7.4 Into Goodness

God has no “purpose” for human folly; neither does He intend any happening of evil action. We strike down absolutely any claim that God “needed” humans to fall so that He could display His Salvation. Such a view of God defines Him out from the mind of knowing good and evil, a mind that cannot know Life. Such a mind looks at what God does do and interprets it falsely.

What does God do with evil actions? God does the same thing with evil actions as He intended to do and must do with all actions, whatever the original intention behind them. God turns their outcome into goodness.

Meant It for Good. Here is what God does, as expressed by Joseph. “As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (Genesis 50:20).

“Every knee shall bow” includes the reality that every sentient being created by God will say, concerning the entire scope of their lives, “God is good, all the time.” And they will say it with tears, certain of its Truth. To turn the outcome of evil actions into goodness for the sake of others does not happen overnight, nor without cost. It happens only through faith, only through casting one’s self utterly into the Father. It is the work God always intended for humans.

Acknowledging God. When Jesus said, “Do not call Me good, for only God is good,” He did not then mean that He or anything else was ‘evil.’ Jesus had never eaten of knowing good and evil; He knew only Life. Jesus meant the same thing as when He said, “I can do nothing of Myself.”

Goodness, Love, Life, these things are God, God present and known, God abounding in all. To be these things is to know God present in fullness. It is to acknowledge the Father. Nothing in creation, nor any action, can be good in itself. All things must be seen to be good, and thus turned, through faith, into pure and intrinsic goodness by acknowledging God.

Doing Our Job. Joseph saw himself only as “God with me.” He received every next moment as from God, regardless, even when he did not understand. If Joseph had called his brother’s actions against him by not-God, he would have died in bitterness.

Knowing God and knowing the human, I am certain of this, that Joseph made his decision concerning the goodness of God in the darkest moments of his experience. It’s not that he “forgave his brothers”; it’s that he saw God in all, and through God, goodness. Forgiving his brothers was only the certain outcome of seeing God. Nothing can be good until God has sons doing their job.

All Creation Become Good. When Jesus accepted the Father’s cup in Gethsemane, He displayed the greatest faith in the universe, for He was agreeing to synergeo with God for however long it took to turn all things into goodness. When we do the same, in utter faith in our Father, we are doing so entirely inside that same faith of the Son of God.

Repurposing six thousand years of human folly does not happen overnight; it is the work of ages. It comes with great immediate costliness, one person at a time. As Paul said, “By man death, by man – life out from death.” The completion of Salvation is all creation set free from corruption, all creation restored to God and become good.

The Pro-Thesis Prevails. The Greek word translated “purpose” is pro-thesis, God’s set forth purpose, all here now. God’s intention is LIFE, that all would know Him. That intention is directed to every moment of every person. Evil purpose is always contrary to God.

“Repurposing,” then, does not mean God’s purpose changing. It means that when I consider a moment I thought was evil. I see God’s purpose in that moment and, in doing so, I give my evil intent and the evil intent of the other person involved to God, that He alone might take it from me, and I acknowledge the good intentions of God through Jesus. Thus Love prevails into goodness.