All Things Work Together For Good (Rom. 8:28)

I wonder what life was like in Rome in the late 50s when Paul wrote this letter to the church there. There would be discoveries, debates, delights, devotion (idolatries), diversions (sport), disappointments, diseases, debauchery, dangers, and death. I wonder what life was like in the church at that time, in addition to some of the features I have just mentioned: there would be developments (evangelism), discoveries of grace, divisions between Christians, doctrinal confusion, and danger of persecution. What would the church members in Rome have thought when they heard this verse from a man many of them had never met? What is life like in Inverness in 2015 for the country and for the church? What do we think when we read this verse?

This is one of the best-known verses of the Bible, often mentioned by believers in times of trial and distress as a means of comfort. It is part of a passage in which Paul is reminding believers of their privileges as sons of God. What are those privileges that we have thought about as we worked our way through this passage in previous weeks? We can summerise them in two areas. First, they have the incomparable blessing of the indwelling Spirit enabling them to obey God, to overcome indwelling sin, to give a sweet sense of assurance, and to intercede along with them in their prayers. Second, they have a wonderful future, a future that includes the whole of creation because it is going to be delivered from its futility and it will experience, in its varied capacities, the fullness of the glory that will mark the sons of God when they are revealed when Jesus returns.

We might then ask if it is possible for more blessings to be provided. The amazing fact is that there are more. In this well-known verse Paul mentions a third blessing that belongs to believers, which is that nothing is wasted. He does not mean only that nothing that will happen to them individually is going to be pointless, nor does he mean that nothing that will happen to the church corporately will be worthless. Rather he is saying that God will use everything that takes place within the created order for the benefit of his people.

The assurance of believers

Each believer has particular providences. Their individual characteristics, locations, careers, families, happy times, sad times and everything else are included in the ‘all things’. Similarly, the church has known times of great spiritual prosperity as well as times of dearth, and they are included in the ‘all things’. Moreover, the world has seen the births, lives and deaths of millions of people, with all their varied contributions; it has witnessed the appearance and demise of empires and nations, some of which fiercely opposed the church of Christ.

Note that these things all work together. This means that there is nothing haphazard taking place. As individuals, we go through sequences of events, some expected, others surprising. Often we look at them and see no connection, but there is one – God is always on the throne.

Something similar happens in the church, whether locally, nationally or internationally. We don’t see any beneficial connection between these experiences, indeed from our perspective some details will seem disastrous at worst and pointless at best. But they are not. Yet the sequence is overseen by God and he ensures that it will produce good.

This is true also of events in history. History is not just a list of important dates. It is the total contribution of the billions of lives that appeared in it. All their activities, whether mental or physical, are included in the ‘all things that work together’. There is nothing random; everything that took place was according to the eternal purpose of God.

Note, too, that Paul uses the present tense, ‘work’. Sometimes when we quote this verse, we insert the future tense and change its meaning to be that at the end of the day God will collect everything that has happened and cause them to bring about a good end. No doubt that is true, but that is not what Paul is saying. He affirms that God is active in each thing that occurs, ensuring that it works for the benefit of his people.

An example of the use of this tense is found in 2 Corinthians 4:15-17: ‘For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.’ Paul there says that their affliction ‘is preparing’ an eternal weight of glory for his people. Of course there is a mystery here, but it is a reminder that God is continually active in every event that occurs in our lives. Whatever is happening to us at present, God is involved in it. He is the metalworker, removing dross; he is the shepherd, providing sustenance; he is the teacher, giving instruction. But he is also active in every moment of every life in human history. Nothing takes place without either his permission or his involvement.

The advantage for believers

Paul continues by saying that all things work together for good. What kinds of good does he have in mind? The answer as far as the believers are concerned is spiritual good and eternal good. As far as individual believers are concerned, God is working for their benefit. This is easy to see when they are making progress in holiness. But is he at work when they sin? It helps to answer this question by considering some biblical examples such as David and Peter. Although we have to remember that God is not to blame for their sins, we should still ask, ‘Did God have a purpose in allowing them to sin?’

Take David first. Personally, he learned that a small sin (not doing what a king should have been doing, which was leading his army) would result in a greater sin (committing adultery and murder). He further learned the sweetness of repentance. He also learned that God could forgive sins for which the Levitical ritual provided no atonement. These three spiritual benefits happen to all Christians. In his providence, God teaches us the folly of sin, the freshness of repentance, and the fullness of Christ’s atonement.

As far as the church is concerned, there was an immediate benefit and a longterm benefit. The immediate benefit was that he was able to teach sympathetically the people of God: ‘Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you’ (Ps. 51:13). The longterm benefit is that he contributed a precious portion of Scripture. If he had not fallen, he would not have been inspired by the Spirit to record his repentance. Of course, we could say that God could have caused him to write the same thoughts out of another experience. We can make the suggestion, but we cannot change the fact that the Lord used this circumstance in David’s life to bring blessing to the church down the centuries.

