God is good since He is God, and therefore good by Himself and from Himself, not by another’s work.

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God made everything good, but none other has made Him good. Since His goodness was not received from another, He is good by His own nature. He could not receive goodness from the things He created since they were created after Him. His creatures received all of their beings and attributes from Him, and so they can bestow no blessing or gift on Him. No other God preceded Him in whose inheritance and treasures of goodness He might be a successor: God is absolutely His own goodness. He needed none to make Him good, but all things need Him in order to be good. Creatures are good because He made them so and they imitated His nature. He is good without clinging to any goodness outside of Himself.

Goodness is not a quality nor a habit added to God’s essence, but is instead a nature. Goodness is itself the essence of God.

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From the book “Boundlessly Good”

All God’s acts towards man are but the workmanship of this goodness. What moved Him at first to create the world out of nothing and erect so noble a creature as man, endowed with such excellent gifts? Was it not His goodness? What made Him separate His Son to be a sacrifice for us after we had strove to erase out the first marks of His favor? Was it not a fervent bubbling of goodness? What moves Him to humble a fallen creature to the due sense of his duty and at last bring him to an eternal felicity? Is it not only God’s goodness?

This goodness is the captain of God’s attributes that lead the rest to act. This chief quality attends them and encourages them in all His ways of acting. Goodness is the complement and perfection of all His works. Had it not been for this compulsion to execute to His goodness, which set all the rest in motion, nothing of His wonders would be seen in creation, nor nothing of His compassions seen in redemption.

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From the book “Boundlessly Good”

God is first good and then compassionate. Righteousness in Scripture is often understood not as justice, but as charitableness. This attribute, says one theologian, is so full of God, that it deifies all the rest and renders God worthy of all adoration. His wisdom might contrive against us, or His power bear down too hard upon us. His wisdom might be too hard for the ignorant, and His power prove too mighty for a weak creature. His holiness would scare an impure and guilty creature, yet His goodness tempers all these qualities  and transforms them into an lovely and amiable appearance.

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Whatever comeliness these qualities have for our creature eyes, whatever comfort they afford to our hearts, we are obliged to His goodness for them all. His reigning goodness puts all these qualities into a delightful exercise: His wisdom becomes a design for us, and His power acts for us. This principle goodness veils His holiness from frightening us and moves His mercy to relieve us.

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From the book “Boundlessly Good”

The goodness of God encompasses all His attributes.  All the acts of God are nothing else but His goodness flowing out.

The whole catalog of mercy, grace, longsuffering, and abundance of truth are summed up in this one word “goodness”.  (Exodus 34:6).  All are streams from this fountain.  God could be none of these if He wasn’t first good.

When goodness bestows happiness on a being who does not have any corresponding merit, it is grace.  When goodness bestows happiness against merit, it is mercy.  When God bears with provoking rebels, His goodness is long-suffering.  When He performs His promise, it is truth.  When goodness meets with a person to whom it is not obliged to provide blessing, it is grace, and when He meets with a person in the world to whom He has obliged himself by a promise, His goodness is manifested as truth.  When goodness comforts a distressed person, it is pity.  When it supplies an impoverished person, it is bounty.  When it justifies or rights an innocent person, it is righteousness, and when it pardons a repentant person, it is mercy.

All these characteristics are summed up in the one name –  goodness.

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From the book “Boundlessly Good”

When Moses longed to see His glory, God told him He would give him a glimpse of His goodness:  “I will make all My goodness pass before you.” (Exodus 33:19).  His goodness is His glory and Godhead, or as much as can be delightfully visible to His creatures – and His goodness is the channel through which He benefits man.

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From the book “Boundlessly Good”

Please see also “Call That Love” by Jonathan Parnell

This is the most pleasant perfection of the divine nature:  God’s creating power amazes us, His conducting wisdom astonishes us, and His goodness delights us and renders both His amazing power and astonishing wisdom increasingly delightful to us.

Because God is great and powerful, He is the object of our understanding, but since He is good and bountiful, He is the object of our love and desire.

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From the book “Boundlessly Good”

The goodness of God is His inclination to deal well and bountifully with His creatures.  By this determination, He wills there should be something besides himself to proclaim His own glory.

God is the highest goodness because, instead of for His own profit, He acts for His creatures’ welfare and the manifestation of His own goodness.  He sends out His bounty without receiving any addition to Himself or substantial advantage from His creatures.

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From the book “Boundlessly Good”

From the book “Boundlessly Good”

God’s goodness in Scripture … describes the faithful bounty that He pours out upon all His creatures.  Goodness flows from the natural perfection of His deity.

God’s goodness is not the blessedness of God, but is instead something flowing from His blessedness.  If He were not first infinitely blessed and complete in Himself, He could not be infinitely good and giving to us.  Had He not infinite abundance in His own nature, He could not be overflowing to creatures.

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From the book “Boundlessly Good”

No perfection of the Divine Nature is more illustrious nor as apparent in the whole book of creation than is the goodness of God’s own nature.  Where His greatness shines, His goodness gleams just as brightly.

His power is displayed in whatever is the instrument of His work, and His wisdom is shown in the ordering of His universe, but nothing can be adored as much as the motive of His work, which is the sheer goodness of His nature.

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From the book “Boundlessly Good”

Truly God is good (Psalm 73:1). God orients all things to Himself for the goal of representing the overflowing bounty of His own nature.