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Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. (Psalms 107:1)

Our text is one which we have already used in our study of the love of God, but now we will take up the phrase that precedes "his love endures forever": "for he is good." This is not the only verse in which the goodness of God is linked with the love of God. In fact, our text, word for word, is found no less than six times in the Bible-1 Chronicles 16:34; Psalms 106:1; 107:1; 118:1,29; 136:1-"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever." As we said in our discussion of God's love, this seems to have been a favorite and familiar chorus in Israel's worship. Besides the six times our text is found word for word, there are four other places where practically the same thing is expressed, at least the ideas of God's goodness and his love together-2 Chronicles 5:13; 7:3; Ezra 3:11; Psalms 100:5.

That God is good is fundamental to our understanding of who and what He is, and this great attribute receives its deserved stress throughout Scripture. It is easy to see how closely it is connected in thought to God's love. Goodness is at the heart of love and love is at the heart of goodness. The revelation of God to the Hebrew people stands in contrast to the gods of the nations in ancient times. Polytheism reserves places for both good and evil gods; however, even the "good" gods were sometimes evil. But the God of the Bible is infinitely good:

Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. (Psalms 25:7,8)

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. (Psalms 34:8)

You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you. (Psalms 86:5)

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. (Psalms 100:5)

Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant. (Psalms 135:3)

We read in the gospels of a young man who eagerly inquired of Jesus the way to eternal life:

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good-except God alone." (Mark 10:17,18)

Jesus went on to say that to have eternal life, he must keep the commandments of God. Which ones? Jesus noted several but omitted the tenth, "Thou shalt not covet." The young man said he had kept all these his whole life; what did he lack? Jesus told him to sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor, then take up his cross and follow Him. But the young man went away sad because he couldn't give up his wealth.

The point we want to focus upon is Jesus' response to the young man's salutation, "Good teacher." "No one is good-except God alone," Jesus replied. Of course this has always been a favorite of those who deny that Jesus is God. But Jesus here was not denying His divinity; He was only uncovering the hypocrisy in the flattery of the young man. So many like him today flatter themselves that they love and honor Jesus, applying terms of endearment to Him; but they will not obey Him. Jesus' answer, "No one is good except God alone," does not rule out himself as God. He denied neither His goodness nor His deity. His answer did serve to confront the young man concerning this title, "Good teacher," and forced him and us to obey Him and acknowledge Him as God if we would continue to own Him as good.

Jesus spoke on many other occasions of "good" men in contrast with "bad" men, so obviously there is nothing wrong with using the term "good" in referring to men. What did He mean, then, that only God was good?

For our study of the goodness of God, we will rely heavily upon Stephen Charnock's seventeenth century unfinished masterpiece on the attributes of God. He writes extensively of God's power, knowledge, holiness, and sovereignty; but his discourse on the goodness of God is the longest of all (he died before he could write on the love of God and complete the work). His discussion is so thorough and so eloquent that it would be difficult to improve upon; however, most modern readers will find the material difficult due to his vocabulary and the change in meaning and use of many words since the 1600's. For these reasons, I have taken a somewhat different approach from my usual practice in the following extracts from his work. The material that follows is greatly condensed, sometimes rephrased, and edited. Even the more direct quotations have had a number of words changed.

There are several senses in which only God is good.

1. Only God is inherently good; His goodness is from Himself. Anyone or anything else that is good derives its goodness from Him; but He derives His goodness from no one else.

2. Only God is infinitely good. Everything and everyone else is only relatively good.

3. Only God is perfectly good.

4. Only God is immutably good. Other things may be perpetually good by supernatural power, but not immutably (or invariably) good in their own nature. Other things are not so good, but they might at times be bad; God is so good, that he can never be bad. A certain philosopher once said that it was a hard thing, even impossible to find a good man; but even should one possibly find a good man, he would be good only for a particular moment or a short time: for although he should be good at this instant, it was above the nature of man to continue in a habit of goodness without going wrong and warping. But 'the goodness of God endureth forever' (Ps.52:1)....

