Is God good? (A response to a friend)

In the past few days, I've been hit square in the face by a friend (who is in the middle of a huge spiritual battle), who asked me this question:

Is God good?

Of course I would immediately respond with a "yes." But right now, things are going okay in my life. I'm not suffering terribly.

How then, do I respond to someone who doubts His goodness? What do I say to one who is currently suffering, who can't seem to grasp that He knows what we're going through and knows us best?

First of all, what defines "good"? Dictionary.com states that it is synonymous with being "right." Being right means to be "correct in judgment." That would mean that God has correct judgment. Which is true, because He knows everything and everyone. We are all sinners. Because we are all sinners, we all deserve to die. We all deserve eternal punishment. And we would all die and spend an eternity in eternal punishment.

But, it doesn't end there.

This friend would also ask, "Is God loving?" in which I would most assuredly reply with another "yes!"

Yes, God had to satisfy His righteousness because He can't tolerate sin. If He did, that would compromise who He is. But yet, if He didn't love us, then why on earth would He send His only son (who is also God) to die for the sins of stupid, stubborn, and selfish people like us?! He gave us a second chance. He WANTS us to be in a relationship with Him. He wants us to come to Him, to fall at His feet, broken, and realizing just how much we need a Savior to cleanse us from our sinfulness. That's where God wants you to end up, so that we are ready and willing to follow Him, to truly become a believer and follower of Christ. If we don't first recognize that we are sinners, then we miss the whole point of Christ: He came to call not the so-called "righteous" (who only thought they were), but the sinners who KNEW they were sick and in need of the great Physician, the Savior of the world. If we don't come to terms with that, though, then we can't accept Jesus as our Savior, because we act/think like we don't need one.

Here's the thing: God didn't have to send His son to die for our sins. He could've wiped us off of the face of the earth. He could've spared us our lives, but left us to die wallowing in our sin. Guess what? HE DIDN'T!!!

The most quoted and most known verse that everyone quotes but doesn't take a second thought to, is John 3:16. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." God so loved the world. Let that sink in. Then it goes on to say this in v.17-18:

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."

This is the Gospel. We were created in the beginning to love and serve God. We disobeyed God, thus entering the entire human race into sin. God sent His Son as a human being but also being fully God to fulfill the righteous wrath of God, because God cannot tolerate sin, because He is holy. Christ then became the ultimate sacrifice to satisfy the penalty, to take on all of our sins, and die the most horrible kind of death imaginable. Then on the third day, He rose from the dead!!! Without that last part, Jesus would indeed be just another man.

The point of all of this is to say: God IS good. God IS loving. He never changes, has and never will leave your side. Whether you believe it or not, it's true. He is there even if you don't feel like He is. We cannot base truth on how we feel. It's like when we're sleeping; we don't feel anything when we sleep. Does that mean we are not alive? No, truth is truth whether we feel it to be so or not. God uses bad things that happen to us and turns them into some kind of good, whether it's to strengthen our faith, to learn a lesson, or direct us somewhere else. James 1 talks about suffering and trials. I encourage you to read it. It explains itself so much better than I ever could...

I cannot claim to know everything. I don't. But I have faith in a righteous and holy, yet also a good, loving, and faithful God. I hope that you, my dear friend, will come to know Him as He truly is and that you will run to Him with all of your might and know the amazing love, mercy, and faithfulness that I myself have experienced in my own life.

I love you and am still praying for you every day. Never forget that.

I know not why God’s wondrous grace
To me He hath made known,
Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
Redeemed me for His own.

But “I know Whom I have believed,
And am persuaded that He is able
To keep that which I’ve committed
Unto Him against that day.”

I know not how this saving faith
To me He did impart,
Nor how believing in His Word
Wrought peace within my heart.

I know not how the Spirit moves,
Convincing men of sin,
Revealing Jesus through the Word,
Creating faith in Him.

I know not what of good or ill
May be reserved for me,
Of weary ways or golden days,
Before His face I see.

I know not when my Lord may come,
At night or noonday fair,
Nor if I walk the vale with Him,
Or meet Him in the air.

But “I know Whom I have believed,
And am persuaded that He is able
To keep that which I’ve committed
Unto Him against that day.”