to believe. So in other words, as we discovered when we looked at how we can know truth, there is always an ultimate authority. There is always a final standard, whether external (I believe an expert, tradition or peer) or internal (I follow my own heart). So, to some extent, there will always be some circularity at some point.
Now as Frame explains, we can either have a narrow circularity (“it is so because it is so”) or a wide circularity which takes into account the reality of our experience and shows that the truth claim is proved in the heat of life. So with regards to goodness,
“The biblical writers never say that God is good because he is good. That would be narrow circularity. Rather they describe and praise God’s might acts of deliverance, his kindness in providence, and his grace in salvation. These are big, bold obvious evidences of goodness.”[5]
In other words, the objective statement and the subjective experience will normally match up. Remember, this was how we responded to Scripture. We trust God’s Word to be true because it is God’s true and reliable word and it claims to be true. It is the final authority and so it is not subject to another authority testing its truthfulness. However, that truth has been proven time and time again as we have been able to rely on it.
It’s the same with goodness. I know what goodness looks like because the good God defines it both by what he says and what he is like. I live the reality of that goodness and prove it in my experience of life. I see the way that God provides for my needs, I see beauty, I find joy, peace and comfort in his world and specifically in my relationship to Him. So the subjective and the objective tally up. I guess I could try to say that joy, laughter, love, food etc. are really bad things and that bullying, the mindless infliction of pain, lying, manipulation, theft etc. are really good, but that just sounds and is ridiculous and I don’t really need to argue that one out!
So let’s go on to see some of those characteristics which shout out God’s infinite goodness.
God is Love
This is that wonderful statement from 1 John 4:8 which we started our thoughts on “Who is God?” with. We saw that we can say that God is Love not just that He loves. The love is an eternal and essential attribute of God. There wasn’t a time when he started to love and there will never be a moment when He will stop loving. We know this because God is Trinity. As we saw earlier, the Father has eternally loved the Son and the Son has eternally loved the Father and so on with reference to the Holy Spirit. This is God’s self-love (John 3:36; 5:20; 10:17; 14:31).
“This love between the persons of the Trinity is eternal. And since God does not exist without his three persons, the love among those persons is necessary to his nature.”[6]
We then go on to see God’s love towards his creation. This can be defined as
“his self-giving affection for his image bearing creatures and his unselfish concern for their well-being that leads him to act on their behalf and for their happiness and welfare.”[7]
And whilst His self -love must be described as necessary or an essential and natural aspect of who he is, his love for others is described as “free.”[8] It is something that he chooses to do; it is an act of the will.
How does God love? Turretin distinguishes love for creatures, for humans generally and for the elect.[9] In fact, Bavinck prefers to limit the use of the word love specifically to those who are saved, stating that:
“Now it is indeed possible to speak of God’s love to creatures or people in general (the love of benevolence), but for this the Scripture mostly uses the word ‘goodness’ and speaks of God’s love, like his grace only in relation to his chosen people or church (the love of friendship).”[10]
We may not be comfortable with that type of restrictive language. After all, John seems to talk quite broadly in terms of God’s love for the World. However, Turretin and Bavinck are right to make distinctions in terms of the way in which God loves. We should not be surprised by this. After all, if I were to say that I love ice cream, Bradford City, my friends and my wife and mean the same in each context, your reaction would be somewhere between concerned and disturbed.
So, we can talk about God’s love for all people because:
“If God is good to all, as we have seen, then surely he loves all. For both goodness and love in these contexts refer to God’s benevolence, his seeking the welfare of others. If God is good to all, then surely that benevolence is no accident. It is motivated by a self-giving affection and concern for his creatures’ well-being, that is by love.”[11]
In other words, love involves a conscious, willed decision to seek the welfare and good of others. Frame is saying that when your unbelieving neighbour gets up in the morning and opens his fridge and it is stocked with good food because God has caused the sunshine and the rain to guarantee a harvest, this is no accident. His benefit is not the unintended by-product of God’s plan for others. God really intends him to benefit.
