Talking Points with Pastor Lucas: Very Good
God declares each day of creation to be “good.” Yet, on day six, the day human beings are created, He intensifies that description: “God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good” (Gen. 1:31).
Good—pleasant, agreeable, excellent, superb. That’s how we think about God’s declaration, as an adjective that describes His act of creation. But good is also a noun. Good—decent, blameless, upright, moral, righteous. So, which is it here? I’d argue for both. One that describes the beginning of all that there is, the other that describes the origins of all that there is.
What’s the difference? Beginnings start and end. But origins are foundational and remain. You have a personal beginning on the day you are born, but then you grow and age, and move past that beginning. Your origin, however, stays with you all your life. Your origins are the parents who conceive you and the genetics and DNA that make up your body. They are your foundation and go with you through all of life.
In the beginning, God declares all creation good. It both pleased Him, and it was good in itself, which meant it was decent, blameless, and righteous. There was no sin, no fighting, no earthquakes, accidents, disease, or death, so it was all very good.
Yet, when we look around the world today, we see so many things that are not good. We see plenty of things that are not pleasant or decent, people who are not agreeable or blameless, individuals who are not upright or moral. The breakdown of marriage and the family. The physical and sexual abuse of human trafficking. Racial divisions and hostility. Sexual perversions and transgender bodily mutilations. The political divides that teach us to hate others. The diseases that afflict us. The death that surrounds us.
All demonstrate how the goodness of creation was lost when Adam and Eve first fell into sin. Not only was the beginning that God declared good now tainted and stained, but the origins of humanity are perpetually forgotten and dismissed. Humanity is now turned in on itself. We look to find fulfilment in anything and everything other than what our beginning intended and what our origin provided.
To be sure, there is much in our world that is not good—both as an adjective and noun. Recently the U.S. Surgeon General raised the alarm about the devastating impact of loneliness. In fact, loneliness has been declared an epidemic in the United States. Far too many people are quietly suffering from loneliness. Perhaps that includes you?
It is rather telling that in the perfection of creation’s beginning the one thing that God says is not good is for man to be alone (Gen. 2:18). So, God makes a helper fit for him. Eve is given as helper and wife to Adam. From the beginning the good of companionship is established with its origin in God Himself, who is in eternal companionship as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
However, not all people are given to marry in this life. We should be especially mindful of the single people in our lives. Even if someone does not marry, God did not intend for humans to be alone. Conversely, even if someone is married, they can be lonely.
Loneliness is used by the devil as part of his sinister plan to thwart our faith - to isolate us and tempt us to think and feel like there is no one who cares, no purpose to life, and no hope in life. Satan wants us alone, left to our misbeliefs, lost in our questions and frustrations, to give in to our doubts, and to reject God.
But Jesus Christ came as the beginning and origin of life incarnate that we would not be alone. In fact, He was not just good; He was very good—both adjective and noun! And that means all that is bad in this world could not overpower His goodness. He came to rescue and restore us to our origins and to fill us with hope.
This is not just good news; this is very good news! It goes straight to your life right now. It declares that you are a precious creature of God, created in His image. The fall into sin may have corrupted our parents’ beginning in the Garden and damaged our origins, which inevitably leads to the very bad ending of death and damnation. But by faith in Christ Jesus all that is very bad is overwhelmed by all that is very good.
The heartache of this world is overrun by the joy of His life. The defilement of sin is met with the cleansing of His forgiveness. The sorrow you have from a loved one lying in a casket is overwhelmed by the resurrection power that He brings. The good Jesus brings is meant for you today!
In fact, each day can be greeted as a new beginning from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit. In a world that has forgotten its beginning and ignores it origins, our Triune God brings the goodness of creation and redemption into your life that you can become a witness to the world.
So, how can you bring hope to a fallen and lonely world? How can you bring the good of God’s created order to bear upon a bad world?
You lift up the good of being male and female. You exult the good of being a husband and a wife, of being a father and mother.
You show the world its origins and speak of how the Triune God brings all that is good to bear upon your life right here and right now..
You bring the good of God’s redeemed world to single people, married people, those caught up in sexual sins or the transgender craze.
You bring the good and kindness of your presence to a lonely world to show the life we have from the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit is indeed very good.
In Christ,
Rev. Dr. Lucas V. Woodford
MN South District President
LCMS