Pure and perfect goodness is the royal prerogative of God alone; goodness is a choice perfection of the Divine nature. This is the true and genuine character of God; he is good, he is goodness, good in himself, good in his essence, good in the highest degree, possessing whatever is comely, excellent, desirable; the highest good because the first good: whatsoever is perfect goodness, is God; whatsoever is truly goodness in any creature is a resemblance of God. All the names of God are comprehended in this one of good. All gifts, all variety of goodness, are contained in him as one common good. He is the efficient cause of all good by an overflowing goodness of his nature....'Truly God is good.' (Ps. 73:1).... (The Existence and Attributes of God, Stephen Charnock; Baker Book House: Grand Rapids;MI; 1979 reprint of 1681; Vol. II, pp.210,211,214)

Once again it would be a good thing to define the term we are discussing.

By goodness is meant the bounty of God. This is the notion of goodness in the world. When we say a good man, we mean either a man who is holy in his life or one who is charitable and generous in the management of his goods...."The goodness of God is his inclination to deal well and bountifully with his creatures [Coccei]."...[I]t is that perfection of God whereby he delights in his works, and is beneficial to them.... (p.218,219)

The goodness of God is evident I. In creation, II. In God's providence or government of the world, and III. In redemption.

I. We see the goodness of God in Creation. He pronounced "every thing good" (Gen.1:31). By his goodness, therefore, the whole creation was brought out of the dark womb of nothing. He has set up standing lights in the heavens to direct our motion and to regulate the seasons: the sun was created that man might see to "go forth to his labor"(Ps.104:22,23): both sun and moon, though set in the heaven, were formed to "give light" on the earth (Gen.1:15,17). The air is his aviary [large enclosure for birds], the sea and rivers his fish-ponds, the valleys his granary [storehouse for grain], the mountains his magazine [storehouse of natural resources]; the first afford man food for nourishment, the other metals for refinement. The animals were created for the support of the life of man; the herbs of the ground were provided for the maintenance of their lives; and gentle dews and moistening showers, and, in some places, slimy floods appointed to render the earth fruitful and capable of offering man and beast what was fit for their nourishment. He has peopled every climate with a variety of creatures both for necessity and delight; all furnished with useful qualities for the service of man. Even the most despicable thing in creation is endued with a nature to contribute something for our welfare: either as food to nourish us when we are healthy; or as medicine to cure us when we are sick; or as a garment to clothe us when we are naked, and arm us against the cold of the season; or as a refreshment when we are weary; or as a delight when we are sad: all serve for necessity or ornament, either to spread our table, beautify our dwellings, furnish our closets, or store our wardrobes (Ps. 104:24): "The whole earth is full of his riches." Everything in creation conspires together to render the world a delightful residence for man; and, therefore, all the living creatures were brought by God to attend upon man after his creation to receive a mark of his dominion over them by the "imposition of their names" (Gen. 2:19,20). He not only gave variety of senses to man, but provided variety of delightful objects in the world for every sense; the beauties of light and colors for our eye, the harmony of sounds for our ear, the fragrancy of odors for our nostrils, and a delicious sweetness for our taste. Some have more than one quality to pleasure, but everything offers something of one kind or another. He not only presents these things to our view as rich men do in displaying their goods, he makes us the enjoyers as well as the spectators and gives us the use as well as the sight of them; and, therefore, he has not only given us the sight but the knowledge of them. He has set up a sun in the heavens to expose their outward beauty and advantages to our sight; and the candle of the Lord is in us to expose their inward qualities and usages to our knowledge that we might serve ourselves of and rejoice in all this supply wherewith he has stocked the world, and occupy the inquisitiveness of our reason as well as gratify the pleasures of our sense. And, particularly, God provided for innocent man a place of more special beauty and exquisiteness, the garden of Eden, a delightful paradise, a model of the beauties and pleasures of another world in which he had placed everything that might possibly contribute to the happiness of a rational and natural life, the life of a creature composed of mire and dust, of sense and reason (Gen.2:9). (pp.244,245,250,251)

