He is Good

 * The following is an excerpt from a sermon I recently preached titled To Whom Shall We Go?

The one single thing Jesus cannot do is sin.  He can do all things. He can do the impossible. But He cannot be other than He is - and He is good.  Everything He does is right.  He never left anything undone that should have been done.  He never did anything, said anything or thought anything He shouldn’t.  Our powerful Saviour is not only mighty to save, He is also holy.  He is a good God.

When we say that Jesus is good we also mean that He is kind.  He is never mean.  He is never vindictive.  He is never thoughtless.  When we say that He is good we also mean that He is merciful and compassionate.  He is a Saviour who is most willing to save.  This is never something He does begrudgingly.  He is that Father that watches for the prodigal’s return. At the first sight of the sinner's return He rushes to take the sinner into his arms.  He is like that widow who upon finding the lost coin was so glad she called her neighbours to celebrate.   He is that Shepherd who leaves the 99 to find the one lost sheep.  

As I have searched the Scriptures on these things I have found that the Bible uses a number of words to communicate the same truth.  We are told that God is merciful, gracious, longsuffering, pitiful, and slow to anger. But as if that were not enough - not enough to say that He is these things - we are told that He is not just pitiful but very pitiful. He is not just gracious but very gracious.  But then the Bible not only uses those words in their singular.   Its not just mercy. No, the Bible speaks of the mercies of God, and the manifold mercies of God and the multitude of His mercies.    

But not content to stop there God insists that they are sure mercies and great mercies and mercies great above the heavens. We are told that they are great not only in number but great also in magnitude.  They are not only sure and great, they are also tender mercies.  

But its still better because the Bible teaches us that God is rich in mercy, plenteous in mercy, and full of compassion.  We are told that He has abundant mercy, and He is full of mercy. He is even called the Father of mercy. The Bible says that His compassions fail not, His mercy is everlasting, and in one Psalm we are told 26 times that His mercies endure forever.  

In the same way the Bible talks not only of His kindness but His great kindness, His marvellous kindness, and His everlasting kindness. But the Bible tells us also about His merciful kindness and His lovingkindness. There's more! God speaks also of His excellent lovingkindness and his marvellous lovingkindness and then the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.

Isaiah says, "For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee." And then as if driving it all home the Bible compares His mercy to a Father’s pity, says His friendship is better than a brother’s and tells us His love greater than a mother’s.  

This is the Jesus who wept over Jerusalem as He said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!” It wasn’t that He would not! How willing He was. How He wanted to gather them as a hen her brood and take them under His wings. 

And so it is today.  We badly mistake Him when we think there is any unwillingness on His side. No - the unwillingness is only ever on our side.  He invites you to come, entreats you to come, offers you incentive to come and assures you that He will not cast you out.  This is the Saviour who sympathizes with sinners in their weakness, who set His face like flint to go to Calvary, who for the joy that was set before Him went to the cross and drank the full cup of the Father’s wrath not to condemn but to save.  And why did He do all this?  He did because He loves His sheep and wants them to be with Him in glory.   

He is good.