This is but another way to draw attention to God’s simplicity. Rather than goodness being a ‘part’ of God, goodness just is God. God is not good in relationship to anyone or anything else. God experiences neither increase nor decrease in goodness. His goodness is absolutely uncreated. As with his other attributes or names, for example, love, goodness is intrinsic to the one divine essence itself, an essence common to the Father, Son, and Spirit.
Goodness is pre-eminent with respect to God. God is goodness itself. Goodness is not only in him but, astonishingly, what he is. When we read, sing, and meditate upon the Psalms, we are confronted with a plethora of references to God’s goodness. One of the most arresting is Psalm 119:68: “You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.” Three words from this extraordinary verse are ripe for contemplation: “are,” “do,” and “teach.”
A few years ago I published a study of these words and the theological themes they encapsulate. It appeared in 2018 as The Lord is Good: Seeking the God of the Psalter (IVP Academic). I considered the metaphysics of goodness; the acts of goodness; and how God’s statutes form us in his goodness. My principal conversation partner in that exploration was Thomas. His Psalms commentary, though difficult and dense, is something of a neglected treasure. Thomas’s conviction is that “there is nothing better than God.” As a result of writing that book, I came to agree with Thomas. The Lord is good. God’s goodness is identical to God, commensurate with God. Goodness is in God and is God himself.
You Are Good
This is but another way to draw attention to God’s simplicity. Rather than goodness being a ‘part’ of God, goodness just is God. God is not good in relationship to anyone or anything else. God experiences neither increase nor decrease in goodness. His goodness is absolutely uncreated. As with his other attributes or names, for example, love, goodness is intrinsic to the one divine essence itself, an essence common to the Father, Son, and Spirit. Just so, Scripture discourages us from thinking that goodness is most especially said of one of the three. God the Father is good, God the Son and Spirit too, not three goodnesses but one.
This insight is illuminated by Augustine. He writes in Book V of The Trinity about how Scripture sometimes refers things to God “substance-wise” while at other times “relationship-wise.” This distinction is key. It helps us understand how God’s names of which goodness is pre-eminent are said of God in a substantial or essential sense. When we say that the Father is the begetter and the Son the one begotten or born, we are speaking in a relational register. The one essence common to the three neither begets nor is begotten. These descriptions work on a relational level: The Father as begetter refers to the one eternally born of him, the Son. Scripture promotes this twofold register. Accordingly, goodness is true of God essentially. His goodness, the goodness common to the three, is not a goodness in which God participates. God does not participate in some greater thing called goodness. The one God just is good, Father, Son, and Spirit.