So God shows his love to all by sustaining creation. He shows his love to all by restraining evil, for example by providing governments to uphold law, order and justice. God shows his love to all by enabling people to flourish, gain knowledge, acquire wisdom and develop skills. God shows his love for all in giving us joy and delight in art and recreation. Food, government, learning, relationships, marriage, sex, families and children are all examples of God’s benevolence. We sometimes refer to these things as “common grace.” Just as we distinguish between special and general revelation, so we distinguish saving and common grace. By this, we mean that everything we enjoy is an example of God’s good gifts to us. By the way, it is on this basis that I think even unbelievers can join in to some extent with our praise and worship at gatherings even though they don’t yet fully understand the Gospel. This is particularly true when we invite them to join in a Harvest Celebration, thanksgiving for a new child or a wedding. It’s also why I believe that we should uphold the institution of marriage and God’s standards for marriage not just for believers but for the whole of society. It’s one of the reasons why Christians should engage in public life.
Bavinck identifies a further aspect of God’s care for all people. He says:
“The goodness of God which spares those who are deserving of punishment, is called forebearance or patience.” (Numbers 14:18)[12]
However, God’s love is specifically seen in salvation. Believers are the recipients of saving love. As Frame says, “So there are various ways in which God loves everyone, whether elect or non-elect. But the form of divine love most central to Scripture’s message is the love of God in saving sinners.”[13]
This means that “The New Testament typically defines love (both the love of God and the love required of believers) by reference to the Cross of Christ.” (E.g. John 3:16, Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:9-10).[14] In other words, if we want to properly understand God’s Love, then we won’t get it by simply looking at his benevolence to all creatures. We only truly see love at Calvary.
This is important because what people often do is make a big mistake. They take the phrase “God is love” and try to define and describe God on the basis of their understanding of what love is. There are two problems with this. First of all, our own definitions of love tend to be superficial and sentimental. Secondly, we are trying to do something we cannot with the grammar and syntax of 1 John 4:8. Just because “God is love” does not mean that we can say “love is God.” Love is not equal to God.
We must allow the nature of love to be defined by God. Love is what God is. We know from previous discussions that we only truly know what God is like through revelation. God tells us what he is like in the Bible. So when John tells us that “God is love” he goes on to define and describe love in terms of God the Father sending the Son to die in the place of sinful man.
Now, there are two further implications to arise from this. First of all, we see exactly why Bavinck wishes to be so careful about how, where and when he uses the word “love.” Love is about relationships. Love does not happen at a distance and so “The goodness of God appears as love when it not only conveys certain benefits but God himself.”[15] Again, we understand that because we see it in a small way in human relations. There is a massive difference between the person who helps us out, who gives us what we need and the person who takes time to get to know us. The first person may show kindness, pity, compassion, but it is the second who shows love.
Secondly, Frame raises a striking and perhaps surprising question. “People sometimes ask whether God’s love is ‘unconditional.’“[16] This is surprising because actually we rarely see that set as a question. It is usually a statement that God loves unconditionally. This unconditionality often comes with the expectation that we should love in the same way and furthermore is defined by the expectation that unconditional love equals unconditional acceptance. It means we take people as they are without any demand or expectation on them to change. Now look at what Frame says next:
“In one sense, God’s love is conditional, for God declares conditions that must be met by those who are seeking his blessings. Some don’t meet those conditions and receive eternal punishment. But when God loves someone in Christ before the foundation of the world, God himself meets the conditions, so that that person will certainly be saved eternally. To those who belong to Christ, there are no further conditions. Nothing can separate us from his love. In that sense, God’s saving love is unconditional.”[17]
So, we do better to say that God’s love is conditional, but because all of the conditions have been met in Christ, there are no conditions left for us to meet. So in that sense love is unconditional. This then links to the question of change. Does God love and accept us without expectation on us to change? Actually, no! This is completely the wrong end of the stick. Earlier in 1 John 3:1-3, we are told
“See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. 2 Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. 3 And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.”