II. We see the goodness of God in his Government. The whole life of the world is linked together by Divine goodness. Everything is ordered by him in the place where he has set it, without which the world would be stripped of the excellence it has by creation. His goodness is seen: 1. In preserving all things: "O Lord, thou preservest man and beast" (Ps.36:6). 2. In taking care of the animals and non-living things. He provides food for the "crying ravens" (Ps.147:9) and a prey for the appetite of the "hungry lion" (Ps.104:21): "He opens his hand, and fills with good those innumerable creeping things, both small and great beasts; they all wait upon him and are satisfied by their bountiful Master" (Ps.104:25-28). 3. In taking care of the lowest rational creatures, as servants and criminals. 4. In taking care of the most wicked persons. "He makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matt.5:45).

His goodness is evident in the preservation of human society. 1. In prescribing rules for it. He has fixed rules for the ordering of all relations: magistrates and subjects; parents and children; husbands and wives; masters and servants; rich and poor; all find their distinct qualifications and duties. The world would be a paradise if men had the goodness to observe what God has had the goodness to order for strengthening the sinews of human society. 2. In setting up public officials to preserve it. Were there no public officials there would be no government, no security for any man. 3. In restraining the passions of men. The laws of men would be too weak to curb the lusts of men if the goodness of God did not restrain them by a secret hand. They would be the entire ruin of human society. 4. In giving various inclinations to men for the common good. If all men were inclined to the same science or art, they would all become idle spectators of each other; but God has bestowed various dispositions and gifts upon men for promoting the common good that they may not only be useful to themselves but to society. 5. In the witness he bears against those sins that disturb human society.

Divine goodness is eminent in providing Scripture as a rule to guide us in the world.

His goodness in his government is also evident in the conversion of men: 1. It is his goodness to focus upon lowly and despicable men [the poor and lowly] in the eyes of the world to convert them. 2. Upon the worst men, the men most soiled, those who have been guilty of the greatest contempt of God. 3. In converting men possessed with the greatest enmity against him while he was dealing with them. 4. In turning men when they were pleased with their own misery and unable to deliver themselves; when they preferred hell before him and were in love with their own vileness; when his call was our torment and his ignoring of us was accounted our happiness.

The Divine goodness appears in answering prayer.

The goodness of God is seen in bearing with the infirmities of his people and accepting their imperfect obedience.

The goodness of God is seen in afflictions and persecutions. The goldsmith has no other way to separate the dross from the metal but by melting it down.

The goodness of God is seen in temptations. God is at the beginning and end of every temptation. He measures out both the quality and quantity: he does not expose his people to temptation beyond the ability he has already granted them or will grant them at the time or will afterwards multiply in them. The goodness of God appears in temptations: 1. In shortening them. 2. In strengthening his people under them. If we fall, it is not due to his lack of provision but to our lack of "putting on the armor of God" (Eph.6:11,13). He prevents certain temptations from reaching us. He qualifies others suitably to the strength we have or supplies us with a new strength to match the temptation he intends to let loose against us. 3. In giving great comforts during or after them. 4. In bringing out and increasing inward grace by them. Too much rest corrupts; exercise teaches us to manage our weapons: spiritual armor would grow rusty without the opportunity to polish it up. Faith receives a new heart by every combat and every victory; like a fire it spreads itself further and gathers strength by the blowing of the wind. 5. In preventing sin which we would likely fall into. Paul's thorn in the flesh was to prevent the pride of his spirit (2 Cor.12:7). 6. In fitting us more for his service. Those whom God intends to make choice instruments in his service are first seasoned with strong temptations. (pp.295-302,304-307, 309-313)

