Is God good and evil?
A very common question in the hearts of a lot of us is; is God both good and evil?
Some arguments suggest this, such as that if God is good, why is there evil in the world?
How will a good God allow bad things to happen to this creation?
Why was God wicked in the Old Testament and good in the New Testament?
You get the gist now.
However, if God is God, then he has to be unchanging. We know Jesus is God in the flesh, and Hebrews 13:8 says
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
Hebrews 13 : 8 NKJV
James 1:17 also shows us that God doesn’t vary or cast shadows by change.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
James 1 : 17 NKJV
So that means the question should be ‘ Is God good, or is God evil’?
God can’t be good and evil. God is one way and one way only. So if we see God to be good, then we accept that he is only good and vice versa.
So is God good, or is God evil?
Let’s take a look at the word of God for a bit. We will start with Hebrews 1:1-3
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”
Hebrews 1 : 1 – 3 NKJV
For a little context on this part of scripture, Hebrews is a book written for a Jewish audience. The writer aimed to get them to see Jesus as the fulfilment of all that had been spoken of in time past to them.
And that is what we see in vs 1, where we see that firstly, God has always been speaking to men, and he did it specifically through the prophets of old. Not everyone could claim that God spoke through them.
Some specific people are called prophets that God spoke through.
But then in vs 2, we see something very interesting.
We see that God has ‘in these last days’ spoken to us in his Son, and it is further explained that the Son is the ‘brightness of God’s glory and the express image of his person’.
That means that God is speaking now in his son, and the speaking of God in Christ is that ‘when he purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high’ or at the place of authority.
The speaking of God in Christ is salvation. The action of God in Christ is in salvation. So we deduce and decode the character of God in salvation alone.
It is not also that God was one way in the prophets and another way in Christ.
“Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”
Luke 24 : 25 – 27 NKJV
In these verses after Jesus rose from the dead, Jesus the speech/word/speaking of God said that what the prophets spoke of was about his death and resurrection. Does that mean that’s all the prophets spoke about?
No.
But it does mean that what profits us, which the word of God explained, is about his death and resurrection.
God is revealed in Christ, and the activity of Christ is seen in salvation/ the resurrection.
So God is revealed in salvation.
The character of God is revealed in Christ in Salvation.
It is not seen in the cosmos, or even in what happens to us physically.
And the character of salvation is
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
John 3 : 16 NKJV
What does it mean to say God is good?
It means that God is good he gave his Son so we may have eternal life. That is the definition of the goodness of God. That is the full embodiment of God’s goodness and love.
We judge the goodness of God by the life he has given us.
And because of this, we know God is only good, consistently good, totally good. It doesn’t change based on our life circumstances.
All we can expect from God is goodness because he has revealed himself in Christ Jesus.
Remember this when next you think about the goodness of God.
Got any questions? Was this helpful? Let us know in the comments.