Something similar happened with Peter. When he fell, he learned the folly of self-confidence and of despising the abilities of his brethren. But through this sad experience, the Lord led him to repentance, assured him of the power of his intercession, and equipped him to strengthen his people. Peter too contributed to the Bible; in his first letter he speaks of God’s ‘abundant mercy’, mercy that he had tasted in his own soul.

We can take another example from the life of the apostle Paul. Here he is writing to the church in Rome, a church that he planned to visit on his way to Spain. He did get to Rome, but not in the way that he had planned. Instead he was taken there by the authorities to stand trial for his beliefs. Did good come out of that experience for Paul and for the church of his day and even for us centuries later? During what we call his first Roman imprisonment, Paul wrote the letters of Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon – so we can easily see the longterm ‘good’ of providing those biblical books. In Philippians, Paul reveals that in Rome his imprisonment had given him the opportunity of reaching the palace guard with the gospel, so that was a ‘good’ for them. In the short letter to Philemon we can read about the ‘good’ that occurred in the life of the unreliable slave, Onesimus. If we read those letters, we will see many situations in which spiritual good occurred.

God works in all things that happen to his church. It is easy for us to see this taking place in times of revival. But it also happens with darker situations. Tertullian’s claim, that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church, has been proved many times over, including in our own day. In our own situation, of living in a day of spiritual dearth, God is at work, certainly by causing his people to pray seriously for revival, but also by renewing his church and preparing it for the future. Yet he may let the dearth increase until his church takes its looming demise to heart and cries intensely to God. Nevertheless, it will all work for ‘good’.

I have mentioned before the incident in the life of the Apostle of the North’s father who was prevented from emigrating to America by a fierce storm. His immediate intentions were prevented by God and he might have been puzzled as to why, because he would have prayed about it and used the wisdom from above in making his decision. Yet God stopped him from going, and some time later he met the woman who would become the mother of John MacDonald, the preacher whose ministry was blessed to thousands. The storm worked for ‘good’.

God works too in the lives of all his creatures for the benefit of his people. Take the advances in road making developed by the engineers of the Roman Empire; they had their reasons for making them, but God used them to bring the gospel to the cities of the Roman Empire. Take the Gentile ancestors of those reading this letter; they had lived their lives marked by idolatry and departed from the world; yet they contributed genetically to their descendants who were to become Christians. Take the decree of the Roman authorities that all Jews should leave Rome; among them were the Christian couple Priscilla and Aquila who moved to Corinth where they came in contact with Paul and so began a lifelong friendship that was exceptionally useful for the Christian church. These three aspects, and many others, recur throughout history. Today, the Internet spreads the gospel, today children who will become Christians are being born to pagan parents, and today political decisions without intending it create opportunities for the church to develop.

These temporal blessings will also all work together for our eternal good. Sufferings for Christ will bring about glory, sacrifices for God will bring about glory, repentance for our sins will bring about glory, and helping other Christians will bring about glory. This is the way God brings to fulfilment, stage by stage, his eternal purpose. With Paul we can rejoice and say: ‘So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future – all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s (1 Cor. 3:21-23).

The psalms are full of musings and reflections on situations in which it seemed impossible that good would come. Yet when we read the psalms as individual units, rather than merely selecting verses at random, we will discover that God brought ‘good’ into the experience of his people. Psalm 23, usually regarded as a psalm detailing pleasant experiences, also refers to believers having to go through dark valleys and face enemies. Nevertheless, the psalm asserts that the people of God will eventually dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

The affection of believers

Paul describes God’s children as those who love God. What are the features of this love? Love is a combination of attraction and dedication, of delight and allegiance. This is true of love between humans, but it is also true of love to God. We are drawn by his beauty, whether it be the beauty of his character or the beauty of his actions. We are constrained to confess with the psalmist in Psalm 48:14: ‘For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.’ When we think of the love of a believer, we see that it is a responsive love.

In this responsive love there are at least three elements. The first is admiration. Verse 28 has succinctly stated what God does for his people individually, corporately and universally. That short statement covers all the attributes and actions of God. Just as a human lover rejoices to discover the traits of his or her beloved, so believers delight in discovering who God is. They delight to focus on each attribute. As they consider his purpose, they marvel at his wisdom. They say with Paul in Romans 11:33: ‘Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!’ They think of his love and recall that he has loved them with an everlasting love, and that nothing can separate them from it. They rejoice that his power is at work in their lives. As they progress on the Christian journey, they increase in love to God, so therefore they admire him more and more.

A second element in Christian love is gratitude. Believers reason that if God did all this for them, then they should be grateful to him. Their prayers, as well as their praises, should be marked by thanksgiving. He sent his Son to be the Saviour, and with him freely gives all things. They sense the overflowing nature of his grace and they respond with increasing gratitude.

The third element is obedience. The apostle John writes in 1 John 2:5: ‘but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in him.’ Admiration and gratitude result in dedication. Believers know that their true happiness comes in serving God and they know that they are indebted to served God.

As Christians we are involved in God’s eternal purpose. The outworking of this purpose is God’s continual activity, with one of his goals being to work everything together for the spiritual and eternal good of his people, a goal that includes other great blessings. Our appropriate response is to love him wholeheartedly.