In other words, it is not simply that God loves us whether or not we change. It is that God loves us by changing us. Change is necessary, possible and for the believer unavoidable and certain because God is love and because He loves us. Interestingly, Frame goes on to suggest that in a sense God’s love is “controlling” and an aspect of his Lordship because “His love chooses us before the foundation of the World.”[18] By “controlling”, he doesn’t mean manipulative or abusive, but Lordship includes authority and control so that God’s love takes the initiative and acts to rescue us and bring us to life.[19]
So when we say that God is Love, we are saying two great and wonderful things. First of all, we are describing God’s eternal and unchanging character expressed in the Trinity. Secondly, we are describing his relentless, sacrificial pursuit of lost, sinful humans, taking their place, bearing their sin and shame, forgiving them, restoring them to life.
“How marvellous, how boundless
Is Your love, is Your love
How wonderful, sacrificial
Is Your love for me…
Yes Jesus loves me
Yes Jesus loves me
How wonderful
Yes Jesus loves me
This is love
You gave Yourself”[20]
God is wise
One of the ways in which we see God’s goodness is his wisdom. We have already seen that God knows everything. He is omniscient. He knows the past present and future. But it is one thing to be knowledgeable and another to be wise. As Herman Bavinck says:
“Everyone knows that erudition, knowledge and wisdom are far from being synonymous and are certainly not always found together in the same person. A simple person often excels a learned one in wisdom.”[21]
Bavinck treats the distinction between knowledge as wisdom as being that “Knowledge is theoretical; wisdom is practical and goal-orientated.”[22] So, we all know of people who are very clever, who can remember lots of facts, pass exams and get advanced qualifications, but when it comes to making sensible decisions, they appear clueless. They don’t know where to start. They don’t know how to apply their learning. On the other hand, there are people we trust and naturally turn to when we want help, advice and direction who have never passed an exam or sat for a formal qualification in their life. So when we talk about wisdom, we are right to connect it with common sense. Proverbs 8: 14 says:
“Common sense and success belong to me.
Insight and strength are mine.”
However, I want to go a stage further and suggest that wisdom has a moral quality. Wisdom is not just about making sensible practical decisions; it’s about making good, loving decisions. In Proverbs 8, Solomon allows a personified wisdom to speak for herself. She describes herself as the first of God’s works, “The Lord formed me from the beginning, before he created anything else.” (Proverbs 8:22).” She was “appointed in ages past, at the very first, before the earth began.” (Proverbs 8:23). This is poetic language but if it talks about something existing from the beginning before anything was created then it pushes us back into eternity. As wisdom speaks, we are again and again confronted with the strong moral dimension to this attribute:
“I, Wisdom, live together with good judgment.” (8:12)
“Common sense and success belong to me. Insight and strength are mine. 15 Because of me, kings reign and rulers make just decrees.16 Rulers lead with my help and nobles make righteous judgments. (8:14-16)
“I walk in righteousness, in paths of justice.” (8:20).
God is uniquely wise. God is the one who knows everything. He knows our innermost secrets and He uses that knowledge for good. It is because God is infinitely wise that He and He alone can be trusted with infinite knowledge. He will not misuse, manipulate or misrepresent what He knows to cause harm. He does not need to abuse knowledge to gain an unfair advantage because He is already sovereign and without rival.
This is why when it comes to human wisdom that we are told:
“Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.” (Proverbs 9:10)
True wisdom starts with God and belongs to Him and Him alone.
I was the architect at his side. I was his constant delight, rejoicing always in his presence. 31 And how happy I was with the world he created; how I rejoiced with the human family!” (Proverbs 8:30b-31).
God is Righteous and Just
Romans 1:16-18 tells us that the gospel is good news because it reveals God’s righteousness. Now “God’s Righteousness” in Romans 1 could either mean a quality that belongs to God, meaning that “God is righteous” (subjective righteousness), a quality that God gives to us meaning that Paul is talking about “righteousness from God.” Alternatively, it could mean that God acts in a righteous way: “God exercises justice.” Exegetes have argued long and hard over the exact intention of Paul’s words, but we don’t need to worry too much about that too much yet because if Paul is describing a quality that God gives to us or a manner in which he acts, then surely that righteousness or justice must be rooted in a quality that God already has. So what does it mean to say that God is righteous and just?
