Impugning the Goodness of God
By J.P. Thackway
Genesis chapter 3 has been called the most tragic chapter in the Bible. Rightly so, because it marks a turning-point that has changed the course of human history, and for now ended any hope of paradise here. Yet, if it were not for this chapter, what follows in the Bible would not make sense. The rest of the Old Testament, and the entire New Testament, depend upon Genesis 3 as their foundation. It is for this reason that those who do not accept the historicity of this chapter will go wrong in everything else.
Liberals
This is what theological liberals do. In their interpreting Genesis 3 as an instructive fictional story, or as something merely poetical, they are left with no explanation for what is wrong with us and the world we live in. A sample of this is found in the writings of (sadly) H E Ryle, son of J C Ryle,
The Story of the Creation, as illustrated by Assyrian and Babylonian discoveries, is now seen to be the Hebrew version of one of the primitive legends common to the Semitic races, as much on a level with them, indeed, in their imperfect standard of physical science as infinitely superior to them in religious teaching, in purity and holiness, in freedom from the grotesque features which disfigure the other versions. The teaching is the teaching of the Spirit; the narrative a purified form of a Semitic legend (The Biblical World journal, 1894).
With no right diagnosis of our malady there can be no true remedy. Without this inspired and infallible record of The Fall, what follows: the Law to convict of sin and the atonement of Christ to reconcile us to God, make no sense. Neither does the paradise regained of the “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13).
Central
We can say that central to the biblical account of the Fall is what the devil took aim at to bring it about: the goodness of God. God’s goodness is the expression of His perfect love. He both is good (because He is love, 1 John 4:8), and He does good (in all His actions, Psalm 119:68). It is His sheer generosity and kindness whereby He “giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not” (James 1:5). It moved John Kent to write,
Indulgent God, how kind
Are all thy ways to me.
Kevin DeYoung, has described it like this:
Divine goodness is the overflowing bounty of God by which he communicates blessing to His creation and to His creatures. God’s goodness is the opposite of harshness and cruelty. To experience divine goodness is to enjoy the sweetness, friendliness, benevolence, and generosity of God.
And before him, A W Pink:
The goodness of God is the life of the believer’s trust. It is this excellency
in God which most appeals to our hearts. Because His goodness endureth
forever, we ought never to be discouraged: ‘The Lord is good, a stronghold
in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him’ (Nahum 1:7).
At our conversion, overcome by our sins, this attribute of God melted us into hope of salvation in Christ: “the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance” (Romans 2:4). We could hardly believe how blessed we were to find that God was lovingly reconciled to us by the death of His Son. And we could sing like John Stocker,
Thy mercy in Jesus exempts me from hell;
Its glories I’ll sing, and its wonders I’ll tell;
’Twas Jesus, my friend, when He hung on the tree,
That open’d the channel of mercy for me.
Thy mercy is more than a match for my heart,
Which wonders to feel its own hardness depart;
Dissolved by Thy goodness, I fall to the ground,
And weep to the praise of the mercy I’ve found.
Persuaded
While happily persuaded of His Creator’s goodness, Adam would continue in loving obedience, fulfilling the Covenant of Works (cf Genesis 2:16,17). He would gratefully please his Maker in the spirit of what Luther called, “a living confidence in the goodness of God.” If this could be undermined, the door would open to discontent – and eventually to the disobedience that ruined us all (Romans 5:12).
Let us seek to understand how this happened, and heed the warnings and lessons of this foundation history.
The Devil.
“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made” (Genesis 3:1). He abruptly appears on the scene. His origin is shrouded in mystery. However, scripture gives us hints, such as the passage in Isaiah 14:12-14 concerning the King of Babylon:
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
We believe this passage is a type of the fall of Satan from his first estate (Jude verse 6). The name Lucifer means “light bearer,” perhaps a reference to his original splendour and magnificence as the highest-ranking angel in heaven. Our Lord’s words use similar language concerning his fall: “And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Luke 10:18). Again, in Revelation 9:1 we have the same figure: “And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.”
Lucifer’s arrogant rebellion against God is echoed in 1 Timothy 3:6 concerning a hastily appointed Elder, “lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.” Satan, then, having led a revolt against God, was cast out of heaven; the angels who “kept not their first estate” and followed him became his demons. Having failed in his purpose to dethrone and usurp God, he now turns his attention to God’s creation masterpiece: man. In this he mounts a more “subtil” attack upon God (Genesis 3:1).
The devil’s appearance as a “serpent” is obviously a disguise to “beguile” Eve (2 Corinthians 11:3). That he can take over bodies appears again when a legion of demons entered swine and destroyed them (Mark 5:13). Entering the serpent was to also destroy, cunningly concealed. This gave rise to his names: “Apollyon” (destroyer) and “that old serpent” (Revelation 9:11; 12:9).
Satan attacks God’s goodness.
His first recorded words query it: “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Genesis 3:1). The evil one suggests to Eve something negative about God. It goes back to 2:16,17. There, the Lord had said to our first parents: “of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat” – except one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Yet, the serpent twists this to make it seem that the Lord had said, “Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden.” From prohibiting one tree for their good, it becomes prohibiting all the trees for their harm. He slanderously hides God’s goodness by magnifying His (supposed) strictness.
