We call a lot of things “good”: days, movies, foods, songs, people, and even pets. But in Luke 18:19, Jesus makes a bold statement: “Only God is truly good.” So if what Jesus says is true, and we believe it is, it means that nothing and nobody is good. Our first ­reaction is That hurts. And second, we wonder, How can it be? People do nice things—give money to charity, serve the homeless, volunteer, save animals. Those are all good things . . . right?

While we should do those things, doing them doesn’t make anyone good. Here is the key word in Jesus’ statement: truly. Only God is truly good. This means that in His core, His being, His character, and His essence is goodness. In everything God thinks, says, and does, goodness can be found. Goodness is at the foundation of everything He does, and God is the source from which all goodness flows. Everything else and everybody else are simply shadows, snippets, and shades of the goodness God inherently possesses. God is truly good.