III. The goodness of God is manifested in Redemption.

The whole gospel is nothing but one entire mirror of Divine goodness: the whole of redemption is wrapped up in that one expression of the angels' song in Luke 2:14, 'Good-will towards men.' Goodness was the spring of redemption. When man fell from his created goodness, God would show that he could not fall from his infinite goodness: that the greatest evil could not surmount the ability of his wisdom to contrive nor the riches of his bounty to present, a remedy for it. Divine Goodness would not stand by as a spectator without being a reliever of the misery man had plunged himself into, but by astonishing methods it would recover him to happiness who had wrenched himself out of his hands only to fling himself into the most deplorable calamity. What could be the source of such a procedure but this excellency of Divine nature, since no violence could force him, nor was there any merit in man to persuade him, to such a restoration? It must have been only a miraculous goodness that induced him to expose the life of his Son to his difficulties in the world and death upon the cross for the freedom of sordid rebels.

It was a pure goodness. He was under no obligation to pity our misery and repair our ruins. He might have stood by the terms of the first covenant and exacted our eternal death, since we had committed an infinite transgression. He was under no constraint to put off the robes of a judge for the bowels of a father and erect a mercy-seat above his tribunal of justice. It does not follow that because Goodness had extracted us from nothing by a mighty power that it must lift us out of willful misery by a mighty grace. Certainly that God who had no need of creating us had far less need of redeeming us; for since he created one world, he could have as easily destroyed it and raised up another. It would not have been unbecoming the Divine Goodness or Wisdom to have let man perpetually wallow in that cesspool wherein he had plunged himself, since he was criminal by his own will, and, therefore, miserable by his own fault. There was no goodness in us to be the motive of his love, but his goodness was the fountain of our benefit.

The effects of it proclaim His great goodness. It is by this that we are delivered from the corruption of our nature, the ruin of our happiness, the deformity of our sins, and the punishment of our transgressions. He frees us from the ignorance by which we were darkened and from the slavery in which we were fettered. It is a goodness that pardons us more transgressions than there are moments in our lives and overlooks as many follies as there are thoughts in our heart. What more can be desired of him than his goodness has granted? He has sought us out when we were lost and ransomed us when we were captives; he has pardoned us when we were condemned and raised us when we were dead. In creation he raised us up out of nothing; in redemption he delivers our understanding from ignorance and vanity and our wills from impotence and obstinacy, and our whole man from a death worse than that nothing from which he drew us by creation. Consequently we may consider the height of this goodness in redemption to exceed that in creation. He gave man a being in creation, but did not draw him from inexpressible misery by that act. In creation he formed an innocent creature of the dust of the ground; in redemption he restores a rebellious creature by the blood of his Son.

His goodness in redemption is greater than the goodness manifested in creation.

First, regarding the difficulty in effecting it. In creation, mere nothing was vanquished to bring us into being; in redemption, sulky enmity was conquered for the enjoyment of our restoration. A word from the mouth of Goodness inspired the dust of men's bodies with a living soul; but the blood of his Son must be shed and the laws of natural affection seemingly overturned to lay the foundation of our renewed happiness. In the first, heaven merely spoke and the earth was formed; in the second, heaven itself must sink to earth and be clothed with dusty earth to reduce man's dust to its original state.

Second, this goodness is greater than that manifested in creation in regard of its cost. This was a more expensive goodness than what was laid out in creation. "The redemption of one soul is precious" (Ps. 49:8), much more costly than the whole fabric of the world. For the effecting of this, God parts with his dearest treasure, and his Son eclipses his choicest glory. For this, God must be made man, Eternity must suffer death, the Lord of angels must weep in a cradle, and the Creator of the world must hang like a slave. He must be in a manger in Bethlehem and die upon a cross on Calvary; unspotted righteousness must be made sin and unblemished blessedness be made a curse. He was at no other expense than the breath of his mouth to form man; the fruits of the earth could have supported innocent man without any other cost; but his broken nature could not be healed without the invaluable medicine of the blood of God. View Christ in the womb and in the manger, in his weary steps and hungry bowels, in his prostrations in the garden, and in his clodded drops of bloody sweat; view his head pierced with a crown of thorns and his face besmeared with the soldiers' slobber; view him in his march to Calvary and his elevation on the painful cross with his head hung down and his side streaming blood; view him pelted with the scoffs of the governors and the derisions of the rabble; and see in all this what expense Goodness was at for man's redemption!

