When it comes to what is God one aspect of divinity is the goodness of God. What do we mean by goodness? Of course, by it we do not mean to say God is good according to some standard outside of Himself otherwise He wouldn't be good. What we simply mean by the goodness of God is the perfection in which there is no shadow of turning, He does not change. God simply is a spirit and in Him he is not made of parts as the compound or complexity of humans.
John Gill speaks of the goodness of God in his Body of Divinity. He says, "The goodness of God is not distinct from his essence; for then he must be compounded of that, and his essence; which is contrary to his simplicity: he is good in and of himself, and by his own essence; and not by participation of another; for if he was not good of himself, and by his own essence, but of and by another; then there would be some being, both better than him, and prior to him; and so he would not be the eternal God, nor an independent Being, since he must depend on that from whence he receives his goodness; nor would he be the most perfect being, since what communicates goodness to him must be more perfect than he: all which, to say of God, is very unbecoming. It remains, then, that he is essentially good; is so in and of himself, by his own nature and essence." Pg. 92
With this we confess along with Jerome Zanchius,
John Gill speaks of the goodness of God in his Body of Divinity. He says, "The goodness of God is not distinct from his essence; for then he must be compounded of that, and his essence; which is contrary to his simplicity: he is good in and of himself, and by his own essence; and not by participation of another; for if he was not good of himself, and by his own essence, but of and by another; then there would be some being, both better than him, and prior to him; and so he would not be the eternal God, nor an independent Being, since he must depend on that from whence he receives his goodness; nor would he be the most perfect being, since what communicates goodness to him must be more perfect than he: all which, to say of God, is very unbecoming. It remains, then, that he is essentially good; is so in and of himself, by his own nature and essence." Pg. 92
With this we confess along with Jerome Zanchius,
"God is essentially unchangeable in Himself. Were He otherwise, He would be confessedly imperfect, since whoever changes must change either for better or for the worse; whatever alteration any being undergoes, that being must, ipso facto, either become more excellent than it was or lose some of the excellency which it had. But neither of these can be the case with the Deity: He cannot change for the better, for that would necessarily imply that He was not perfectly good before; He cannot change for the worse, for then He could not be perfectly good after that change. Ergo, God is unchangeable." pg. 25-26, Absolute Predestination
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