Have you ever thought of what Good is?
Consider this: setting aside any beliefs in Christianity, and simply looking at the world as it is—what do we see when we try to identify what is good?
Frankly, it’s a mess.
It’s hard to find a reliable handle on goodness. Introspectively, I’ve always felt a desire to do what is right and good. But the more I thought about what that meant, the more confusing it became. What I once believed was good sometimes turned out not to be, once I understood the circumstances more fully—and the reverse was also true. Add to that the need for compromise in many situations, and goodness starts to look like a spectrum, where the best solution often lies somewhere in-between.
This complexity makes things difficult. Opposing views vilify one another, each elevating their own position as “the good.” And that led me to ask: Do we really know what is good?
I found this to be an excellent starting point. Because while we may think of ourselves as good, if we fail to truly understand what goodness is, we risk mistaking what merely seems good for what actually is. As I pondered this, I began searching for something universally recognizable as good—something that transcends motives, circumstances, and interpretations.
Very few things qualify. So much of what we call “good” is tangled with hidden agendas or self-interest. But one action stood out to me as nearly unquestionable: self-sacrifice for love.
And this is precisely what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross.
It is the perfect good—an act we can understand and identify as good without qualification. If the idea of goodness were merely written in the Bible, we might dismiss it as the words of a wise teacher. But Christ didn’t just teach; He demonstrated. As the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for His bride—the Church—He gave us a living marker for what goodness truly is.
We know what is good because of Him who is good, and who does what is good.
Apologetics in the Lion City 