“And He (Jesus) who is seated on the throne said, ‘See! I make all things new…’ ”
(Revelation 21:5)
When God puts a dream in your heart, when He puts a promise on the inside of you, He deposits within you everything you need to accomplish that dream. He wouldn’t give you the desire to do something without giving you the ability to fulfill it. God puts the creative power of goodness into all his creatures who love him and obey his word.
I think in order to understand what it means to be good we need to see goodness from God's point of view.
The word “good” is used quite a bit throughout our daily lives.
How are you? “Good.”
How was your day? “Good.”
How was your meal? “Good.”
How did you sleep? “Good.”
God is…? “Good?”
God IS good.
God is GOOD!
He is the one good God. His creation is good. We are his creation. And his good creation is in us.
Yes__even in you.
Our God is a creator God. Not an idol made by idol hands out from the creation, or made up by the creature out of the natural world of living creatures. Our God created everything, and he called it good.
Seven times in the Old Testament book Genesis God sees His creation is good. In Genesis 1:4, after He had spoken light into existence, He saw it was good. In Genesis 1:10, after separating the water from the land, He saw that was good also. After creating plant life, in Genesis 1:12 He saw that it was good. In Genesis 1:18, after putting into place a system for lighting the earth and for separating the night from day, and He calls that good. In Genesis 1:21, after creating living creatures to populate the water and the air, He observes these to be good. In Genesis 1:25, after populating the land with animals, flying creatures and insects (and though it's not mentioned one must assume microscopic life forms, and He calls that good, too. And then finally, after creating humanity as the capstone of His creation (Genesis 1:26–30), He looks it all over and He declared it to be not just good but VERY good. This is goodness.
It could be said that God was calling things good because they were effective for fulfilling the function for which He had designed them to be. If this is so, then this would reflect a kind of purposeful instrumental good. God “saw” that his design was good. He observed that his creations were good, which implies that He had a design and purpose in mind and that the products of his creation met His approval—He judged them to be effective for serving His purposes. For us it's important that we realize that he's the Creator, and that God has the right to define his creatures and the authority to judge its effectiveness. If God judges something to be good (or not good), then that's what it is.
If you were to ask me, "Mike, what is good?" I would have to say the gift of faith in Jesus Christ and his resurrection. We have a very good gift given to us from our Father in heaven. In our Creator God's omnipotent creative nature, goodness comes into being. We through faith in Christ appropriate God’s omnipotence. Apart from that faith, His almighty power is inaccessible and irrelevant to our daily living! Therefore GOOD for me is a product of faith in the creator God. Good God almighty has created goodness and gifted access to that goodness to us through faith in the resurrection of his only begotten Son Christ Jesus the Messiah, the perfect lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice of love. King of the Universe.
God, through his Holy Spirit is miraculously working in people’s hearts, opening their eyes to the truth, convicting them of sin, and granting repentance to those who hear his voice. His miracles today are evidenced in changed lives. And he designed it to take place in this way. This is HIS good design for goodness sake. Mere miracles don't produce faith. Miracles didn't produce effective faith in the biblical times, nor could they produce faith now. The fruit of the Spirit, goodness, is a product of faith. It is faith that God sees and faith that he calls good. God didn’t leave us lacking in anything. He created and recreates us. He has already equipped us with His Word to do His good work! The Holy Spirit resides in every believer. He is our constant companion guiding us, reminding us of God's good truths, convicting us of sin, emboldening us, motivating us, and empowering us. We don’t have to see God’s mighty power in miracles, we have that very power and more in our lives since the Holy Spirit lives within us!
So to wrap it all up into a nice neat bow, the very same creative power (grace) that brought Jesus alive again out from the grave is available to each and every believer. The creative power to become a new creation. A new heart is available. A recreated spirit is available. A new purpose is available. A new life is available. A whole new world is available. POWER is available with Jesus!
All things become new. You become everything you've ever wanted to be because you become what you were created to be.
Good?
Good.
So what are you waiting for? For goodness sake get going.