God's Goodness & Love

God’s Goodness & Love

The essence of God is love (1 John 4:16), which He reveals to us through His goodness. He is omnibenevolent, meaning He is all-good and all-loving. His goodness does not depend on our desires and circumstances; it is constant and unchanging. God’s love is epitomized in the salvation He offers mankind through the atoning work of His Son, Jesus.

What is meant by God’s goodness?

Modern definitions of “being good,” or “goodness,” mention moral virtues that develop and improve over time. However, applying such a meaning to God’s goodness implies He has some level of moral imperfection that requires improvement. God is complete (pure actuality) and wholly self-sufficient (aseity). He lacks nothing and needs nothing outside of Himself. He cannot grow in knowledge or perfection.¹ He is already fully knowledgeable and fully perfect. God exists eternally from beginning to end; thus, He is eternally perfect in every instance of His being.²

Scripture confirms God’s goodness:

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever!“ (1 Chr. 34).
“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” (Ps. 34:8).
“For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever” (Ps. 100:5).
“Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!” (Ps. 106:1).
“Oh give thanks for the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!” (Ps. 107:1).
“You are good and do good work; teach me your statutes” (Ps. 119:68).
“The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made” (Ps. 145:9).
“The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble” (Nah. 1:7).
“No one is good except God alone” (Luke 18:29).

God’s love flows from His good will for us.

Humans often define love in terms of emotion or passion because love is relational. When referring to God’s love, theologians and philosophers define it as Him “willing the good of His creatures,” which means God wills the good of all mankind.³ And because He exists infinitely and is infinitely good, His love is also infinite. Therefore, God is omnibenevolent (all-good and all-loving).

God’s love for His creation does not mean that He is subject to man’s desires or whims. God wills what is good for His creatures. Because He is the all-knowing source of goodness itself, He perfectly knows what is good and wills that good for His creatures, desiring that they share in His perfect goodness.⁴ This does not, however, mean God guarantees a life of health, wealth, prosperity, or freedom from suffering. He knows all things past, present, and future simultaneously and “controls and guides all events for His glory and for our good.”⁵ Therefore, in times of earthly trials, God’s unfailing goodness (love) can be trusted.

Scripture testifies of God willing Himself to creation:

“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things” (Rom. 11:36).
“In love, He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will . . . ” (Eph. 1:5).
“For by Him, all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things were created through Him and in Him” (Col. 1:16).
“For everything created by God is good” (1 Tim. 4:4).
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature . . .” (2 Pet. 3-4).
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power; for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” (Rev. 4:11).

God communicated His goodness and love in the Person of Jesus Christ.

In the Incarnation, the second Person of the Trinity took on human nature, thereby communicating God’s highest form of goodness to mankind.⁶ The hypostatic union of the divine nature and human nature is perfectly united in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, through whom God’s love was displayed. That love was embodied in Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection, where He was the propitiation for sin to redeem sinners and reconcile and restore man to God.

Scripture affirms God’s demonstrated love:

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person–though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die–but God showed His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:6-8).
“. . . Christ Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Php. 2:6-8).
“By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us . . .” (1 John 3:16).

God’s goodness and love are evident in His creation and were perfectly made known in His Son, Jesus Christ. His love both humbles the believer and gives hope of an eternal life where we will dwell in His goodness forever and where the trials of this world will no longer exist.

Footnotes:

1: Geisler, Norman L. “God’s Pure Actuality and Simplicity,” in Systematic Theology, Volume 2. (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2003), 30. Geisler writes, “Pure actuality has no potential for non-existence, and it has no potential for change.”

2: Geisler, Norman L. “God’s Jealousy and Perfect,” in Systematic Theology, Volume 2. (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2003), 145; Davies, Brian. The Thought of Thomas Aquinas. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), 86-87. Thomas Aquinas linked God’s goodness to His divine attribute of pure actuality and perfection, claiming that “anything perfect is desirable and good.” He wrote, “Goodness should be associated above all with God. For goodness is subsequent upon desirability. Now things desire their perfection; and an effect’s perfection and form consists in resembling its cause, since what a thing does reflects what it is. So the cause itself is desirable and can be called ‘good.’ Clearly, then, since God is the primary operative cause of everything, goodness and desirability fittingly belong to Him.” It’s important to note here that Aquinas’ view of “desire” is not a conscious desire but rather that all things have a natural tendency toward their perfection and good. Aquinas also wrote, “Since it is as first source of everything not himself in a genus that God is good, He must be good in the most perfect manner possible. And for this reason we call him supremely good . . . He alone exists by nature, and in Him there are no added accidents (power, wisdom and the like which are accidental to other things belonging to Him by nature. . . .). Moreover, He is not disposed toward some extrinsic goal, but is Himself the ultimate goal of all other things. So it is clear that only God possesses every kind of perfection by nature. He alone therefore is by nature good.”

3: Davies, 51. Regarding God’s love, Aquinas wrote, “God loves all existing things. For all existing things, insofar as they exist, are good since the existence of a thing is itself a good . . . . God’s will is the cause of things. It must needs be, therefore, that a thing has existence, or any kind of good, only inasmuch as it is willed by God . . . . God therefore wills some good to each existing thing, and since loving is no other than willing good to someone, it is clear that God loves everything.”

4: Davies, 143.

5: Enns, Paul, The Moody Handbook of Theology, Revised and Expanded. (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2008), 203. God is sovereign over all things and has supreme control over all things. See our resource titled “God’s Sovereignty” for more information.

6: Davies, Brain. The Thought of Thomas Aquinas. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), 324.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language. Used by permission. All rights reserved.