11. The Goodness of God The goodness of God endureth continually (Ps. 52:1) The goodness of God respects the perfection of His nature: God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). There is such an absolute perfection in God’s nature and being that nothing is wanting to it or defective in it, and nothing can be added to it to make it better. He is originally good, good of Himself, which nothing else is; for all creatures are good only by participation and communication from God. He is essentially good; not only good, but goodness itself: the creature’s good is a superadded quality, in God it is His essence. He is infinitely good; the creature’s good is but a drop, but in God there is an infinite ocean or gathering together of good. He is eternally and immutably good, for He cannot be less good than He is; as there can be no addition made to Him, so no subtraction from Him. (Thos. Manton). God is summum bonum, the chiefest good. The original Saxon meaning of our English word God is The Good. God is not only the Greatest of all beings, but the Best. All the goodness there is in any creature has been imparted from the Creator, but God’s goodness is underived, for it is the essence of His eternal nature. As God is infinite in power from all eternity, before there was any display thereof, or any act of omnipotency put forth; so He was eternally good before there was any communication of His bounty, or any creature to whom it might be imparted or exercised. Thus, the first manifestation of this Divine perfection was in giving being to all things. Thou art good, and doest good (Ps. 119:68). God has in Himself an infinite and inexhaustible treasure of all blessedness enough to fill all things. All that emanates from God—His decrees, His creation, His laws, His providences—cannot be otherwise than good: as it is written. And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good (Gen. 1:31). Thus, the goodness of God is seen, first
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 06:59:27 +0000
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