All Things Work Together For Good (Romans 8:28 Examined)
Aug 3, 2018 15:54:58 GMT -5
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Post by tlsitd on Aug 3, 2018 15:54:58 GMT -5
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28, ESV)
Most Christians know this verse, I would imagine, and have taken much comfort in this reminder in difficult or perplexing times, as I myself have done and continue to do.
But I would like to point out a couple of things about this verse that I believe are important to bring attention to, in order for us to really understand it for what it means and thereby get the most out of it, as God intends.
The first thing I want to point out is that it says 'for those who love God' (not 'for those whom God loves'). We know for certain that God loves everyone who has been born of Him for:
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. (1 John 4:15,16)
...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. (Romans 5:5)
I can't say that God loves all of the unsaved (He didn't love Esau after all (Romans 9:13), so there is at least one human being whom God did not love), but I do believe that He loves most people, whether He has predestined them to be saved or not---for God so loved the world (John 3:16); and yet, many are called but few are chosen.
Calvinists may believe and teach that God only loves people He intends to save, but that simply is not true. The Scriptures teach that God's mercy and kindness are over all, and that Jesus Christ died for all men out of God's own love for the world, regardless of whether they will ever be saved or love Him in return. (This, of course, is one of those subjects that could be its own thread, and I don't intend to make this one about that. I just wanted to clarify my own position.)
Yet regardless of God's love for mankind in general, that love is not what causes all things to work together for a person's good, but rather the person's love for God---which, as we know from His word, is obedience to Him (1 John 5:3). This is true for unsaved people, who cannot choose to love God unless He enables them to by His grace through faith (Romans 8:5-8; 1 John 4:19), and for Christians, who, by God's grace and according to their own free, will can choose to love God by obeying Him---or not.
I wish it were true that all Christians love God just because they have God's Spirit in them; but it's quite clear, both from the Scriptures and from real life observation of people who are genuinely born again, that this is not the case. Which is why we have so many exhortations in the NT to submit ourselves to God, not to harden our hearts against Him, not to grieve His Spirit, not to gratify the desires of the sinful nature, etc.
The church at Ephesus that Jesus rebuked had left its first love (or abandoned the love for Him that they had at first), by not doing everything they knew they had been commanded.
And Jesus testified that in the last days the love of many (for God) would grow cold (Matthew 24:12), due to the increase of lawlessness.
Obviously, that Scripture can only apply to people who actually had love for God in the first place, which the unregenerate world does not. The people whose love for God will grow cold in the last days are God's own people, sadly, who are transgressing the law of Christ by not being obedient to the doctrine of the faith which He gave to us. This increase in lawlessness (or 'abounding iniquity') is not in the world (although that is also happening), but rather in the church and in the family of God, just as 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 2 Timothy 3:1-5 and 2 Timothy 4:3,4 explain and confirm.
The church in Ephesus was about to have its lampstand removed from God's presence (God was going to abandon them), if they did not return to doing the works they had been doing at first and knew they should have been.
The Christians in Sardis were about to die spiritually, for being disobedient to the doctrine they had received, (and some of them had already died).
The Laodicean Christians were about to be vomited out of Christ for their lukewarmness toward Him.
And the Lord had other serious rebukes for Pergamum and Thyatira.
Jesus obviously loved all of these churches, which is why He warned them and was going to discipline them---to get them to return to Him through obedience to Him and avoid the unpleasant or spiritually deadly consequences of not doing so. They did not love Him; that was the problem. And bad things were getting ready to happen to them as a result.
So when reading Romans 8:28, please remember that it is not those whom God loves for whom all things work together for good, but for those who love God. Not that the chastening of the Lord is not intended for our good (it is), but that's certainly not something any Christian should seek to incur, but rather to avoid. And if we despise even that, things are definitely not going to work together for our good. (See Hebrews 12:9)
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. (Psalm 32:8,9)
The second thing I would like to bring attention to about Romans 8 is the "good" that it speaks of. We might be inclined to interpret this Scripture as God making everything work out in a way that is pleasant for us---that blesses us in some way that we can immediately appreciate (sort of like the "when God closes a door He opens a window" adage---which isn't necessarily true). We may interpret it as meaning that God is working things together according to what we think we need or what we desire or think is best. And while God certainly takes such things into consideration in how He deals with us, that is not His primary concern, and the "good" that Romans 8 refers to is not these.
What that "good" is begins to be explained at the end of Romans 8:28 ('according to His purpose'), and is further explained as we read on to Romans 8:29: For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.
That's the "good" that Romans 8:28 is referring to: Conforming us to the image of Christ. That is the purpose of God for His saints, and His ultimate priority and goal in all that He does and allows in our lives as we obey Him---even above evangelism.
If we choose to obey the Lord and to follow Him, we must deny ourselves, daily (Luke 9:23), and suffer the pain of self-denial and enduring temptation. This suffering is part of the sanctification process, and if we choose to avoid doing this, we will not be sanctified as God intends for us to be.
