The goodness of God is inimitable.  As Christians, we should be thankful every day that God is good.  His goodness can be seen in many different ways, and this week we are looking a just a few of them.  One thing that accentuates the goodness of God, perhaps more than anything else, is His plan of salvation.

The plan itself is a picture of grace, mercy, and goodness.  It involved God sacrificing His one and only Son so that man could be reconciled back to Himself and be saved.  A greater love has never been seen.

John 3:16 (ESV)
¹⁶“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

What did we do to deserve such love?  The answer, of course, is nothing.  It emanated from God’s intrinsic goodness.  His goodness would not allow Him to do nothing while mankind, whom He created in His own image, was left without hope, even though it was man’s fault alone that sin entered into the world.  So God acted, and His act changed the destiny of man.  Now, instead of being without hope and destined for eternal punishment, man can find salvation through the sacrifice of the Son of God on Calvary’s cross.  Only the wonderful mercy and grace of God could have produced such a plan.  Aren’t you glad that God is good?

The nature of the plan also demonstrates the goodness of God.  Sin grieves God.  He is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).  Still, God’s plan involves a way for man, whenever he sins, inflicting pain and disappointment upon God, to be restored.  This way centers around the soul-cleansing blood of Christ.  Not only are our sins washed away by it when we initially obey the gospel, but when we sin after being saved, the blood continues to work on our behalf, as long as we are willing to repent.

1 John 1:6–9 (ESV)
⁶If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ⁷But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.   

This is God’s goodness at work.  When someone hurts us, even if it is only emotionally, our first inclination is to strike back.  When we hurt God, grieving Him by the sin that we commit, He immediately desires for us to take advantage of His plan by repenting of our sin, and asking for forgiveness, so He can receive us back into fellowship.

God’s scheme of redemption, involving the sacrifice of His only Son, makes salvation accessible to everyone who needs salvation.  God’s plan could have involved man living a perfect life, never sinning.  That would have been just, since sin is man’s fault, not God’s.  He could have based the plan on some kind of human ability.  But, because He is so good and merciful, He based justification on faith, so that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed (Romans 4:16).  That’s God’s plan.  We should be so thankful that He is good.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.