God is good. This is the plain teaching of the Bible and the experience of all who believe. But most men are uncomfortable with God. They don’t appreciate his goodness. And they don’t want his goodness. So they handle his goodness with unbelieving hands.
Some do this by claiming that God is not good. They complain, “If God is good, why does he allow bad things to happen?” The answer is easy — to give bad people opportunity to repent. The only way he could stop bad things today would be to cast all bad people into hell today. Others do this by tweaking his goodness so that he is good the way they want him to be good. They want good to mean allowing them to be bad. They want good to mean winking at their sin and ungodliness.
What is God’s manifested goodness really like? The Bible is clear. The goodness of God leads men to repentance (Rom. 2:4). The grace of God teaches men to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live uprightly and godly in the present evil age (Tit. 2:12). This goal-focused goodness is based on the character of God and his purpose for man. God is good. And God purpose is for man to be like him — to bear his image, to manifest his goodness. Therefore God’s manifested goodness can only promote this purpose. It is impossible for his manifested goodness to hinder this purpose by winking at rebellion and sin.