The Goodness Of God

The Goodness Of God

Bro Richard Lim | 25 January 2026 | Psalm 100:5

 “For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.” (Psalm 100:5).

God’s goodness is not defined by how useful He is to us or by whether He gives us what we want.  Often, people treat God like a “spiritual handphone”—calling only in times of need and questioning His goodness when help does not come as expected.

Scripture, however, presents a very different picture. 

God is not good because He is useful; God is good because He is God.

He is overflowing with bounty, lacking nothing, and not measured against any human standard.

God Is Originally Good

All goodness originates from God.  Whatever goodness exists in the world—moral, spiritual, or relational—finds its source in Him.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17).

God does not merely possess goodness; He is the source from which all goodness flows.

God Is Perfectly Good

Nothing in creation is perfectly good in an absolute sense—only God is.  Human standards of goodness are always limited and relative, but God’s goodness is complete and flawless.

“Good and upright is the LORD” (Psalm 25:8).

His goodness does not diminish, weaken, or run out.

God Is Infinitely Good

There is never a moment when God is not good. 

“The goodness of God endures continually” (Psalm 52:1).

God’s goodness has no limits, no interruptions, and no expiration.

God Is Unchangingly Good

God’s goodness does not change with circumstances. 

One of the most common and painful questions people ask is this:

If God Is Good, Why Does He Allow Evil and Suffering?

We ask it when we lose loved ones, lose jobs, face illness, or watch injustice unfold.  For many, this question is not merely intellectual — it is deeply personal.  Evil and suffering trouble both the head and the heart.

Some use this question to deny God’s existence altogether.  Richard Dawkins famously wrote in The God Delusion that the God of the Old Testament is cruel, unjust, and morally repulsive.  

Such statements reflect how strongly people feel about suffering in the world — and how quickly suffering is used as an argument against God.

But what if the very question meant to disprove God actually points toward His existence?

What if the strongest doubts about God are built on assumptions that only make sense if God is real?

At the heart of the issue are several serious questions:

1.     Does evil disprove God?

2.     What’s the purpose of evil?

3.     What about purposeless evil?

4.     And ultimately — what is God’s solution to evil?

1.    Does Evil disprove God?

The existence of evil assumes something critical: a standard of good.

As C.S. Lewis observed in Mere Christianity, a man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.  In the same way, we cannot call the world unjust unless we already know what justice is.

Objective evil presupposes objective good — and objective good requires God.

Evil, then, is not a “thing” God created. 

Evil is the privation of good — the corruption, absence, or distortion of what ought to be there.  Just as rust is the decay of metal and cannot exist without the car, evil destroys something that was first good.

Remove the rust and you have a better car; remove the car and the rust disappears entirely.

Likewise, shadows exist only where light is present — shadows prove sunshine. 

You cannot have evil unless good exists first.

Instead of disproving God, evil actually proves God. 

If there were no God, there would be no ultimate reason to call anything truly good or truly evil — only preference, survival, or opinion.

The harder question is not, “If God exists, why is there evil?” but rather, “If God does not exist, why is there good at all?”

The real problem is not the presence of God in the world, but often the absence of God in human hearts.  The existence of evil does not disprove God’s existence in the world; it reveals what happens when God is absent from human lives.

Human Morality and God’s Standard

Jesus reminded us, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God” (Mark 10:18).

Human morality is relative—we compare people and actions—but God’s standard is perfect. By that standard, all have fallen short.  

If God were to destroy all evil immediately, none of us would remain.  Often, we identify “bad” people without first examining ourselves.

2.    What’s the purpose of evil?

Evil exists because God gave humanity free will, which makes love, moral responsibility, and genuine choice possible.  Without freedom, love would be meaningless.

There are things humans can do that God cannot — such as lie or act against His nature. God also cannot do what is logically impossible, such as creating a square circle.

Scripture reminds us that life’s purpose :
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).

To know God means more than acknowledging His existence.

Even demons believe God exists (James 2:19).

There is a difference between believing that God exists and believing in God.

C.S. Lewis captured this reality well when he observed that God often speaks most clearly through pain, calling it “His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”  He further reflected that God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons we could learn in no other way.

Suffering Produces Growth

Suffering often shapes character in ways comfort never can.  Scripture teaches:
“Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience” (James 1:2–3), and

“We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Romans 5:3–4).

Certain virtues can only be formed through hardship:

• No courage without danger

• No perseverance without obstacles

• No compassion without suffering

• No patience without tribulations

• No character without adversity

• No faith (trust) without need

If people received everything they wanted, they would become spoiled.  God, like a loving Father, does not give His children everything they ask for.

Suffering Serves an Eternal Purpose

Paul reminds us that present suffering is temporary:
“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17–18).

And “all things work together for good to those who love God” (Romans 8:28)—not that all things are good, but that God brings good out of them.

3.    What about purposeless evil?

One of the hardest questions people ask is this: Why does a baby die?

We try answering with words like we live in a fallen world and there are no guarantees in life.  At times, the most honest response is simply, “I don’t know.” Yet we can also say, “I know why I don’t know.”  Our knowledge is limited, while God’s understanding is infinite.  If life were only cradle to grave, we could possibly understand—but Scripture teaches that life extends into eternity.

Suffering also has what might be called a ripple effect—consequences and outcomes that extend far beyond what we can see.  The Bible shows that God may allow evil and suffering for reasons such as respecting human freedom, preserving life, executing judgment, drawing people closer to Him, bringing about greater good, developing godly character, teaching obedience through suffering, and ultimately accomplishing redemption.  Some reasons are known to us; others belong to God alone.

Sometimes the answer is not now, but later.

Scripture gives powerful examples. Joseph told his brothers, “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20).  Though Judah participated in wrongdoing, God still worked through that broken story to bring forth the lineage of Christ. 

Job, too, suffered without understanding—yet his faith was refined, not destroyed.

God does not cause evil, but He is able to bring good from it while still honouring human free will.  One moving example shared was of a woman who became pregnant through a violent act, yet chose life—and that child later grew up to be a preacher of the gospel.

If imperfect humans can bring good out of evil, how much more can a sovereign and loving God?

We may not always understand the why, but we can trust the Who.

Faith does not eliminate mystery—but it anchors us in the goodness of God, even when answers are delayed.

4.    What is God’s solution to evil?

The Bible does not promise that God’s people will be spared from all suffering.

The faithful men of Scripture—Joseph, Job, the prophets, the apostles—experienced hardship, loss, and pain.  Christianity never claims that believers will be protected from evil in this life; rather, it reveals how God responds to evil.

God’s ultimate solution was not distance.  He entered human suffering Himself. 

God took on flesh and lived among us.

In Jesus Christ, God did not merely observe pain—He bore it.

Christianity uniquely answers the problem of evil by showing a God who suffers with humanity and for humanity.

At the cross, evil did its worst, yet God brought about the greatest good. 

Christ’s suffering became our salvation.

His pain became our gain, proving that God can redeem even the darkest moments for eternal purposes.

God has provided the way of salvation, but He does not force it upon anyone.

Each person must respond in faith and obedience.  This, too, reflects God’s goodness—He offers redemption without compulsion.

In the end, the goodness of God is not seen in the absence of suffering, but in the presence of hope, the promise of redemption, and the assurance that evil will not have the final word.

God is good—always, fully, and eternally.