Third, this goodness of God in redemption is greater than that manifested in creation in regard of man's deserving of the contrary. The nothing from whence the world was drawn could never merit nor demerit a being, because it was nothing; as there was nothing to attract him, so there was nothing to offend him; as his favor could not be merited, so neither could his anger be deserved. But in redemption he finds ingratitude against the former marks of his goodness, and rebellion against the sweetness of his sovereignty-crimes unworthy of the dews of goodness and worthy of the sharpest strokes of vengeance. And therefore the Scripture exalts the honor of it above the title of mere goodness to that of "grace" (Rom.1:2; Titus 2:11), because men were not only unworthy of a blessing but worthy of a curse. An innocent nothing more deserves creation than a condemned creature deserves an exemption from destruction.

To enhance this goodness yet higher, it was a greater goodness to us than for a time was manifested to Christ himself. To demonstrate his goodness to man in preventing his eternal ruin he would for a while withhold his goodness from his Son by exposing his life as the price of our ransom; not only subjecting him to the derisions of enemies, desertions of friends, and malice of devils, but to the inexpressible bitterness of his own wrath in his soul as an offering made for sin. He so loved the world that he seemed for a time not to love his Son in comparison of it. The person to whom a gift is given is in that regard accounted more valuable than the gift or present made to him: thus God valued our redemption above the worldly happiness of the Redeemer and sentenced him to a humiliation on earth in order to our exaltation in heaven; he was desirous to hear him groaning and see him bleeding that we might not groan under his frowns and bleed under his wrath; he did not spare him that he might spare us; did not refuse to strike him that he might be well pleased with us; drenched his sword in the blood of his Son that it might not forever be wet with ours, but that his goodness might forever triumph in our salvation. He was willing to have his Son made man and die rather than man should perish who had delighted to ruin himself; he seemed to degrade him for a time from what he was.

In giving Christ to be our Redeemer God gave the highest gift that it was possible for Divine goodness to bestow. As there is not a greater God than himself to be conceived, so there is not a greater gift for this great God to present to his creatures: never did God go farther in any of his excellent perfections than this. It is such a dole that it cannot be transcended with a finer; he has, as it were, come to the last mite of his treasure; and though he could create millions of worlds for us he cannot give a greater Son to us. When God intended in redemption the manifestation of his highest goodness, it could not be without the donation of the choicest gift. As when he would insure our comfort he swears "by himself" because he cannot swear "by a greater" (Heb. 6:13): so, when we would insure our happiness he gives us his Son because he cannot give a greater, being equal with himself. What was this gift but "the image of his person, and the brightness of his glory" (Heb. 1:3)? What was this gift but one as rich as eternal blessedness could make him? What was this gift but one that possessed the fullness of earth and the more immense riches of heaven? It is a more valuable present than if he presented us with thousands of worlds of angels and inferior creatures, because his person is incomparably greater not only than all conceivable, but inconceivable creations; we are more indebted to him for it than if he had made us angels of the highest rank in heaven, because it is a gift of more value than the whole angelical nature because he is an infinite person and therefore infinitely transcends whatsoever is finite though it be of the highest dignity. The wounds of an Almighty God for us are a greater testimony of goodness than if we had all the other riches of heaven and earth. In the creation his goodness gave us creatures for our use; in our redemption his goodness gives us what was dearest to him for our service, our Sovereign in office to benefit us as well as in royalty to govern us.

