"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose". Romans 8v28.
"And we know......." the late John Stott once wrote "Christianity is a dogmatic assertion of things that we know". There can be no room for doubt with something as important as eternal realities. Paul will later underline the certainty of all this by using the past tense to describe what is yet future. He is speaking of the things of God and there is no doubt.
What do we know? "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God." He does not define or limit the all things so they must apply to every event in the Christian life. He does not say all things are good. He says all things work together for good. The word used sunergeo means to blend together; please refer to Mark 16v20 "working with them";1st Corinthians 6v16 "joined"; 2nd Corinthians 6v1 "workers together"; James 2v22 "wrought with". These references give an idea of the meaning. It is rather like baking a cake; the ingredients taken individually may be bitter and unpalatable, but when blended together and cooked together they produced a good result. We cannot control the events of life but God can and does. He blends together, He works together, He restrains, He constrains, He moves all things towards an inevitable outcome of good. Sometimes our idea of "good" is not always the same as God's please read Psalm 73. The Psalm opens with Asaph declaring the goodness of God to Israel, but that he personally could not enjoy it because his eyes were on the seeming prosperity of the wicked. It was only when he saw things in the sanctuary, from God's perspective, he understood that good does not necessarily mean prosperity in this world. He ends the Psalm saying "it is good for me to draw near to God." He learned in hard practice that goodness consists of a life lived close to God. Always God's denials are for our benefit and we must learn to say His appointment instead of disappointment.
The classic scriptures referring to in this aspect of the Christian life are found in Hebrews 12v10; James 1v17; Philippians 1v12-13; and many more. Perhaps the greatest example of this is in the life of Joseph. There was nothing good about his brothers hatred of him, there was nothing good about them selling him into slavery in Egypt; there was nothing good about them lying to his father as to his fate; but the story ends with these now famous words "as for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive." No-one could have persuaded Joseph while languishing in an Egyptian prison that any of this was good, but he lived to learn as we must do that all things work together for good to them that love God.
He now describes the people to whom this promise applies. "Them that love God, them that are the called according to His purpose." Here the twin truths of human responsibility and Divine sovereignty sit happily side by side, as they do in many other portions of scripture. "Them that love God" ... that is the human side; "Them who are the called of God".....that is the Divine side. Notice he does not say "those whom God loves" as he could have said, he says "them that love God." This applies to all God's people not just a few. This is a term which could be used to describe the people of God, they are those who love God. When Jesus challenged Peter when his faith was weak, He did not say "do you believe in me" or "do you trust Me" he said "do you love Me?" This is the characteristic of the people of God, they are those who love God. The law of first mention is helpful here and this is found in Exodus 20v5-6 where he differentiates between those who hate God and those who love Him. There the people who love God are described as those who have received the mercy of God. These are not people who are better than anyone else ; these are people who know that they have no worth in the presence of God, who know they deserve His punishment rather than His blessing, and as such have cried to God for mercy; they have gratefully accepted his mercy, they have also accepted His sovereignty over their lives and they now live as people under the favour of God, not for anything they have done but according to the mercy of a gracious God. This is simply the teaching of Romans chapters 1 - 8.
The second term "those who are called according to His purpose" this is expanded and explained in verses 29-30 and will be the subject of another day.
In the meantime, all who are the people of God can take with them along life's journey this supreme promise, that, whatever is going on in your life, God is in control, and he will bring it all to a conclusion which has your best interest and His at heart.
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