One may see the title I chose for this chapter as complex, and confusing even. This is completely understandable. I mean, why would God's goodness be a problem?

I submit to you that the goodness of God is the greatest threat to man. Above all things, the goodness of God should scare you and shake you to the bones. Why? Because God, being good, must punish evil and all evildoers.

That means you, and that means me. If God were not just, He would not be good. What good is there in a judge who lets rapists, murderers, and thieves go free? There is none. It is one of the greatest sins to let pure and disgusting evil go unpunished.

So why is this a problem? Why is this something man should be worried about? The goodness of God is so holy that it refuses to be defiled by the presence of evil. That means for you and for me, that as long as we remain stained by our sins, we cannot enter into the presence of the holiness of God.

Exodus teaches us that if a man were even to catch a glimpse of the glory of God, he would immediately die!

But why be worried? Because we are so carnal to the point that there is no hope for us in our own flesh. In our strength, we are given to our own fleshly desires and are sentenced to death. Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death."

How do we reconcile this? Because God is good, He must punish evil, and we are evil. We cannot do anything in our own strength apart from that which is evil. Even the good works we offer to God are as worthless as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). All that we do that is good apart from Christ is made unclean by the filth of our sin-stained hands, and it does not fool God.

What is to be done?

In God's goodness and mercy, He made way for our sin, our filth, and our corruption to be wiped clean. You see, we are evil and destined for punishment, but when Christ came to earth in the flesh, lived a perfect life as a man, and died, He made a way for us to be redeemed. Christ died!

What else is there to say? Because of His goodness, God needed to satisfy His wrath, but Christ bore our sin on that tree, suffered the forsaking of His Father, and died.

But how does the death of a man two thousand years ago help us now? How does one man's suffering for but a few short hours help us in any way? How do those few hours of suffering redeem a multitude of men for an eternity of bliss?

Only because that man who hung on a cross is worth more than all of us put together. Christ, when put on a scale, outweighs all that is beautiful, all that is priceless, all that brings delight, and all that we find valuable!

He bore our sins, and the goodness of God continues today as it was yesterday.

"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Salvation is a free gift. Accept it.