It was a greater gift because it was his own Son, not an angel. It would have been a mighty goodness to have given one of the lofty seraphims, a greater goodness to have given the whole corporation of those glorious spirits for us, those children of the Most High; but he gave that Son whom he commands "all the angels to worship" (Heb.1:6). He had but one Son in heaven or earth, one Son from an unviewable eternity, and that one Son he gave for a degenerate world. Those that know the natural affection of a father to a son must judge the affection of God the Father to the Son infinitely greater than the affection of an earthly father to the son of his bowels. It must be an unparalleled goodness to give up a Son that he loved with so warm an affection for the redemption of rebels, abandon a glorious Son to a dishonorable death for the security of those that had violated the laws of righteousness and endeavored to pull the sovereign crown from his head. Besides, being an only Son, all those affections centered in him which in other parents would be divided among a multitude of children, just as it was a testimony of the highest faith and obedience in "Abraham to offer up his only-begotten son to God" (Heb.11:17). So it was the triumph of Divine goodness to give so great, so dear a person for so little a thing as man and for such a piece of nothing and vanity as a sinful world.

And this Son was given to rescue us by his death. It was a gift to us; for our sakes he descended from his throne, and dwelt on earth; for our sakes he was "made flesh", infirm flesh; for our sakes he was "made a curse" and scorched in the furnace of his Father's wrath; for our sakes he went naked, armed only with his own strength, into the arena of combat with the devils that led us captive. Had he given him to be a leader for the conquest of some earthly enemies, it would have been a great goodness to display his banners and bring us under his protection; but he sent him to lay down his life in the most bitter and most inglorious manner and exposed him to a cursed death for our redemption from that dreadful curse which would have broken us to pieces and irreparably crushed us. He gave him to us to suffer for us as a man and redeem us as a God; to be a sacrifice to expiate our sin by translating the punishment upon himself which was merited by us. Thus was he made low to exalt us and debased to promote us, "made poor to enrich us" (2 Cor.8:9); and eclipsed to brighten our defiled natures and wounded that he might be a physician for our weaknesses. He was ordered to taste the bitter cup of death that we might drink of the rivers of immortal life and pleasures, to submit to the frailties of the human nature that we might possess the glories of the divine. He was ordered to be a sufferer, that we might be no longer captives and to pass through the fire of Divine wrath that he might purge our nature from the dross it had contracted. Thus was the righteous given for sin, the innocent for criminals, the glory of heaven for the dregs of earth, and the immense riches of a Deity laid out to re-stock man.

And this Son was exalted for what he had done for us by the order of Divine goodness. The exaltation of Christ was no less an outstanding mark of his miraculous goodness to us than it was of his affection to him. Since he was obedient by Divine goodness to die for us, his elevation was for his obedience to those orders. Divine goodness centered in him both in his cross and in his crown; for it was for the "purging our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Heb.1:3); and the whole blessed society of principalities and powers in heaven admire this goodness of God and ascribe to him "honor, glory, and power" for exalting the "Lamb slain" (Rev.5:11-13). Divine goodness did not only give him to us but gave him power, riches, strength, and honor for manifesting this goodness to us and opening the passage ways for its fuller conveyances to the sons of men. This goodness gave him to be debased for us and ordered him to be enthroned for us; as it gave him to us bleeding, so it gave him to us triumphing, that as we have a share by grace in the merits of his humiliation, we might partake also of the glories of his coronation, that from first to last we may behold nothing but the triumphs of Divine goodness to fallen man.

In bestowing this gift on us Divine goodness gives whole God to us. Everything that is great and excellent in the Godhead the Father gives us by giving us his Son: the Creator gives himself to us in his Son Christ. In giving creatures to us he gives the riches of earth; in giving himself to us he gives the riches of heaven which surmount all understanding. By giving his Son he has given himself, and in both gifts he has given all things to us.

