‘Why do you ask me about what is good?’ Jesus replied. ‘There is only One who is good…’ Matthew 19:17

Jesus is approached by a man; the text identifies him as possessing youth and wealth, a heady combination, yet his question to Jesus is directed toward his salvation.

‘Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?’ (ibid 19:16)

Jesus is teaching that no good thing, or for that matter, no well-lived life, can gain salvation other than that of his own good life rendered up on the cross.  He points to himself, Emmanuel, God with us.  The good thing the rich, young man must do is believe Jesus is sent from God, and is God.

But this interchange reveals a broader truth, Jesus thinks it necessary to infer that God is good.  Why say that?  Surely all know God is good?

In truth, we can never know this outside of the Bible, which is after all the collective record of what God says of Himself; therefore, God testifies to his nature and requires us to trust Scripture.  And as trust is enacted faith, it is only through faith, therefore, that we can say God is good.  The circumstances of our lives will never prove his goodness.

For instance, let us say you are a man of good standing blessed with a wonderful family, great wealth – maybe this describes the young man Jesus encounters later on in his life – then calamity befalls him; his children die, his property is stolen or held forfeit, and then when things could not be worse, his health fails him.  This sounds familiar, no doubt, because this what happened to Job.  But of course, it is probably closer to home than that!  For few know nothing of ‘premature’ death, financial hardship and illness.

Job was tested by God.  God permitted and acceded to Satan’s instigation of the test, but Satan cannot be blamed for the misfortunes Job suffered – the text is clear in this regard:

…the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him…  (Job 42:10-11)

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away – and if any feel secure in the temporal blessings, they are fatally mistaken.  Moreover, if we should understand those temporal blessings to be reward, think of Solomon; his wealth and circumstances were unsurpassed, and yet he disobeyed God and fell to idolatry.  Who can say if Solomon is to dwell with God in eternity, for there is much to suggest an alternative destiny.

We cannot divine from the circumstances of our lives, our standing with God.  Jesus says this:

(God) causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  (Matthew 5:45)

And while God’s favour is not expressed in temporal circumstance, yet He requires humble gratitude for all we receive or are denied.

On the Mount of Olives, Jesus told a handful of his disciples how the future will play out for them personally, and for the body of believers thereafter:

 ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth-pains. Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.  Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold…’ (Matthew 24:7-12)

It is was not and is not a pleasant prospect. Three of the four disciples who received this message in person, were martyred (and horribly so, although this is extra-Biblical).  After them, came world war and calamity, and worse, although the church would grow, it was mostly in apostasy.  Today God’s sacred word in the Bible is mostly dismissed as cultural.

Seeing God’s goodness is impossible in these circumstances.  Furthermore, if our understanding of his goodness is based upon the material and spiritual ease of our lives, then at some point our faith will fail.  But then if that faith was in a god of our making, it is faith with only temporal not eternal hope.  For those whose love has not grown cold:

…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)

God defines that which is done for our good, and that often does not look ‘good’ to us.  Therefore, we cannot comprehend how his ‘good’ purpose is outworked in our lives, let alone overall for humanity.  God rebuked Job for questioning his purposes and He does so by posing a series of rhetorical questions.  First is broadly, where were you, a creature, during the six days of creation?

‘Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone –
while the morning stars sang together
and all the angelsshouted for joy?…’ (Job 38:4-7)

Then, by what power and with what understanding can you question my omnipotence?

‘Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades?
Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?…’ (ibid 38:31-33)

Finally, how does the measure of your knowledge compare to my omniscience?

‘Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?
Do you count the months till they bear?
Do you know the time they give birth?…’ (ibid 39:1-2)

Job wilts in God’s presence and, of course, would have done so without God saying anything; but Job undergoes this withering excoriation so that he might grow in his knowledge of God.  But that it is recorded is so all might benefit and also realise God’s good purpose for us is completely unknowable, being utterly beyond our narrow experience, slim knowledge and waver-thin comprehension.

Bearing this in mind, none can have the measure God’s goodness; thus, we fall back on a statement that requires faith: ‘there is only One who is good’ – God.