Bavinck describes God’s righteousness in this way:
“God’s righteousness is first of all manifested in history, in his government of the World, and in his providential guidance of Israel, and is therefore especially developed by Psalmists and prophets. It is revealed everywhere and extends even to wild animals (Ps 36.7) God is the Judge of all the earth (Gen. 18:25). It consists in that God repays everyone according to his or her works, treating the righteous one way and the wicked another (Gen 18:25).”[23]
This means that:
Righteousness is about fulfilling obligations
So, for example, in Deuteronomy 6:24-25, God’s people are said to be righteous if they keep God’s commandments. This is just after Moses has set out the Ten Commandments. These standards are clearly relational; they are all to do with how we love God (Deuteronomy 6:5) and love our neighbours as we love ourselves (Leviticus 19:18). So when God looks at what His people are doing and finds bloodshed and cruelty, he describes this as the opposite of justice and righteousness (Isaiah 5:7). Righteousness therefore has a legal or forensic dimension because if there are obligations that we are meant to keep, then when we fail to keep them, we will be held to account and those who are treated wrongly and are denied what they are owed can look to the courts to uphold their case (Exodus 23:7; Deuteronomy 25:1).
Righteousness is about meeting an objective standard
When we talk about righteousness, we are saying that there is something permanent by which we can judge everything. We can know what is right, true, good, lovely. What is that standard? How do we know what it is? Well, the clue is in what Paul said and what we learnt when we were looking at “How do we know?” Righteousness is revealed to us in the Gospel. Specifically, this means that we find out what righteousness is when we look at Jesus, but generally we see how the whole of God’s revelation points to his righteousness.
Righteousness is revealed in Creation
When God made the World, he described it as good. We often talk in terms of creation order. For example, as Evangelical Christians, we often link our views on marriage and divorce, same-sex relationships etc. to our understanding of God’s purposes for men and women in creation (c.f. Genesis 1:27-28, Genesis 2:4ff). In Isaiah 45:7-8, righteousness is closely aligned with the goodness of creation which reveals who God is:
I create the light and make the darkness. I send good times and bad times.
I, the Lord, am the one who does these things.8 “Open up, O heavens, and pour out your righteousness. Let the earth open wide so salvation and righteousness can sprout up together. I, the Lord, created them.
Righteousness is revealed in God’s covenant faithfulness
This is NT Wright’s preferred perspective. When talking about what Paul means by Justification by faith, he says:
Paul’s doctrine of justification is therefore about what we may call the covenant –the covenant God made with Abraham, the covenant whose purpose was from the beginning the saving call of a worldwide family through whom God’s saving purposes for the world were to be realized.”[24]
God is the one who makes a promise to give Abraham descendants. When those descendants rebel against Him, he keeps loving them. He sends prophets to warn them and Judges to rescue them. Eventually, he sends Jesus as their Messiah.[25]
The Covenant shows God’s righteousness because it reveals his love and his mercy. God provides for His people and protects them. He rescues them from captivity; he gives them life, freedom and a land.
The Covenant shows God’s righteousness because it comes with rules. The problem with just looking at creation is that we can confuse “is” with “ought.” We look at the world around us and see things in nature, but were they originally meant to be like that? (e.g. why do bees, wasps, nettles and jellyfish sting?). God’s Law (e.g. The Ten Commandments) tell us what it means to love God and our neighbour. They show us how to be righteous.
Righteousness is revealed in God’s character
John Piper says that God’s righteousness is all to do with his concern for his own glory.[26] In fact, it is that God judges and shows mercy for his own name’s sake (Psalm 79:9, 98:9). In other words, God wants his own name to be honoured. His name, as we will see later, is a declaration of His character. Sin and injustice are about our attempt to deny God glory, to reject His rule and reign. So Romans 1:18 talks about humans exchanging God’s glory for a lie and Romans 3:23 talks about us falling short of God’s glory. The result is that Paul tells us no-one except God is righteous (Romans 3:10).