Could there be anything in this fallen creature to allure God to the expression of his goodness? Was there any good action in all his behavior that could plead for a readmission of him to his former state? Was there any moral goodness in man after this debauchery that might be an object of Divine love? What was there in him that was not rather a provocation than an allurement? What attractions were there in a silly worm much less in such complete wickedness, inexcusable enmity, infamous rebellion, to propose a Redeemer for him and such a person as the Son of God to a fleshy body, an eclipse of glory, and an ignominious cross? Was there not a world of demerit in man to animate grace as well as wrath against him? We were so far from deserving the opening of any streams of goodness that we had merited floods of devouring wrath. What were all men but enemies to God in a high manner? Every offense was infinite, as being committed against a being of infinite dignity; it was a stroke at the very being of God. All were filthy and unworthy of the eye of God; all had employed the faculties of their souls and the members of their bodies which they enjoyed by his goodness against the interest of his glory. Every rational creature had made himself a slave to those creatures over whom he had been appointed a lord, subjected himself as a servant to his inferior, and strutted as a superior against his generous Sovereign, and by every sin rendered himself more a child of Satan and enemy of God and more worthy of the curses of the law and the torments of hell. Was it not, now, a mighty goodness that would surmount those high mountains of demerit and elevate such creatures by the depression of his Son? How great was that goodness that would not abandon us in our misery but remit our crimes and rescue our persons and ransom our souls by so great a price from the rights of justice and horrors of hell we were so fitted for?

The impotence of man enhances this goodness. Our own eye scarcely pitied us, and it was impossible for our own hands to relieve us. We were insensible of our misery, in love with our death; we courted our chains and the noise of our fettering lusts were our music, "serving divers lusts and pleasures" (Tit.3:3). Our lusts were our pleasures. Satan's yoke was as delightful to us to bear as to him to impose. Instead of being his opposers in his attempts against us, we were his voluntary assistants and every whit as willing to embrace as he was to propose his ruining temptations. As no man can recover himself from death, so no man can recover himself from wrath; he is as unable to redeem, as to create himself. He was too much in love with the sewage of sin to stop wallowing in it, and under too powerful a hand to cease frying in the flames of wrath. How great was Divine goodness not only to pity men in this state but to provide a strong Redeemer for them! To sum it all up: behold the "goodness of God" when we had thus unhandsomely dealt with him, had nothing to allure his goodness but multitudes of provocations to incense him, were reduced to a condition as low as could be, fit to be the object of his scorn and the sport of Divine justice, and so weak that we could not repair our own ruins. It was then that he opened a fountain of fresh goodness in the death of his Son and sent forth such delightful streams as in our original creation we could never have tasted and which not only overcame the resentments of a provoked justice, but magnified itself by our lowness, and strengthened itself by our weakness. His goodness had earlier created an innocent; but here it saves a malefactor, and sends his Son to die for us as if the Holy of holies were the criminal and the rebel were the innocent. It would have been a pompous goodness to have given him as a king, but a goodness of greater grandeur to expose him as a sacrifice for slaves and enemies. Had Adam remained innocent and been thankful for what he had received, it would have been great goodness to have brought him to glory; but to bring filthy and rebellious Adam to it surmounts by inexpressible degrees that sort of goodness he had experienced before; since it was not from a light evil, a tolerable curse unawares brought upon us, but from the yoke we had willingly submitted to, from the power of darkness we had courted, and the furnace of wrath we had kindled for ourselves. What are we dead dogs, that he should behold us with so gracious an eye?

