When you think about the goodness of the Lord, what are some of the things that come to your mind? You might have had the same kind of answers as the above, or you might have picked up on something that stands out very clearly, if you know what to look for.

The first thing you will notice from all 5 answers is that the covenant of Jesus Christ is not being drawn upon to state their experience with the goodness of God. Although favour, protection, prayer, and guidance are mentioned, and one would normally think that the person is speaking of God’s involvement in their life, look again – the covenant is missing—and when the covenant is missing, Christ is missing.

The above statements are the very reason why believers need the transitional knowledge of Jesus Christ, the knowledge of His new and better covenant that is established upon better promises. Unless christians are instructed in the true ways of the Lord that follow the course of His covenant, their faith will remain looped to themselves in a destructive cycle that keeps the soul empty of the fruit of Christ.

Another thing you will learn as you transition your faith to Jesus’ covenant is that God gives many gifts to man. These are gifts of the signature, the gift of family, the gift of creation, and so on. Every human being is aware of these gifts, so easily relate to their experience of them. But Jesus only is the gift of salvation. And that’s what God is talking about.

Faith is not about ourselves; faith is about Jesus Christ and His covenant. Let’s now consider the goodness of God according to the design of Christ rather than the kingdom of the flesh.

Psalm 107:31
“ Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! “

When we think about the wonderful works of God, sometimes we think of His creation and sometimes we think of His salvation. In John 7:21 Jesus said, “I have done ONE work, and ye all marvel.” Jesus is separating the works of creation and the works whereby God sustains life from the work of salvation because He is the door to enter into that work of God. Jesus is saying that our faith must be Christ-Centered.

So then, when Jesus taught about the goodness of the Lord, He spoke of the one work of God that He came to do. We spoke of this earlier when we said that there is only one gift of salvation. Jesus came to provide in Himself a new covenant experience for all mankind. The goodness of the Lord is multiplied towards those of faith.

When faith follows the tracks of truth believers are given a new identity in Christ because their faith now follows a different record and they are thus liberated from the limited record of the flesh.
So, we see that the goodness of the Lord is His mercy towards the saints to oversee the product of His craftsmanship in the soul through the work of regeneration.

Jesus said that He is the truth: “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). This means that Jesus is identifying Himself as the only truth, the only pattern, the only record for your faith.

Truth is the 10th element of the gospel and shares a binary relationship with charity. Truth and charity are one and the same expression of Christ. The only difference is that truth expresses the framework and structure of faith, while charity is the expression of it. Truth is one of the 9 tools of the second covenant.

Truth must be wholesome to be truth. That means that nothing of man can be added to truth (meaning that we do not resource the record of our own soul) and nothing of Christ can be missing. When any single element of the gospel is missing or misrepresented, truth no longer exists, the expression of Christ is then directed with the aspiration to give witness to man.

The apostles are called of God to oversee the purity of truth. There cannot be many standards of truth to represent Christ, as He will not deviate from the plan of God and works only with those provisions made possible under the terms of the covenant. Salvation for mankind is not possible outside of those terms, and therefore the goodness of the Lord cannot be experienced.

To know the Lord’s goodness is to understand the purpose and operations of grace. When looking at the definition of truth, we can see that the Lord’s goodness towards the faithful is being defined in context to His covenant. The Lord’s goodness is seen in the issuance of His grace towards us, to draw faith from the heart, to give us a heart to perceive, how grace strengthens the will unto obedience, creates equity in the inner man, creates single mindedness, creates sober mindedness, nourishes the heart, enlarges the heart and keeps us rooted in Him.

In the element of grace, we can see the precise function of grace and thus be able to accurately identify the inspiration of grace that our faith might function correctly in accordance to His will. The will of God is revealed to us through the knowledge of Christ. The revelation of Christ in truth is the Lord’s goodness towards, and He continues to express His goodness towards us through each token of grace that He issues for our increase in life and godliness through the reason of faith.