...And if children, then heirs---heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. (Romans 8:17)
For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened---not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. (2 Corinthians 5:4,5)
The sinful nature is a burden to those who live according to the Spirit of God, because it is contrary to us, desiring the opposite of God's will. And we have to crucify those desires by grace when they arise in order to keep in step with the Spirit of Christ who leads us forward in our sanctification.
For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. (Hebrews 2:10)
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live no longer for human passions but for the will of God. (1 Peter 4:1,2)
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. (1 Peter 5:8-10)
The Christians of the church at Laodicea are an example of Christians who had chosen not to share in this sanctifying suffering, and to live for themselves instead; and they thought life was good, because they had everything they wanted and thought that they needed.
Consequently, they were, as Jesus declared to them: "...Wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked." (And they didn't know it!) He then went on to tell them to buy from Him the faith like gold, with all of the spiritual qualities and eternal rewards that result from taking part in the necessary sufferings of sanctification (which these self-serving Christians lacked), which sufferings result from obeying Him, with trials, and from living to do His will rather than our own, with work and self-sacrifice and persecutions: "...Gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich..."
(Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed. (1 Peter 4:12,13))
So the next time you read Romans 8:28, think about this, beloved of God. Things are not necessarily going to get easier for you (in fact, the more devoted and faithful to the Lord one is, the harder trials will become, not the easier---like with physical endurance training); things are not necessarily going to turn out the way you desire or hope that they will, or that you pray for them to. But if you love Jesus, everything that God causes or allows to happen in your life will be according to His ultimate good purpose of conforming you to the image of His Son.
If you submit yourself to God for Him to do that work in you, no matter what the cost, He will do it; but that is a choice He leaves up to each one of us. And every day we have that choice, to trust and obey and to keep working, enduring, and going forward through the fires (however they may increase in intensity or frequency), or to shrink back and say to Jesus, "No more; I quit."
There's always grace to go forward, and there's always grace to endure whatever God ordains. So let us avail ourselves of that power and not fall short of what God has called and desires us to be. If we do avail ourselves of His grace to do His will in all things, God will continue to work in our lives according to His good purpose---to make us more like Jesus Christ His Son in every way---the refining process and labor whose eternal rewards will far surpass the sufferings of this life.
If we are thinking that the "good" of Romans 8:28 is something that is going to be pleasant for us or desirable to us in the here and now, and things get worse in that way, rather than better, we're likely to stop trusting God and to get angry with Him, like Job's wife did. But if we understand that the "good" is our sanctification, we can thank God for our sufferings in obeying Him, and endure them patiently, with our minds on that end, rather than on an end to the discomfort or receiving something that we want in this life.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 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. 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. (Romans 5:1-5)
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:26-29)
Most Christians know this verse, I would imagine, and have taken much comfort in this reminder in difficult or perplexing times, as I myself have done and continue to do.
But I would like to point out a couple of things about this verse that I believe are important to bring attention to, in order for us to really understand it for what it means and thereby get the most out of it, as God intends.
The first thing I want to point out is that it says 'for those who love God' (not 'for those whom God loves'). We know for certain that God loves everyone who has been born of Him for:
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. (1 John 4:15,16)
...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. (Romans 5:5)
I can't say that God loves all of the unsaved (He didn't love Esau after all (Romans 9:13), so there is at least one human being whom God did not love), but I do believe that He loves most people, whether He has predestined them to be saved or not---for God so loved the world (John 3:16); and yet, many are called but few are chosen.
Calvinists may believe and teach that God only loves people He intends to save, but that simply is not true. The Scriptures teach that God's mercy and kindness are over all, and that Jesus Christ died for all men out of God's own love for the world, regardless of whether they will ever be saved or love Him in return. (This, of course, is one of those subjects that could be its own thread, and I don't intend to make this one about that. I just wanted to clarify my own position.)
Yet regardless of God's love for mankind in general, that love is not what causes all things to work together for a person's good, but rather the person's love for God---which, as we know from His word, is obedience to Him (1 John 5:3). This is true for unsaved people, who cannot choose to love God unless He enables them to by His grace through faith (Romans 8:5-8; 1 John 4:19), and for Christians, who, by God's grace and according to their own free, will can choose to love God by obeying Him---or not.
I wish it were true that all Christians love God just because they have God's Spirit in them; but it's quite clear, both from the Scriptures and from real life observation of people who are genuinely born again, that this is not the case. Which is why we have so many exhortations in the NT to submit ourselves to God, not to harden our hearts against Him, not to grieve His Spirit, not to gratify the desires of the sinful nature, etc.
The church at Ephesus that Jesus rebuked had left its first love (or abandoned the love for Him that they had at first), by not doing everything they knew they had been commanded.
And Jesus testified that in the last days the love of many (for God) would grow cold (Matthew 24:12), due to the increase of lawlessness.
Obviously, that Scripture can only apply to people who actually had love for God in the first place, which the unregenerate world does not. The people whose love for God will grow cold in the last days are God's own people, sadly, who are transgressing the law of Christ by not being obedient to the doctrine of the faith which He gave to us. This increase in lawlessness (or 'abounding iniquity') is not in the world (although that is also happening), but rather in the church and in the family of God, just as 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 2 Timothy 3:1-5 and 2 Timothy 4:3,4 explain and confirm.