This is where all hard thoughts of God come from. Satan not only accuses us to God (Revelation 12:10), but he also accuses God to us, as here. And our heart, if not softened by God’s goodness, can be dissatisfied with His falsely-alleged meanness. This can open us to further attacks, leading to our being tempted to sin, and with little conviction that sin will harm us. Despising the riches of his goodness (Romans 2:4) makes us vulnerable to far worse. “Men ask in vain,” said Luther, “what was the particular sin to which Eve was tempted. The solicitation was to all sins when she was tempted to doubt the word and the goodwill of God.”
So, the first attack of the devil was upon God’s goodness to us. This is because the devil hates this divine and tender attribute. He lost it all through his fall, and he wants us to fall from it too. He knows he cannot turn God’s goodness away from us: “the goodness of God endureth continually” (Psalm 52:1), or us away from it (Jeremiah 32:40). But he can turn us away from the comfort of it. The divine goodness is the last thing he wants us to enjoy. Therefore, he tries to make God seem less than good, and if we half—believe Satan we will half—disbelieve the Lord.
He started with the woman.
“And he said unto the woman…” (verse 1). The Serpent waited until she was near the forbidden tree, and (perhaps) away from her husband. Also, she had heard the grant and threatening from Adam in 2:16,17, and so it came to her second hand with less effect. It therefore left her more persuadable. Through her, the devil could reach Adam.
She made the huge mistake of discussing with the devil. In reply to his suggestion that God was hard on them, she replies:
We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die (verses 2,3).
In replying to Satan accusing God, Eve allows herself to be drawn into danger. She exposes herself to further words impugning God’s goodness, and further willingness to listen to the devil.
It reminds us that there is only one thing to do with temptation to sin: immediately reject it. “Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away” (Proverbs 4:15). If only Eve had done this! Temptation is never “something” – it is always “someone” working through it, and that someone is the devil: “Whom resist, stedfast in the faith” (1 Peter 5:9). When once we begin to listen to him, our guard is down and our resolve weakens. Temporising with sin makes it tantalising.
Eve concedes to the devil.
She answers the serpent’s assailing of God’s goodness by trying to correct his words. She says in verses 2 and 3:
We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Eve’s words now show that she does not see God as good as she once did. Two significant changes show this. The first is the omission of “freely” in “We may eat.” And the second is the addition of “neither shall ye touch it” to “Ye shall not eat of it.” So, Eve loses sight of divine goodness, and ponders the alleged strictness, which is exactly what the devil wanted. Now she is prone to further listen to him and be led into more temptation.
The next attack is God’s justice.
Eve, having mentioned the threatening concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (“lest ye die”), the Serpent goes for that. He says, “Ye shall not surely die.” This is a flat contradiction of God’s merciful threatening. It is a point—blank denial of divine judgment. If the devil had started with this, it would have startled Eve and put her on her guard. But weakening her confidence in the Lord’s goodness makes it easier for her to believe that His threatening also is less certain.
Divine judgment cannot be separated from divine goodness. They are the corresponding actions of a God who does all things well. He is the One who said to Moses in Exodus 34:6,7,
The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth … and that will by no means clear the guilty.
The punishment of sinners is the upholding of God’s authority and government. It is, we might say, the other side of His goodness. They are not opposed to each other, but are the same God acting justly or kindly as appropriate. The civil magistrate must act for “the punishment of evildoers and the praise of them that do well” (1 Peter 2:14) – justice and goodness in one. How much more the Most High God!
We know where all denials of divine judgment come from: the arch-liar and deceiver (John 8:44). Whether the denial of everlasting punishment in hell, the heresy of annihilationism, or any downplaying of divine justice, they fly in the face of the very word of God and play into the hands of the devil. Satan knows that the eternal punishment of sinners is true, but he does not want anyone else to believe it, until it is too late.
Satan drives home the attack
These assaults have left Eve wondering, and open to be worked upon further. Satan now can be even more direct with Eve. He continues:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:5).
In other words: “That death sentence is only a threat because God sees you both as rivals. Therefore, it is to keep you in your place. There is so much more that you could be, if you ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. You would be as gods – far higher than you now are, and like God Himself.” This makes Eve’s discontented mind able to desire the forbidden object, which enjoying God’s goodness would have made unthinkable (cf Genesis 39:9). It is now a short step to reach for what is missing from their lives; she eats the fruit and gives some to her husband.
The best good
“Thus still,” wrote Matthew Henry, “the devil draws people into his interest by suggesting to them hard thoughts of God, and false hopes of benefit and advantage by sin. Let us therefore, in opposition to him, always think well of God as the best good, and think ill of sin as the worst of evils: thus let us resist the devil, and he will flee from us.”
Satan cannot make anyone sin: he can only work upon us and try to seduce us. The Puritan commentator John Trapp wrote: “Satan hath only a persuading sleight, not an enforcing might.” This is why, by God’s grace (Matthew 6:13), temptation to sin is resistible and defeatable. None of us can ever plead that we could not help sinning. Divine help is there to enable us to overcome. And so much of that help is the full persuasion that God in His goodness loves us and would hold us close to Him so that the very thought of sin becomes impossible.
“The goodness of God is infinitely more wonderful than we will ever be able to comprehend,” wrote A W Tozer. Let us believe that, and in gratitude for it, keep far away from sin – and the temptation to it. And let us pray that the Lord will keep us from low and limited views of His goodness to us. And that we might be free of a servile fear and slavish spirit that so dishonours Him who has only ever done us good. May the words of Martin Luther be our happy experience: “This is true faith, a living confidence in the goodness of God.”