Romans 8:28 is one of the most abused passages of Scripture. It's often used by people to say things like: "It will all come out in the wash" or, "Doesn't the Bible say everything works out for good?" No where does the Bible say that everything, for everybody, works out for good. The translators of the English standard version changed the order of the words to make an emphasis. Where the King James version says, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." The ESV says, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." The difference in word order is important. The ESV helps us to see that "all things work together for good for those who love God — for those who are called according to his purpose."
You see, emphasis is not on "all things", the emphasis is on "those who love God". Now we need to remember that love is not a feeling it is an action. Or rather it's a series of actions each one confirming the other. To say "I love you" without lifing out "I love you" shows that you do not know the meaning of the words. God so loved the world doesn't mean much until there is added to it "that he sent his only son" to save the world. Some people will turn away from the idea of loving God because of the twisted understanding they have of the word "love". Nevertheless, God's word says, "And we know that for those who…". The world is divided between God lovers and God haters.
Those who love God.
The great divide. Let's read Ephesians 4:17-18, Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. The Greek word translated here as "Gentiles" could just as easily be translated "nations" or, "the human race". Christians are separated from the world by their faith in Jesus Christ. That faith can, and often does, result in rejection by the world. Recently, a pastor in Phoenix, Arizona, was sentenced to sixty days in jail and a $1210 fine. For seven years he had hosted a Bible study at first in his home. When it outgrew his home he built a game room on the property and the Bible study begin to meet there. The government authorities determined that what he had was a church and therefore involved dozens of code violations. The Pastor's response was his meeting was no different than a group of friends coming together to play poker or watch football.
I have often joked that we think persecution is the code enforcement people not letting us break the law. This case is no joke! This man has had to pay a hefty fine and is now sitting in the Maricopa County jail, unless he has been released in the last few days. And that is not a fun place. I have no doubt that there are code violations, if the building is really a church, but at the same time there appear to be similar buildings being used for all sorts of recreation in the area. The problem is a lack of evenhandedness just because the use of the building involved Bible study.
We need to remember…
Trials come — look at Job! If you want to follow in your Bible turn to the book of Job. Most of you know the story of Job. He was caught up in a great contest between God and Satan. After he lost his property, and his family, he responded, Job 1:20-21, Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Then, he lost his health and the loving support of his wife. Read 2:9-10, Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips. Later, after much suffering and struggle Job answered his tormentors 13:15, Though he slay me, I will hope in him. That's love! That's trust! Job didn't feel very loving. I'm sure that all he felt involved grief and pain. But he could still say that he would rather hope in the God of heaven than turn away and follow his grief. Further on Job made one of the most profound theological statements in the Old Testament. He probably did not have any written Bible. In the context of the story I believe it happened long before Abraham, the father of faith. But Job knew God and could speak with confidence 19:25-27, For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! And the rest of the story illustrates Romans 8:28. God allowed one who loved him to suffer for no apparent reason. God allowed it to happen because he had a greater purpose than Job's comfort. And when it was over God restored his fortunes and honored his prayers. Job loved God and was loved by him in return.
According to John, in his first little letter, we love God because…
He first loved us. Read with me 1 John 4:18-19, There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.
There's a praise song we sing that goes like this:
Your love, oh Lord
Reaches to the heavens
Your faithfulness stretches to the sky
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains
Your justice flows like the ocean's tide
I will lift my voice
To worship You, my King
I will find my strength
In the shadow of your wings
That's an expression of love and trust in the living God reflecting his love back to him.
But does God really work good in…
All things? I believe he does.
He uses good things. Read with me Romans 5:2, Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God! We have obtained access into his grace and we enjoy it! That's a good thing and God uses it to help us to grow up to his image reflected in Christ. But God also uses…
Bad things. Look at the next three verses Romans 5:3-5, More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Suffering may be physical or mental/emotional. God always has a plan that includes our suffering and he has a purpose in allowing it. William Cowper was a great hymn writer. He wrote thousands of poems and hymns. Two of them are found in our hymn book more than two hundred years after they were written. One we sing often, "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood". The other is less well known and we've never sung it. It is entitled, "O for a Closer Walk with God" And is hymn numbered 471. The second verse reads like this, "Where is the blessedness I knew when first I saw the Lord? Where is the soul refreshing view of Jesus and his word? The last verse shows his love for and trust in God. It reads like this, So shall my walk be close with God, calm and serene my frame; so purer light shall mark the road that leads me to the lamb. Cowper could trust in the God he loved and know, without a doubt, though he suffered much mental anguish he would still be brought through to the glory of God.
Another sufferer was Adoniram Judson who served in Burma as one of the earliest missionaries. He saw the death of his first and second wives and several of his children with little obvious spiritual results. One day, obviously reflecting on the suffering he had gone through, he wrote this little poem:
In joy or sorrow, health or pain,
Our course be onward still;
We sow on Burma's barren plain,
We reap on Zion's hill.
Judson understood his calling and his God. He knew he could love God because God loved him, in fact, God is love!
