God is Good

 September 19, 2023

“the goodness of God leads you to repentance”

—Romans 2:4 

These words, the conclusion of a rhetorical question Paul asks his readers, are food for thought. Sometimes, we tread upon God’s goodness, as the first part of this question supposes. Here it is in it’s entirety: “Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”

There’s no doubt many people mistakenly believe that because God is a God of love, mercy, and forgiveness, that no matter what they do, it’ll all work out favorably in the end. This kind of thinking completely misses the point. God’s goodness is not a license for bad behavior, but an incentive to change. “How is that,” you ask? It’s really quite simple and logical.

If God were not good, there would be no point in repentance. If God is not good, what incentive is there to change? Why not just keep up the bad behavior? After all, if God isn’t good, our being good wouldn’t make any difference in the end. We might as well keep on with the sinful practices we were doing because an evil or indifferent God wouldn’t care. Only if God is good do we have an incentive, a reason to be willing to repent, to change our thinking so it conforms with his. 

Some skeptics think if there is a God, he is a bogeyman waiting to squelch any sign of pleasure and happiness we might have. If they’re right, we might as well get away with as much as we can. But the Scriptures assure us that our God is good, and that gives me hope. If God is good, I have good reason to change my thinking and behavior to correspond with his. His goodness means a change on my part is always met with grace and mercy on his part. His goodness leads me to repentance.