The church in Ephesus was about to have its lampstand removed from God's presence (God was going to abandon them), if they did not return to doing the works they had been doing at first and knew they should have been.
The Christians in Sardis were about to die spiritually, for being disobedient to the doctrine they had received, (and some of them had already died).
The Laodicean Christians were about to be vomited out of Christ for their lukewarmness toward Him.
And the Lord had other serious rebukes for Pergamum and Thyatira.
Jesus obviously loved all of these churches, which is why He warned them and was going to discipline them---to get them to return to Him through obedience to Him and avoid the unpleasant or spiritually deadly consequences of not doing so. They did not love Him; that was the problem. And bad things were getting ready to happen to them as a result.
So when reading Romans 8:28, please remember that it is not those whom God loves for whom all things work together for good, but for those who love God. Not that the chastening of the Lord is not intended for our good (it is), but that's certainly not something any Christian should seek to incur, but rather to avoid. And if we despise even that, things are definitely not going to work together for our good. (See Hebrews 12:9)
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. (Psalm 32:8,9)
The second thing I would like to bring attention to about Romans 8 is the "good" that it speaks of. We might be inclined to interpret this Scripture as God making everything work out in a way that is pleasant for us---that blesses us in some way that we can immediately appreciate (sort of like the "when God closes a door He opens a window" adage---which isn't necessarily true). We may interpret it as meaning that God is working things together according to what we think we need or what we desire or think is best. And while God certainly takes such things into consideration in how He deals with us, that is not His primary concern, and the "good" that Romans 8 refers to is not these.
What that "good" is begins to be explained at the end of Romans 8:28 ('according to His purpose'), and is further explained as we read on to Romans 8:29: For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.
That's the "good" that Romans 8:28 is referring to: Conforming us to the image of Christ. That is the purpose of God for His saints, and His ultimate priority and goal in all that He does and allows in our lives as we obey Him---even above evangelism.
If we choose to obey the Lord and to follow Him, we must deny ourselves, daily (Luke 9:23), and suffer the pain of self-denial and enduring temptation. This suffering is part of the sanctification process, and if we choose to avoid doing this, we will not be sanctified as God intends for us to be.
...And if children, then heirs---heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. (Romans 8:17)
For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened---not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. (2 Corinthians 5:4,5)
The sinful nature is a burden to those who live according to the Spirit of God, because it is contrary to us, desiring the opposite of God's will. And we have to crucify those desires by grace when they arise in order to keep in step with the Spirit of Christ who leads us forward in our sanctification.
For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. (Hebrews 2:10)
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live no longer for human passions but for the will of God. (1 Peter 4:1,2)
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. (1 Peter 5:8-10)
The Christians of the church at Laodicea are an example of Christians who had chosen not to share in this sanctifying suffering, and to live for themselves instead; and they thought life was good, because they had everything they wanted and thought that they needed.
Consequently, they were, as Jesus declared to them: "...Wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked." (And they didn't know it!) He then went on to tell them to buy from Him the faith like gold, with all of the spiritual qualities and eternal rewards that result from taking part in the necessary sufferings of sanctification (which these self-serving Christians lacked), which sufferings result from obeying Him, with trials, and from living to do His will rather than our own, with work and self-sacrifice and persecutions: "...Gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich..."
(Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed. (1 Peter 4:12,13))
So the next time you read Romans 8:28, think about this, beloved of God. Things are not necessarily going to get easier for you (in fact, the more devoted and faithful to the Lord one is, the harder trials will become, not the easier---like with physical endurance training); things are not necessarily going to turn out the way you desire or hope that they will, or that you pray for them to. But if you love Jesus, everything that God causes or allows to happen in your life will be according to His ultimate good purpose of conforming you to the image of His Son.
If you submit yourself to God for Him to do that work in you, no matter what the cost, He will do it; but that is a choice He leaves up to each one of us. And every day we have that choice, to trust and obey and to keep working, enduring, and going forward through the fires (however they may increase in intensity or frequency), or to shrink back and say to Jesus, "No more; I quit."
There's always grace to go forward, and there's always grace to endure whatever God ordains. So let us avail ourselves of that power and not fall short of what God has called and desires us to be. If we do avail ourselves of His grace to do His will in all things, God will continue to work in our lives according to His good purpose---to make us more like Jesus Christ His Son in every way---the refining process and labor whose eternal rewards will far surpass the sufferings of this life.
If we are thinking that the "good" of Romans 8:28 is something that is going to be pleasant for us or desirable to us in the here and now, and things get worse in that way, rather than better, we're likely to stop trusting God and to get angry with Him, like Job's wife did. But if we understand that the "good" is our sanctification, we can thank God for our sufferings in obeying Him, and endure them patiently, with our minds on that end, rather than on an end to the discomfort or receiving something that we want in this life.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 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. 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. (Romans 5:1-5)
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:26-29)