Why is God so Good?

“God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, he’s so good to me.”

I paused as the rest of the congregation sang strongly along with the worship team to the familiar chorus. At this moment in my life, I wasn’t sure if I could honestly sing those words. Sure I knew that God was good, but right then I wasn’t really feeling his goodness in my life.

“He’s so good to me…” That stuck out to me in particular. It couldn’t just be about that, could it? It couldn’t just be about how God had been good to me in life. I quickly thought back through God’s moments of faithfulness in my life so far. There were many moments I could remember where God had done great things for me. Even still, if God’s goodness only came down to the things he had done for me, his goodness seemed to fall short. Wow… what a statement… but that’s where my broken heart was at that Sunday morning. Even though there were definite highlights of God’s faithfulness in my life, they seemed to be overshadowed by the crushingly dark time I was walking through.

Many people turn away from God and church for this exact reason: “Why would a good God allow suffering?” Not wanting to lose faith in my time of struggle, I reminded myself, “God is good all the time. His goodness is not dependent on what happens in my life.” But my unbelieving heart challenged me, “Why? Why is God good just because he is?”

I dwelled on this topic for a while. It took a couple days of reading scripture and pondering, but I’ve come up with these reasons: God is good because of the cross, because he bears our suffering, and his goodness is not easily understood.

God is Good Because of the Cross

I have known since I was a little girl that Jesus died on the cross to pay the punishment for my sin. I was beginning to realize, however, that the cross was so much more than just a pardon for sin. Isaiah 53:3-6 is a good description of what Jesus went through on the cross and why. “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

This world is broken. It causes suffering, tears, pain, and sadness. God didn’t cause me to suffer. My suffering is a result of a broken world and broken people. But Jesus, knowing how broken this world was, willingly descended from Heaven, a perfect place with no suffering, tears, sadness, or pain. He could have lived comfortably as royalty in the finest palace but he chose to dwell among the least of us. He experienced suffering on our level: he was despised, rejected, stricken, tormented, troubled, traumatized, afflicted, distressed, and hurt. And he suffered the ultimate humiliation and pain by being put to death on the cross as a criminal to cover our sins and give us peace and healing.

Jesus suffered, not just in his death but in his life. He gave up everything to give his life on the cross. He did this so those who believe in him could be forgiven of their sins and restored to a right relationship with God. That alone is more than enough reason for us to declare God as “good” despite anything we may face this side of eternity. An inability, or even unwillingness, to do so in light of the fact that Jesus rescued our souls from eternal suffering and separation from God likely comes from a loss of appreciation for the gospel and a lack of grief over the true depravity of our souls (preaching to myself here).

God is Good Because He Bears Our Suffering

Because of the cross, we can now enter into true relationship with Christ. Evangelicals love to talk about relationship over religion, but I think few of us really understand what a relationship with Jesus really means. This passage on Isaiah touches on it when it says that, “He took up our pain and bore our suffering,” and, “by his wounds we are healed.” Because Jesus forgave our sins at the cross and the Holy Spirit dwells within us, Jesus can actually carry our pain and our suffering. Even more so, he actually invites us to give it to him!

In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” If you’ve ever drudged through the trenches of a hard time, you’ll know how awkward the question, “How are you?” is to answer. We have a natural social instinct to try not to burden others with our messy lives. But Jesus loves us so much that he actually desires to be burdened with our messiness!

Jesus invites us to give him our heavy burdens so he can give us his yoke that is easy, light, and will give us rest. He not only forgave our sins on the cross but also made it possible to “trade yokes.” Though there is no guarantee of a pain free life, Jesus understands and is able to help us through our times of suffering when we come to him with our burdens.

I’m writing this as one who is still figuring this out. I know it far too easy to say, “Take it to Jesus,” and much harder to figure out how to do that in the middle of the struggle. But these scriptures hold truth. Jesus has suffered himself, there is healing because of his wounds, peace because of his punishment, and he invites you to come to him and find rest for your soul. Perhaps “coming to Jesus” looks like more time reading your Bible or more time spent in worship. Perhaps it’s a mindful choice or a heart surrendered. Perhaps coming to Jesus with our burdens looks a little different for everyone. I hope that the Holy Spirit will guide you and show you how you need to give your burdens to Jesus.

God is Good in a Way that is Not Easily Understood

Lastly, God is good in a way that we don’t easily understand. Our human minds tend to comprehend goodness as giving or doing as much or more than you take. God isn’t good in that sense. God is good in the sense that he gave it all, every bit of everything he had, and the things he takes are like nothing in comparison to all that he gave.

Paul writes about this in Philippians 3:8, “What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.”

I lost so much. I lost my husband. I lost my house. I lost two cars. I lost my job. I lost thousands of dollars.

As I’ve walked through this crisis these past few months, I have lost so much. I lost valuable assets. I lost a lot of money. I lost a lot of pride. I lost a lot of independence. But Jesus gave it all and gaining him is everything. And because having Christ in the long run is so unthinkably great, I can consider everything I possess on this world of no value at all in comparison.

That’s really hard to understand on this side of eternity when our lives revolve around other people, possessions, and money. I admit I’m not there yet, it’s a perspective I’m still working on. But another reason God is so good is that he never tries to make us feel guilty for mourning the loss of our temporary, earthly possessions. Instead, Jesus invites us to come to him so he can help us through our times of mourning.

I lost so much, not because God took it away, but because I live in a fallen world with messed up people. I’m still walking through a time of suffering, tears, and pain and I certainly don’t have all of this figured out. But I know that God is good, not because of the things he gives me or has provided for me, but because he gave me himself.

It’s because of these reasons that I can now truthfully declare…

God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, He’s so good to me.