Goodness

Goodness is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22). The fruits of the Holy Spirit are supernatural, and they come from God. It only possible to have the fruits of the Holy Spirit when God is working in us.

The key to bringing forth the fruit of the Holy Spirit is abiding in Christ (John 15:5). His life must flow into us. We are like branches that draw on his life in order to produce fruit. This fruit does not come from ourselves or from our own abilities, but it comes from God.

When people are asked why they will go to heaven, they often answer that they will go to heaven because they are good people. However, Jesus said that there is no one good except God (Luke 18:19). “There is no one who does good, no, not one” (Romans 3:12). If no one is good, then no one can get to heaven on the basis of their own goodness, because they don’t have any goodness.

Paul said that no good thing dwelt in him, that is in his flesh (Romans 7:18). In his flesh he did not have the ability to be good or do good. If Paul a mighty apostle lacked goodness in himself, how much more does everyone else lack it?

The only way anyone can do good is by the power of the Holy Spirit. God alone can enable us to do good things. In ourselves it is impossible, but not with God. With God all things are possible. Goodness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, not our flesh.

God alone is good. We are commanded to taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8). He is good all the time. He gives good gifts. God is an overflowing fountain of goodness. If we want to have genuine goodness in our lives, we need God.

If we have God, then the Holy Spirit is inside us. Then it becomes possible to be good and to do good.

He who does good is of God (3 John 11). Barnabas was called a good man (Acts 11:24). He was a good man because he had been born again by the Holy Spirit, and he allowed the Holy Spirit to produce goodness in his life.

When we were born again, our hearts were changed. We got new hearts. We now want to hear the word of God, do it, and bring forth fruit. This heart that responds to the word of God is called “good.” (Luke 8:15).

By the Holy Spirit, “a good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth that which is good” (Matthew 12:34-35). All this goodness in our lives is only possible by God, and it starts by being born again.God wants us to overflow goodness into this world. Draw on our good God and reveal his goodness to others. As Christians, we have a good treasure of good things in our hearts. We need to let this treasure out.

God wants us to speak out what is good (Ephesians 4:29). This is only possible by the Holy Spirit. In ourselves, we will not speak good things.

God’s eternal purpose is for his children to do good works (Ephesians 2:10). He has ordained us to do good works from the foundation of the world. We can do good works because of the amazing fountain of goodness in our lives that is God, who is inside us like a living fountain of water. He saturates us with goodness every day, all the time.

“God is able to make ALL grace abound toward you, that you, ALWAYS having ALL sufficiency in ALL things, may have an abundance for EVERY good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8).

This great goodness of God is his grace flowing into us by his Holy Spirit. This grace gives us ability to do good things. The more of God’s grace we appropriate through faith, the more we will experience God’s goodness, and the more we will be empowered to reveal his goodness to others.

We are commanded to do good to everyone, especially to those of the household of faith (Galatians 6:10). God does good to everyone too, causing his rain and sun to shine on the good and evil. He particularly does good to his own children, blessing us with eternal life, the Holy Spirit, his grace, and many other awesome gifts.

Follow God’s example. Do good to all people, but especially to the children of God.

God will reward us for doing good. Whatever good things we do in this life, we will receive from the Lord (Ephesians 6:8). This is an amazing promise, and it ought to motivate us to do good by the Holy Spirit. When we are in heaven, God will do good things to us throughout eternity. Let’s look forward to this stupendous reality!

Those who do good will inherit eternal life (Romans 2:6-10).

We know that we are saved by grace through faith as a gift from God, not by our own good works. However, if we are born again by the Holy Spirit, then God will enable us to do good works. We get a new heart. This heart is good. We get a new spirit, the good Holy Spirit. Then we bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and one of those fruits is goodness. With God inside us we can be good and do good, as God flows through us. This goodness is a sign of God in our lives. Goodness is evidence that God is working is us, and it’s an important sign that we are his children.