There is no one like our God. As the uncreated Creator of all things, God stands utterly distinct from His creation. This means that while theologians often speak of the “communicable” attributes of God and identify real reflections of His character in humanity, we never possess those attributes as He does. Even our goodness is derivative, finite, and imperfect. God alone is goodness in its fullness. In light of that truth, we must resist the temptation to think of God’s goodness as merely a greater version of our own. His goodness is bound up with His perfection, meaning it is utterly unlike ours and profoundly more trustworthy.
One of the reasons we can struggle with the goodness of God is because we think of it as parallel to our own. We often reduce God’s goodness to the kind of niceness we admire in people. In this conception, God is good in that He is nice to people and He treats them kindly. He blesses them with pleasant circumstances and tangible gifts. God is like a good person. There are many problems with this perspective on goodness. For starters, it’s incredibly shallow and suffering will utterly obliterate it. There’s nothing substantial or weighty here and the moment we go through prolonged trials of any real length we will accuse God of being cruel and unkind. But within the pages of Scripture God’s goodness is weighty; it has broad shoulders, so to speak, and can handle the sorrows of a broken world.
Consider, as an example, the goodness of God described in Exodus 33. Here Moses is anxious that Yahweh might not go up with Israel into the Promised Land. He knows how desperately they need His presence and so he asks to see God’s glory. God, however, cannot allow this because seeing the full glory of God would kill Moses, so He says, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you” (v. 19). He will allow Moses to see His goodness, but there is an important qualifier:
But he added, “You cannot see my face, for humans cannot see me and live.” The Lord said, “Here is a place near me. You are to stand on the rock, and when my glory passes by, I will put you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take my hand away, and you will see my back, but my face will not be seen.” (vv. 20–23)
God will let Moses see something of His goodness, but he cannot look at it straight on. He may see some glimpse of it, but even this revelation of God’s goodness is so bound up with His glory that Moses cannot endure its fullness. It is like staring at the sun; the goodness of God is so pure that it is dangerous.
This depth of God’s goodness flows from His perfection. God is not merely a perfect being among others; He is perfection itself. While the roots of Perfect Being Theology predate the medieval period and can be seen in thinkers like Augustine, Anselm is often regarded as the first theologian to articulate it formally through his famous definition of God as “that than which a greater cannot be conceived” (Proslogion, Wipf & Stock, 2003, 10). There is no greater, purer, wiser, or more complete goodness conceivable. God’s goodness is not merely stronger than ours, but categorically different from it because it belongs to a perfect being.
One of the reasons we struggle with God’s goodness in our sorrows is that we instinctively evaluate Him through the lens of human goodness. But our goodness is fickle, fleeting, and prone to failure. Humans can display real goodness, but our goodness is certainly not pure and perfect. It fluctuates with mood, weakness, ignorance, fear, and selfishness. If God’s goodness were like ours, suffering would eventually convince us that He had ceased to be good toward us. He has changed and goodness is gone. That is how we experience people and so it feels natural to think of God this way.
But God can never be less than He is, and He is good (Ps. 100:5). In fact, Jesus reminds the rich young ruler that goodness belongs uniquely and supremely to God Himself (Mark 10:18). This means we must evaluate God’s goodness differently. While our goodness may reflect His goodness, it is not the same as His goodness. The goodness of God does not change, fade, weaken, or falter because His perfection does not change, fade, weaken, or falter. God is perfectly good at all times and in all circumstances. This means His goodness remains trustworthy even when our circumstances are not.
Trusting God’s goodness in hardships is, of course, easier said than done. We struggle to trust because life often does not feel good. So we ask those heart-aching questions: “How can God be good and allow this suffering?” Scripture is more than familiar with those cries. The Psalmists, the Prophets, and Job all ask versions of that question. The Bible acknowledges the tension we feel with God’s goodness and sovereignty. While Scripture does not fully remove that emotional tension, it repeatedly calls us to interpret our suffering through the perfection of God’s character rather than through the instability of our circumstances.d versions of this question. The Bible acknowledges the tension that you and I feel with God’s goodness and sovereignty. While Scripture doesn’t quite resolve that emotional tension for us, it explains that God ordains what He does not delight in for the sake of accomplishing what is ultimately good. As Paul famously says:
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
All things, even painful and confusing things, are used by God to bring about His good purposes in us and for us. But it is because God is perfect that we can trust those purposes. His goodness is never incomplete, shortsighted, unstable, or at odds with anything else He does.
Consider, for example, the relationship between God’s goodness and His wisdom. God delights to do good for His people and His wisdom perfectly guides Him in what will produce the greatest good in them and for them. Unlike us, God is never limited by ignorance, impulse, emotional instability, or lack of perspective. He sees all things perfectly and acts with flawless wisdom. So when God, in His infinite wisdom, allows hardships to come into our lives, He does so without compromising His goodness. His perfect wisdom ensures that even painful providences are never meaningless, reckless, or cruel.
Or consider the relationship between God’s goodness and His immutability (unchangingness). God can never be anything but good. He will not be good today and cruel tomorrow. He will not be compassionate today and indifferent tomorrow. He will not be patient today and forgetful tomorrow. God is always the same. This is why James can say:
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)
We can count on God to be good and do good because He is perfect and therefore never changes. He never grows, develops, or evolves. He never learns new information that would alter His intentions, plans, or character. God’s goodness is rooted in who He is eternally. So even when darkness hides His face, behind a frowning providence He still smiles (William Cowper, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way”).
This does not mean we will always understand God’s actions perfectly or that we will always perceive goodness clearly in our circumstances. The Lord assures us that because the world is broken, “in this life [we] will have trouble” (John 16:33). But because God is perfectly good, trouble does not get the final word. Evil does not get the final word. Suffering does not get the final word. One day He will make all things right, and we will dwell in perfect goodness with Him forever. We long for that day even as we cling to that hope now.
God is good. He is uniquely good and therefore cannot be measured by the standards of human goodness. His goodness is true, pure, perfect, and essential to who He is as God. And because His goodness is perfect, it is profoundly trustworthy. When you doubt God, return to His character. Remind yourself that He is not like man. Remind yourself that His goodness cannot weaken, fade, or fail. Remind yourself that whatever your experience today, goodness will have the last word.
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