‘God is good.’
“All the time.”
‘And all the time…’
“God is good!”
It’s the staple church phrase that often masks the doubt of the congregation. Maybe we believe we are not allowed to ask God any questions. Yet deep down lurks the unsettling thought that perhaps we don’t serve a good God. It’s not because we lack faith but rather, we have experiences that make it difficult to repeat such phrases. I pray that as we turn back to God’s word, we may find a place to take all our doubts; a seat where we can indeed taste and see that God is good.
The bible begins with the creation of all things good. Light and darkness, land and sea, plants and animals, sun and moon, man and woman. After each is made it says 7 times “And God saw that it was good.” God has the power to define what is good. Now comes the first objection: if God gets to define what is good, then who gets to define that God is good? Simple answer, none but himself. Creation can’t define the creator. We start with God. God’s goodness consists of him acting in harmony with his own value. Still this fact doesn’t settle our doubts because we have experienced enough evil in this world to invalidate it. God’s goodness and the evil in the world stand in sharp contradiction.
Continuing with the creation narrative, we turn to page 2 of the bible.
Genesis 2: 16-17
And God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
God created mankind free; able to choose his own thoughts and actions. In creating the tree of knowledge, he validates that choice. Up till now man only knows what good is because God spelled it out. What man doesn’t know is evil.
Genesis 3:1-4
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die,’”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Here we see a creature in opposition to God. This creature not only questions God’s goodness but encourages the woman to go against it. The bible opens not with the beginning of evil but with the presence of an unexplained evil. Man is created innocent and the serpent is already there. This creature’s rebellion to God happened before mankind’s. He was the first creature to commit sin. We are not told the origin of this creature in Genesis but it is expounded in other books of the bible. See: Jude vs 6, 2 Peter 2:4, Isaiah 14:12-17, Ezekiel 28: 12-19. The serpent is described in these other passages as one of God’s angels in the spiritual realm that exists separately from our physical world. The serpent together with some angels had a desire for more power, setting out on a course for self-exaltation. They tried to raise themselves above God. In that way they committed evil by going against the ultimate source of goodness.
A lot of questions can arise from this: Where did the serpent’s evil desires come from? Why did God create a creature who could commit evil? Why didn’t God destroy evil the moment the angels rebelled? For these I do not have an answer. The bible doesn’t tell us the exact why behind the serpent, but it makes certain conclusions impossible. It is not because God is a sadist, not powerful or because he doesn’t love his creation. God did not create evil to show himself as good. There was no need for comparison. With or without the serpent, God is good.
What the bible does reveal is that God did not make the serpent commit evil. God governs the hearts and minds of all beings (even those that disobey him) without he himself sinning. It is the mystery of free will of God’s creatures. John Piper a contemporary preacher, draws from insights in Isaiah 63:7 and Isaiah 64:7 to suggest that God may be able to govern the presence or absence of evil not by active agency or directly working but by concealing himself. I would add by concealing himself from those who do not desire him. Jonathan Edwards a 19th century theologian, further backs this by using a helpful analogy to describe it. “If the sun were the proper cause of cold and darkness, it would be the fountain of these things, as it is the fountain of light and heat. If cold and darkness are found because of it’s withdrawment the more strongly does it argue the sun to be a fountain of light and heat.” The sun results in both light and shadow. Darkness is not a result of the sun being a ball of black but because it falls below the horizon. Light is a direct cause of the sun but darkness is a sort of consequence.
Later in Genesis, the woman considers the devils words and soon desires the same thing the serpent did, to be God. It was not enough that she and Adam were made in the image of God, they wanted more power. This is ironic because all of creation was already put under their charge (Genesis 1:28-30) They desired something they already had because they couldn’t see clearly once they turned away from the source of ultimate goodness. In doing so they changed the good nature of the created world. Adam and Eve were appointed rulers of the created physical world. Therefore, all of creation couldn’t be left intact after its stewards committed sin. Thus, the brokenness we see in the world in form of pandemics, drought and a generally violent world.
Adam and Eve chose to eat from the tree of knowledge as the serpent chose to rebel from God. They did not become like God as the serpent had promised them. Instead, they found out what evil was by committing it. One would argue they are not like them. For that a simple test can be done with the basic 10 commandments. Even if you don’t believe in God, can you boast of a perfect moral record? Have you never lied, stolen, been jealous, disobeyed your parents or looked at another lustfully? You see, relative to people like Hitler, we are all pretty good people. In fact, relative to the serpent/Satan, we’re all saints. But the measure of good is the perfect God and against him none of us can stand.
Still, all this knowledge doesn’t soothe the wounds caused by evil. We don’t just want to know that God is good, we want to experience his goodness. In many ways we already do though the warmth of the sun, the breathe in our lungs, the food on our tables etc. There’s a lot to be thankful for. Yet none of these providences can compare to the redemptive work of the good God.
Although every day we make the same choice as Adam and Eve, we aren’t cursed to live apart from the ultimate source of goodness. The story of the bible is not one of damnation but redemption. Even in the story of man’s sin, there echoes hope.
Genesis 3:14-15
So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
This verse foreshadows the triumph of good over evil. Several prophesies are made later in the bible of this man who will crush the head of evil. Thousands of years later in the Roman Empire comes a man named Jesus who makes many bold claims about himself. Yet something in Jesus’ words and actions caused a massive change in his followers. Something in the why behind his death led to the founding of a new faith. The death of Jesus on a cross is a historical fact but beyond that it is a display of God’s ultimate goodness.
Mark 10: 43-45
Jesus called his disciples together and said… “whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be slave to all. For even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Jesus draws from the Genesis narrative to elaborate how the offspring of Eve, a son of man, would defeat evil. He says it will happen by self-sacrifice. This is the upside-down kingdom of God; service is how you become great, sacrifice is an act of power and death leads to life.
A rift was made in Genesis 3. Evil creates a dilemma. When wrong is done it doesn’t just disappear into the air. If I vandalise your car either you or me will have to pay to get it fixed. It’s the principle behind our human law courts. Somebody must pay the cost of evil. The entire Old Testament of the bible shows an attempt of humans unsuccessfully trying to bridge the gap between evil and ultimate goodness. Still, we long to live in a world without evil. If we, who also commit wrong, are sadded by the effects of evil in our world, how much more the God who created the world perfectly good? God isn’t just saddedned, he is angry at the backstabbing, murder, corruption, hatred and lies that plague our world. Yet no human (you and I included) can make ourselves perfectly good. Therefore, we can never pay the cost of our wrongs. God knows this. In Jesus’ sacrifice he pays the debt owned to him. God takes out his wrath on the only perfect one who can pay the cost of sin, himself. The 3 person God enters a human world, in form of Jesus, and bears the cost of sin so that we can freely receive forgiveness. As Jesus said in Mark: “For even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
The cross satisfies both love and justice. The cross shows that you are so loved by a good God that he gave up his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) The cross shows that goodness acts itself out in love.
Jesus did not only die to pay the debt of evil but also to remake the human heart. If in turning away from God, Adam and Eve committed evil then in turning towards God, through Jesus, do we become holy. In the end we will be restored to a world of perfect goodness. As we journey on in a world of chaos and violence no doubt we too will be angered. We can take our wrath the same place God took his, on the cross. He is also grieved by evil. Place all your pain on the one who took it on and defeated it in his resurrection. Let not your heart grow hard. Lay down your burdens on Jesus.
So where does this leave us? The same place it left Adam and Eve, standing before a tree. We look up and see a man giving up his life. A choice is presented to us. The only way we can know the God of creation, of love and of goodness is by following him. Follow him.