reckons rigliteons (Ro 3-®), so it is because God is good in Himself that He is ever showing His good- ness to all men, especially in Christ and His Cross (Ro 5^ Eph 4^2) and calling all men to be the imi- tators of His goodness (1 Co 13).
Although the following article is dealing with the Christian moral ideal as 'goodness,' this brief statement in introducing the subject of ' the good ' as man's ' chief end ' has been made for two reasons. (a) In the Christian view, God Himself is man's chief good, for in His fellowship alone is man's perfection, glory, and blessedness, and it is God's goodness that man enjoys for ever ; and (6) it is because of this goodness — this self-giving of God's perfection as love — that the chief good is given to man. It is in Christ that man so possesses God, and it is through Christ that God so communicates Himself to man. The total impression of the apostolic writings is that Christ Himself is the Good, for in Him and through Him alone man has God as Love.
We must note, however, that the chief good is presented to us in three distinctive phrases in the different types of teaching in the NT. In the Synoptics, on the lips of Jesus Himself, it is 'the kingdom of God ' (Mt 6^^) ; in the Fourth Gospel it is 'eternal life' (Jn 20^°-^'), although we also find the second representation in Mt 19"^, Mk 10^^, Lk 18^^ and the first in Jn 3^; in the Pauline Epistles it is ' the righteousness of God 'or 'of faith ' (Ph 3"), or, more generally, salvation (Ro
JI6. 17\
The idea of the good combines character and condition ; it includes Tightness and happiness, holiness and blessedness, or, as the Shorter Cate- chism puts it : ' man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.' Man, by claiming God's goodness, enjoying and praising it, and by showing a like goodness, glorilies God : that is, sets forth the honour, worth, beauty, and majesty of God's moral perfection (Ro IS^- », 1 Co 6^", 2 Co 913 ; cf. Col 3^^ 1 P 4i»- "). As God is grace, God's claim on man is for faith, and this is his supreme duty (He 11*). Thus the two aspects of the good pass into one another : man fulfils his obligation to God by making fully his own the salvation God offers in Christ. We need not then further pursue the idea of the good as duty, but may confine our- selves to it as boon.
(1) For Plato and Aristotle the good necessarily included both well-being (eiidatnovia) and also well- doing ; a man must have health, wealth, beauty, and intellect as well as the virtues to attain fully the good. Here the first great distinction of the Christian view emerges. A man's good is inde- pendent of his outward circumstances. As Jesus taught His disciples not to be anxious about food or raiment, but to leave all to the care and bountj' of the Heavenly Father, who would add all these things to those who first sought His Kingdom and righteousness (Mt 6^^'**), so St. Paul assures Chris- tian believers that even the very worst circum- stances imaginable cannot really injure them, for ' all things work together for good to them that love God' (Ro 8-*). The declaration has some affinity with Stoic thought ; but the difference lies in this, that for Stoic self-sufficiency there is substituted the possession of the love of God in Christ as the satisfying portion of the soul (v.^^). While there is this independence of outward cir- cumstances, there is no cynic-like contempt for bodily needs, and the labour that meets these (1 Th 4", 2 Th 310, Ro 12"- 1^). Private property even may become part of the Christian's good, as affording the opportunity for the generosity which is so highly recommended as a Christian grace (Ro 128- 13, 2 Co 8i-'5).
(2) A second feature of the Christian view that
distinguishes it from the Greek is that the good is not the result of fortune or the reward of merit, but the gift of God's grace (Ro 5"^i 6^3). It does include a duty to be done, but it is primarily a boon to be claimed. Hence the pre-eminence of faith as the primary, if not the supreme, grace of the Christian life. For human self-sufficiency there is substituted dependence upon God (2 Co 2^*
35.6 129).
(3) A third characteristic is the emphasis on sin in the Christian view as the evil from which there must be escape. The good includes deliverance from sin in the two-fold sense, corresponding to the two-fold reference of sin in relation to God, and in relation to a man's own nature. There is forgive- ness of sin, reconciliation with God, the peace of God (Ro 3f^-2« 51" 1^ 210, etc.) ; a man is set in right relation with God, so that God's approval and not His displeasure rests upon him, and he does not distrust, or feel estranged from, God, but is at home with God as a child with a father. There is also the breaking of the power of sin, and the banishment of the love of sin, by a new motive and a new strength (Ro 61-" 7^, 2 Co 5", Ph 4i3). There is a present conquest of evil, and victory over the world. This is a present good claimed more or less, according to the measure of faith ; but as Christians are not merely owners of the present but also heirs of the future good (Ro 8", Tit 3^, 1 P 1* ; cf. He IP), hope as well as faith is neces- sary to claim the full salvation (Ro 8", 1 Th 5*, 1 P P).