The Goodness of God for All Times

Dearly beloved, the goodness of God transcends every age. “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.”

He will not withhold anything that is good from us. The goodness of God is ours for all times; from creation to salvation to the time we will receive our hope in Christ Jesus our Lord, to the unending age of glory that lies beyond.

God really does say what He means and He means what He says. He gave us His Word; it is the revelation of His will, and He is true and faithful to it.

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled [deceived] Eve through his subtilty [cunning, guile, deviousness, craftiness], so your minds [noema: the thinking, that which is thought out, a product of the mind referring to the purposes, designs, and schemes of the thinking process] should be corrupted [phtheiro: to spoil, corrupt; bring into a worse state] from the simplicity [haplotes: singleness, integrity, simplicity] that is in Christ.”

Everything God did when He restored the heavens and the earth was for His man. After each day He said that His work was good, and when He finished His work it says, behold, it very good. Adam only knew the goodness of God toward Him. God is not the one that introduced Adam to evil and its consequences; the serpent was.

It is the same concerning His work in Christ toward us. We know that in everything God works for good with those who love Him, that is, to those who are called according to his purpose. Our Father purposed and preplanned our deliverance from Adam’s sin; He knew what He wanted to accomplish, He planned for it, purposed it; He made the necessary preparations for it, He willed it, and He sent His Son to achieve it.

It was the good pleasure of His will to accomplish it for us in Christ. He called us according to His purpose, and those whom He foreknew, He also determined beforehand that we would be conformed to the image of His Son, that he [Christ] might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Moreover, those for whom He determined things beforehand He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified, and those whom He justified, them He also glorified.

What shall we say to these things, dearly beloved? If God is for us, who is against us? That would be our adversary.

He who did not spare His own Son but gave him up for us all, will He not also freely give us all things with him? Read this again: our Father who gave His only begotten Son for us all, will also freely give us all things with Christ!

Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God that justifies. (The charges against us come from our accuser, the devil.)

Who is he that condemns? Is it Christ Jesus, who died for us, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us?

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Nothing can or will ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord!

I call that “very good”, wouldn’t you? Even as we endure the trials of our believing today we are more than conquerors through him that loved us! Our Father is not the one that brings tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or the sword against us; that is the old serpent, the devil. He wants to corrupt our thinking processes so that we do not believe who we are in Christ and believe our Father’s goodness towards us; do not be deceived.

The One True God is our Father and He works for our good in everything; from today’s challenges until we acquire the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming! Beloved, may we have fullness of joy until we see our Lord face to face and we are glorified together with him. The joy of the Lord is our strength.