In the Bible book of Habakkuk we see the prophet observing the contradiction of God using the pagan nation of Assyria, and later Babylon, to punish Israel and Judah. There was much suffering during that time and yet he could write at the end of this little book the following words, Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. Though all else fail Habakkuk would say, "yet I will rejoice in the Lord"! We need to learn to follow these examples and keep our eyes focused on the author and perfecter of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ!
Those who love the Lord are also…
Those who are called. Romans 8:30
There is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding around the concept of election or predestination. Of course, there are those who help make it worse by insisting on a hypercalvinism. I personally am not a follower of Calvin so much as I am a follower of Paul. What the Scripture sets forth plainly is that God has issued a call to mankind of a general nature and a call to some, very specifically, that will not be resisted.
There is a story told about John Leland, an evangelist from Virginia in the late 1700s. He was visiting with a local doctor who had recently become a Christian. The doctor was eager to learn more about the faith. After some conversation, the doctor told him that he should be glad to have his views on two or three points of religious doctrine. First, as to the sovereignty of God. This was with Elder Leland a favorite theme, and one in which his head and his heart had been engaged for sixty years. He proceeded, and occupied several minutes in repeating appropriate passages of Scripture, commenting upon them in a most lucid manner, until the doctor said he was entirely satisfied with those views. "Now," said he, "please let me know what you think of the free agency of man." With no less authority from Scripture, and no less potency of reason, he made this point equally satisfactory. "Now, Elder," said the doctor, — "One more solution, and I shall be entirely satisfied — will you tell me how you reconcile these two great and important truths." "Doctor," said he, "there was once a mother, who, busy with her needle, was teaching her daughter to read. The child at length came to a hard word, and asked her mother what it was. "Spell it, my child," said she, "I can't spell it." "Let me see it then." She handed her the book, and the mother, after puzzling over it for some time, returned to the child, and said, "Skip it then." Iain H. Murray, Revival and Revivalism, Banner of Truth Trust, pp 318-319
When we come to what appear to be two conflicting doctrines, that are both clear in Scripture, we may just have to "skip it" until we have better light on the situation. Both, the doctrine of election, and, the free will of man are taught in Scripture. Don't get tangled up in trying to resolve the apparent conflict. Rest in the fact that all Scripture is God breathed and is profitable for our instruction.
First of all let's look at…
The general call. Read the words of Jesus in, Luke 24:46-47, Jesus said, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. …" Repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name among all nations. Repeatedly, throughout Scripture, the word says we are to proclaim the gospel to everyone, everywhere. Look at what Paul said in Romans 10:14, How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? The message must go out to everyone of every race and nation that the Savior has come. For many the response may be negative but we have no way of knowing until we proclaim it. But for some there is a positive response to the gospel that is…
An effective call. Look at the words of Jesus,John 6:44, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
In order for the call to be effective the Father has to draw that person. Nothing we do can cause a person to be drawn to God. We can plant the seeds, we can water, but God gives the increase. When Paul and Silas crossed over to Philippi, bringing the gospel for the first-time to Europe, they sought out a place of prayer. They went there on the Sabbath and finding a group of women set down and presented the gospel. Luke records the story for us, Acts 16:14, One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. Paul spoke the words God had given him. That's all he could do. Deliver the mail! It was up to God to open her heart to pay attention to what was said and, at the end of the day, she and her whole household believed and were baptized. All of these things are part of God's purpose. All things work together for good for those who are called…
According to God's purpose.
The salvation of his people. Read with me, Ephesians 1:5-10, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have redemption through his blood. From the beginning of time God planned to send his son to be born of a woman, live a sinless life, and die on the cross for our sins. He did this with the specific purpose of uniting all things in him in heaven and on earth. Since that is true, his purpose not only includes salvation it also involves our glorification. His purpose is…
To glorify them. Jesus talked about this plan in his prayer preserved in the gospel of John. Turn with me to John 17:20-23, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.…" Jesus actually said that he had given, already, the glory that the father had given him to those who believe in him. Well, I'm not experiencing it all the time but I have to remember that my experience is not the standard, the word of God is. You see I can't work up God's glory but I can accept what God has done. Look with me at the words Paul wrote to the Philippians, Philippians 1:6, And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful that my salvation does not depend on my good works. In fact the Bible is very clear that it is not by works of righteousness that I have done but according to his own mercy he saved us. You see…
It is God who does the work. Look at, 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. Pay attention to what this passage says. The God of peace himself will sanctify you completely. You cannot sanctify yourself — it's impossible. Only God can do that! But folks, it says right here that he is faithful and he will surely do the work of completing our salvation. The glory that Jesus gives will be revealed in us at the end of time.
God sent his son to seek and save that which is lost. There is, and always has been, a great divide among humans. Cain killed Abel simply because Able offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice. However, God had a plan and a purpose even before he created the earth. That plan was to raise up a people by his own strength to serve and follow him out of love because "God is love"! Have you come to love him? Come to him today he will not turn you away.
isAll Scripture quotes are from The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
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