This goodness further appears in the high exaltation of our nature after it had so highly offended. It would have been astonishing goodness to "angel-ize" our natures, but in redemption Divine goodness has acted higher, in a sort to "deify" our natures. In creation, our nature was exalted above other creatures on earth; in our redemption, our nature is exalted above all the host of heaven. We were higher than the beasts as creatures but "lower than the angels" (Ps.8:5); but by the incarnation of the Son of God, our nature is elevated many steps above them. After it had sunk itself by corruption below the bestial nature and as low as the diabolical, the "fullness of the Godhead dwells in our nature bodily" (Col.2:9), but never in the angels, angelically. The Son of God descended to dignify our nature by assuming it and ascended with our nature to have it crowned above those standing monuments of Divine power and goodness (Eph.1:20,21). Our refined clay, by an indissoluble union with this Divine Person, is honored to sit forever upon a throne above all the tribes of seraphims and cherubims; and the Person that wears it is the head of the good angels and the conqueror of the bad. The one are put under his feet and the other commanded to adore him "that purged our sins in our nature" (Heb.1:3,6). How could Divine goodness to man magnify itself more? As we cound not have a lower descent than we had by sin, how could we have a higher ascent than by a substantial participation of a divine life, in our nature, in our union with a Divine Person? Our earthly nature is joined to a heavenly Person; our undone nature united to "one equal with God"(Phil.2:6).

This goodness is manifested in the covenant of grace made with us whereby we are freed from the rigor of that of works. It is goodness that he should condescend to make another covenant with man after the breaking of the first. Absolute sovereigns do not usually make covenants with their people, but exact obedience and duty without binding themselves to bestow rewards. And if they intend to give any, they reserve the purpose in their own breasts without treating their subjects with a solemn declaration of it. There was no obligation upon God to enter into the first covenant, much less, after the vilation of the first, to the establishing of a new. If God seemed to put himself on equal footing with man in the first, he descended below himself in dealing with a rebel on more condescending terms in the second.

Divine goodness is eminent in his methods of treating with men to embrace this covenant. They are methods of gentleness and sweetness. It is a wooing goodness, a bewailing goodness. His expressions are with strong motions of affection; he does not advance the gospel by force of arms; he does not threaten men alone into it as worldly conquerors have done; he does not do as Mohammed did, plundering men's estates and wounding their bodies to imprint a religion on their souls; he does not erect gallows and kindle fires to scare men into entering into covenant with him. What multitudes might he have raised by his power more than others have done! What legions of angels might he have rendezvoused from heaven to have beaten men into a profession of the gospel! Nor does he invoke his sovereign authority alone in the precept of faith but uses rational appeals to move men voluntarily to comply with his proposals (Isa.1:18), "Come now, and let us reason together," saith the Lord. What various encouragements does he use agreeable to the nature of men, endeavoring to persuade them with all tenderness not to despise their own mercies and be enemies to their own happiness! He chooses to allure us by his beauty and win us by his mercy. How affectionately does he invite men! What multitudes of alluring promises and pressing exhortations are there everywhere sprinkled in the Scripture and in such a passionate manner as if God were concerned solely with our good without a glance on his own glory! How tenderly does he woo flinty hearts and express more pity to them than they do to themselves! How readily does he receive men when they do return! He not only stands ready to receive our petitions while we are speaking but answers us before we call (Isa.65:24), listening to the motions of our heart as well as to the supplications of our lips. He is the true Father, that has a quicker pace in running to meet him than the prodigal has in returning.

By this redemption God restores us to a more excellent condition than Adam had in innocence. There are fuller streams of grace by Christ than flowed to or could flow from Adam. (258-262,264,266-275,284-286,291)

We will continue this discussion of the goodness of God from Stephen Charnock in our next issue.

Surely the goodness of God as is evident in creation, in providence, and in redemption serves as a mighty motivation for us to worship and serve Him. I have often said that if we have any sense at all, we will serve God. Let us not be like the senseless multitudes who "despise the riches of His goodness" (Romans 2:4) and harden their hearts to continue to go their own way which leads to wrath and destruction.

How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you. (Psalms 31:19)

Until next time, may God out of the riches of His infinite goodness, grant you His blessing and salvation.

Leon Stump, Pastor of Victory Christian Center

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