This is another way of reminding us that God is Simple. If you want to know what it means to say that God is righteous, then look at his love, goodness, wisdom etc.
And so Turretin says that when we talk about justice and righteousness
“The word ‘justice’ …is generally used in two senses: either for the universal comprehension of all virtues (as injustice is taken for every kind of sin) and is called universal justice (justita universalis) by which, as God is in himself perfectly holy and just, so in all his works he preserves an incorruptible rectitude and justice.”[27]
God’s righteousness flows from his goodness. He cannot do wrong. It is seen in his wisdom as he uses his knowledge to act impartially, to uphold and reward good. It is central to His love. So when we talk about what exactly it is that God loves, we can say that God loves justice and mercy. God loves those who are good and just.
This is important because God will act towards specific situations and people in light of his character. So Turretin defines particular justice as that” which gives to each his due, is occupied with the rewards or punishments and is called distributive.”[28]
Now this means that God necessarily loves justice and hates sin so he must punish sin (vindictive justice).[29]
This is why we need the Gospel
God’s righteousness is revealed in the Gospel
It is revealed in the Gospel because there we meet Jesus, the perfect obedient Son. He resisted temptation. He was good and kind. He kept the Law perfectly, loving His Father with all His heart and loving not just his friends and neighbours, but his enemies too. He was obedient in death.
It is revealed in the Gospel because righteousness and justice make Christ’s atonement necessary. So when we look at the Cross, we see how far short we fall of God’s glory. We are unable to save ourselves.
It is revealed in the Gospel because through Christ’s work on the Cross, we too can be made righteous. (2 Corinthians 5:21).
“The righteousness of the Lord vis-à-vis his people consists finally in giving them his righteousness.”[30]
If God is good, then….
We have seen something of God’s moral characteristics. God is not just great, strong and powerful; he is good, loving and just. This is a God whom we can love and trust, not just fear and obey. God not only commands our worship. He is worthy of it too.
[1]Frame, The Doctrine of God, 405.
[2] Frame, The Doctrine of God, 406.
[3] Frame, The Doctrine of God, 407.
[4] Frame, The Doctrine of God, 407.
[5] Frame, The Doctrine of God, 408.
[6] Frame, The Doctrine of God, 416.
[7] Jack Cottrell, What the bible says about God the Redeemer (Jopin, MO.: College Press, 1987), 336. Cited in Frame, The Doctrine of God, 414.
[8] Frame, The Doctrine of God, 417.
[9] Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, III.XX.iv. (Giger: 1:241).
[10] H Bavinck, The Doctrine of God and Creation, 215.
[11] Frame, The Doctrine of God, 417.
[12] H Bavinck, The Doctrine of God and Creation, 213.
[13] Frame, The Doctrine of God, 420.
[14] Frame, The Doctrine of God, 421.
[15] H Bavinck, The Doctrine of God and Creation, 215.
[16] Frame, The Doctrine of God, 423.
[17] Frame, The Doctrine of God, 423.
[18] Frame, The Doctrine of God, 423.
[19] Frame, The Doctrine of God, 424.
[20] Rend Collective © 2009 Thank you Music
[21] H Bavinck, The Doctrine of God and Creation, 203.
[22] H Bavinck, The Doctrine of God and Creation, 203.
[23] H Bavinck, The Doctrine of God and Creation, 222.
[24] Wright, Justification, ix.
[25] Wright, Justification, 97.
[26] Piper, The Future of Justification, 64-65.
[27] Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, III. XIX.ii. (Giger, 1:233).
Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, III.XIX.
[28] Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, III. XIX.ii. (Giger, 1:233).
[29]Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, III. XIX. xi. (Giger, 1:237).
[30] H Bavinck, The Doctrine of God and Creation, 225.
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