When we call someone ‘good,’ we usually mean something like this: they try hard, have noble intentions, and generally succeed in doing what’s right. But this is not what the Bible means when it calls God good. The distinction between divine and created goodness is not merely one of degree — as if God were simply better at being good than we are. It is a difference of kind. ‘God is good in essence; he is essentially good. Goodness is necessary to God, and inherent in him.’¹ This essential goodness shapes everything God says, does, and is.

Understanding this distinction is critical for understanding both God and ourselves. Human goodness, however admirable, is always dependent, partial and, in a fallen world, fragile. Divine goodness is absolute, perfect, and utterly reliable.

God’s Goodness Compared to Human Goodness

At this point, the distinction between divine and created goodness becomes clear. ‘In his goodness, God the Creator is wholly unlike all creatures, for the goodness of creatures is had by participation or gift, whereas God alone is good by nature.’² His goodness is self-contained and self-generated, absolute, and independent, depending on nothing beyond himself for its existence.

Human goodness, however, is dependent, finite, and prone to corruption. God’s goodness remains incorruptible and unchanging. He is always good to us, and the pervasive goodness of the world reflects the fact that he is perfectly and essentially good in himself. We may fail in our attempts to be good; circumstances may test our good intentions; suffering may expose the limits of our goodness. But none of these contingencies apply to God.

God’s Goodness as Generous and Giving

Precisely because God’s goodness is absolute, it is also communicative. It is inclined to give. In his goodness, God is poised to share and eager to act for the benefit of others. His attitude is benevolent, and his actions are beneficent. God’s benevolence — his settled will and determination to do good — together with his beneficence — the concrete acts by which he bestows good upon his creatures — constitute the outward expression of his inward goodness.

Together, they show that God’s goodness overflows in generous self-giving, bringing life, blessing, and flourishing to what he has made. This is not a response to need or deficiency in God. It is the natural expression of his perfect, overflowing life. ‘God’s own eternal life as Father, Son and Spirit is perfectly happy and complete. The ultimate reason for creation, then, is for intelligent creatures to exist and behold God’s glory, the shining beauty of his perfection.’³

Why God Cannot Do Evil

This account of divine goodness clarifies the moral nature of God’s will. Because God’s goodness belongs to his very being as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, it is impossible for him to will or command what is evil. His goodness is necessarily relational and personal, characterized by communion and constituted by fellowship. He cannot, for instance, make cruelty good or command it as such, for this would contradict his own identity and being.

This is not a limitation on God but a revelation of his perfection. A God who could choose evil would be less perfect than a God who could not. The inability to sin is not weakness but the perfection of moral strength. As the Puritan Stephen Charnock wrote, ‘It is no more a diminution of His power that He cannot sin, than it is a diminution of His knowledge that He cannot be ignorant.’⁴

The Harmony of God’s Character

Because God’s life is perfect communion, his character is perfectly unified and harmonious. He possesses every perfection — goodness, wisdom, mercy, knowledge, power, and love — in an absolute, infinite, eternal, unchangeable, and harmonious manner. There is no tension between his justice and his love, no conflict between his mercy and his holiness, no contradiction between his sovereignty and his goodness.

This harmony stands in stark contrast to how we experience goodness. We often find ourselves torn between competing goods, forced to choose between kindness and truthfulness, between justice and mercy. But God never faces such dilemmas. In him, all excellencies are perfectly united. When he acts in love, he also acts in holiness. When he shows mercy, he also displays justice. His goodness is never partial or one-sided but always perfectly balanced and complete.

The declaration that ‘God is good’ therefore extends beyond his being to include his words, his ways, and his works. Everything he desires, decides, plans, and speaks is wholly and perfectly good. This is why the Bible can declare with such confidence that ‘we know that for those who love God all things work together for good’ (Rom 8:28). It is not merely that God can bring good out of evil circumstances, but that his goodness governs and directs all things toward their proper end.

1. John Frame, The Doctrine of God (P&R Publishing, 2002), 285. ↩︎
2. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, 1a.6.3. ↩︎
3. John Webster, God Without Measure: Working Papers in Christian Theology (T&T Clark, 2016), 57. ↩︎
4. No reference. ↩︎