Feb6-12: The Fruit of the Spirit Is Goodness

Teaching Points

1. How does God reveal His goodness to man in the following verses?

ANSWER:

• Psalm 25:8—God’s goodness leads Him to teach sinners His ways.
• Psalm 86:5—He has forgiveness and plenty of mercy for those that call on Him.
• Nahum 1:7—He is a strong hold or refuge in the day of trouble.
• Romans 8:28—He makes all things work out for the good of those that love Him.

2. What is the definition of goodness?

ANSWER:

• Strong’s Hebrew: H2617 –kindness, piety, beauty, mercy; H2898—beauty, gladness, joy; H2896—kindness, graciousness, pleasure, joy, loving, prosperity, wealth, etc. (mainly used when referring to God’s gifts or blessing).
• Strong’s Greek: G5544—usefulness in gentleness, moral excellence and kindness. G19—virture or beneficence 

OBSERVATION:

• God demonstrates His goodness by showing forgiveness, mercy, teaching us His ways, being a refuge for us and working out everything we face each day for our good.
• These are only a few of the many ways God demonstrates His goodness.
• The word goodness in many cases could be translated “kindness” or “mercifulness/ mercy” or “graciousness.”
• So there is a direct connection between mercy, grace, and kindness to goodness.

3. What do you see about God in the following verses although they may not directly use the word goodness?

ANSWER:

• Hebrews 1:2, 3—Christ, the express image of God, the Creator, came and died to cleanse us from our sins.
• John 3:16—God loved the world so much He gave His son to die for us.

4. How does the Bible describe our “goodness” and our condition?

ANSWER:

• Romans 3:10-20; no one is righteous. No one is good, all have sinned, and we fall short of God’s glory. We can’t be justified (made righteous) by trying to keep the law.

OBSERVATION:

• God’s greatest demonstration of goodness is the gift of Jesus Christ to save us from sin and take our death.
• Humanly we are not good on our own; we cannot reveal the kindness and mercy of God on our own.
• By sin we fall short of God’s glory. This glory is His character of goodness, mercy, and grace (see Exodus 33: 18, 19).  
• Righteousness is connected to goodness.
• None of us are good or righteous.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS:

• If we are naturally not good how can we become good?
• The Bible describes us as being enemies to God (Romans 5:10), basically rebelling against His goodness, how does God handle this and get through to us?

5. How does Paul describe God’s law?

ANSWER:

• “…holy, just and good.” Romans 7:12

6. What attitude does God want us to have toward His law?

ANSWER:

• Psalm 40:8—An attitude of delight or joy.

7. How does Hebrews 8:10 aid in God’s solution to our falling short?

ANSWER:

• God writes His law which is good in our hearts (emotions or feelings) and minds (thoughts).

OBSERVATION:

• God’s law is good and God wants us to delight in His law.
• We are not good and naturally don’t delight in God’s law nor can we truly keep it on our own.
• God through Christ reconciles us then writes His law in our hearts—so we love it—and in our minds.
• When this happens we are reprogrammed to do good and love good.
• God solves our problem by Christ reconciling us to God and part of the God’s reconciling is to write His law in our hearts and minds so that we are no longer fighting against God and his law but we now love God and His law.

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

• Are you willing to allow God to change you and write His law in your heart so that you will love to do good—be kind and merciful?
• Seeing that righteousness is connected to goodness according to Romans 3, are you willing to ask for Christ’s righteous character in place of your own unrighteousness?  

8. Read Titus 2:11-14 and describe in your own words what this passage means to you in light of what we have studied so far.

ANSWER:

• God’s grace teaches us how to live righteously, eagerly anticipating Christ’s return. And this is the One who gave Himself for us to save and cleanse us from sin so that we can be righteous or do good works.

SOP:

• Men sometimes become ashamed of their sinful ways, and give up some of their evil habits, before they are aroused to manifestly come to Christ; but it is the power of the gospel, the grace of Christ, that is drawing them to make reformation in their conduct. An influence of which they are unconscious works upon the soul, and the conscience is quickened, and the outward life is amended. And as Christ draws them to look upon his cross, to look upon him whom their sins have pierced, the commandment comes home to the conscience. The wickedness of their life, the deep-seated sin of the soul, is revealed to them. They begin to comprehend something of the righteousness of Christ, and exclaim, "Was all this love, all this suffering, all this humiliation demanded that we might not perish, but have everlasting life?" They then understand that it is the goodness of God that leadeth to repentance. A repentance such as this lies beyond the reach of our own powers to accomplish; it is obtained only from Christ, who ascended up on high, and has given gifts unto men. Christ is the source of every right impulse. He is the only one who can arouse in the natural heart enmity against sin. He is the source of our power if we would be saved. No soul can repent without the grace of Christ. The sinner may pray that he may know how to repent. God reveals Christ to the sinner, and when he sees the purity of the Son of God, he is not ignorant of the character of sin. By faith in the work and power of Christ, enmity against sin and Satan is created in his heart. Those whom God pardons are first made penitent.  {RH, April 1, 1890 par. 5} 

CONCLUSION:

• Goodness is an attribute of God’s Character.
• Goodness is closely linked with kindness, mercy, and grace.
• We are not naturally good or righteous; we can’t of ourselves demonstrate these beautiful attributes.
• Jesus came to restore us so that we can be good or righteous; so we can have these characteristics.
• Through Jesus we can be saved and cleansed from sin.
• Part of this restoration process is writing God’s law in our hearts.
• When God does this then we will love to do good and delight in God’s law and we will have mercy, kindness, and goodness in our hearts.

APPLICATION QUESTION:

• Do you demonstrate God’s goodness, kindness, and mercy?
• Are you experiencing salvation and cleansing from sin necessary before you can be righteous or do good?
• Are you willing to plead with God today to give you a heart full of His law so that you take joy in obedience, goodness, kindness, and mercy?