Mark Shockley

He’s That Good

I would really feel awful if the apostle Paul told me “you have become estranged from Christ… you have fallen from grace.”  That’s what he said to the Gentiles who were Christians, but were compelled to be circumcised by the Jewish Christians.  He told them “This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you.”

I have never been compelled to undergo surgery for religious or denominational reasons, but I have had people try to convince me many times that God is not that good.  He’s good, but only to a certain point—beyond that point you have to start explaining why his standards are different from ours, his thoughts are higher, and plus he can do whatever he wants.

It is true that His thoughts are higher—if you need to repent.  But Paul says that even the Corinthians, who we would say were in need of much follow-up at best, had the mind of Christ.  That whole thing about “no eye has seen, no ear has heard”?  Right after Paul quotes that in Corinthians he says “but God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.  For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.”  So God has revealed how good He is.  In fact, that’s the very thing that makes Him God!  God is the old Anglo-Saxon word for “the Good.”

Going after God and learning about Him should never be explaining away how bad He is; rather, we should constantly have to explain how good He is!—Yes, He really can change that situation, He really can heal this person, He really can save them.  He’s that good.