Jesus came so that we may enjoy the goodness of God – Part 4

Jesus is the full expression of God’s goodness. He came to make us recipients of God’s goodness and to teach us the virtue of divine goodness, so that through us, God’s goodness will be made known and felt in the world. He came to make us like God, to have the nature of God in us, so that we can live like God. Christlikeness should enable us to be extensions of God’s goodness.

He created in the image of Christ for good works. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10 NKJV). That means God created us, so that through us, the world has a feel of His goodness. We can love and serve our neighbours only as God conforms us to His image.‬

In Acts 10: 38, we read that Jesus went about doing good. Acts of compassion were central to His ministry. Then in Matthew 4:23-25, we read that teaching, preaching and healing were at the core of His ministry. They were the means through which many felt God’s kindness and goodness through Jesus’s ministry.

“And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. Then His fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them. Great multitudes followed Him—from Galilee, and Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.” (Matthew 4:23-25 NKJV).‬

Romans 2:4 states that God’s goodness leads to repentance. “Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?” Jesus made sure that all tasted of the goodness of God through him could come to repentance. It is not his will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (1 Peter 3:9).

His compassion, healings, miracles and forgiveness were all aimed at leading men to repentance. The ten lepers whom He healed were of different nationalities and were ostracised from society. One was a Samaritan; the others were possibly Jews (Luke.17: 15-16). Jesus healed them all.

The woman of Samaria had married several husbands (John 4:15-18). Jesus did not judge her based on her past, rather, he pointed her to the true living water thereby broking the barrier between Jews and Samarians.

The Syrophoenician woman was a Gentile, who then were not qualified for God’s blessings, yet Jesus extended the goodness of God to her. (Matthew 15: 21-28).

Jesus fed the multitude to show the goodness of God to cater to man’s physical and spiritual needs (John 6:1-14). The people testified He was the prophet they were looking for and wanted to make Him King.

When Jesus forgave the woman caught in adultery, He sent the message that He came to show the mercy of God than condemn sinners (John 8:1-11). The sick, the possessed, the afflicted, the poor and the rich – all came to Him for help. He did not withhold help from any one of them, because His mission was to bring men to repentance through his acts of goodness.

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