A ‘good’ God?

• Setting standards• Response of mankind• Concern for humans• Rewards and punishments• Work of Christ

The God of the Bible is a God who

Exists as a personalityReacts to peopleCares about the way they behave

Exodus 20

THE PEOPLE ARE TO RESPOND TO HIS GOODNESS WITH OBEDIENCE TO HIS COMMANDS.

Some of the Commandments relate to behaviour towards God, others towards each other.

The goodness of God, then, demands that people respond with faith. (Job)

• The Bible shows God to have concern for the poor and weak, his goodness involves a desire that people should treat one another fairly, recognising each other’s equal value.

God demands that people obey his commands even if they do not understand the reasons for them.

• Genesis 22: 1-19

Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac because of his faith in the goodness of God.

God will punish those who exploit the weak.

“You have rejected me, says the Lord, you are going backward; so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you – I am weary of relenting.” Jeremiah 15: 6

God becomes angry and is hurt when people refuse to recognise and respond to goodness:

• ‘.. so you have been faithless to me’ (Jeremiah 3.20)

God displays His goodness in compassionate answers to prayer.

In 1 Samuel, Hannah cannot have any children, so she cries out to God. In due time she conceived and gave birth to Samuel because she said “I have asked him of the Lord”. 

God cares for the people and is affected by the way people respond

• The prophet Hosea uses the analogy of an adult and a small child to describe God’s relationship with Mankind. Hosea paints the picture of a God who feels deep tenderness for his creation (Hosea 11: 3-4)

It is the love of God that demands people become the best that they can be.

Psalm 23 – The Lord is my Shepherd

This Psalm shows God not as some abstract concept, see Plato & Aristotle, but as a personal presence.

But God is still perfect

“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” Psalm 19:7

Consider the Aristotelian difficulties of a relationship and change.

PROBLEM! PROBLEM! PROBLEM!

• If God is interactive, can have relationships and is capable of change and response, how can He be perfect? Surely, perfection is, by its very nature, always the same.

New Testament God, shows His goodness through the person of Jesus.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may

have eternal life.” John 3: 16

Jesus came to the world in order to demonstrate his love for humanity.

PROBLEM! PROBLEM! PROBLEM!

•If part of the nature of God is that he doesn’t have a body, how can he suddenly have one?•How does time work for God, if he is outside time and space, how could he come into the world at a fixed point?•When God was in the world, was he also in heaven at the same time?

God’s goodness can suspend the laws of nature (but fulfil his purposes)

• Joshua 10: 1-15Miraculous intervention by God in a war between the

Israelites, led by Joshua, against the Amorites.

According to the story, the Israelites were greatly outnumbered by the Amorites but Joshua was told by God to stand up against them because he would be helped.

God sent hailstones which killed many and caused the sun to stand still in the sky so that the battle could be finished and the men could return to camp safely.