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.   

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.

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