How Believers Can Appropriate
Romans 8:28
Introduction:
A loved one is brutalized, a child is kidnaped or abused, a family is wiped out in a terrible accident, a marriage breaks apart, or perhaps a terrible disease has taken hold of someone and angry people cry out at God and ask, "Why did you do this to me?"
It is easy to feel betrayed and hard to reconcile what has happened with a God of love. That is especially true if you have been taught that God’’s love would protect you from any harm, keep you from every hurt and pain or protect you from every sickness.
How many of you have lost a child in death?
How many have lost a mate?
How many have ever had a serious accident?
How many have suffered a broken relationship?
How many have faced a devastating disappointment?
How many have cried out as did the prophet Habbakuk?
Hab 1:2 O LORD, how long shall I cry, And You will not hear?
Or as the Psalmist? Ps 89:46 How long , LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever?
Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
NASB Rom 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
And - the verse starts with a conjunction and that links it to what has been said before.
This will be expanded in six important prior truths in the Book of Romans
We Know = oidamen
We - that is , those who are “in Christ Jesus” (v.1) , , the saved; brethren (v.12); children, literally “born ones” (v.16); those who have the firstfruits of the Spirit (v.23), saints (v.27)
Know – Wuest’s transl. “we know with an absolute certainty
Rom 15:29 Oida is translated “I am sure”
God causes all things to work together-
The great secret of this passage is that God is the orchestrator, the designer, the architect, the conductor, the guide, the manager, the Lord, the omnipotent hand that directs our lives.
All things = any and every, of every kind (A.V. often, all manner of) – anything, everything, all manner of things,
Work together: sunergo =
The most authoritative Lexicon on the N.T. language
TDNT - In Rom 8:28 God must be supplied as the subject of sunergo. Many ancient MSS did in fact supply this subject. God is a helper for good in all things
ATR - mss. A & B have God (ho theos) as the subject; the idea is that it is God who makes "all things work together" in our lives
God coworking provides all things for good or so that it is well with them"
UBS Handbook “We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him.
Modern translations, with the exception of the NEB and Phillips, follow this rendering.
NASB And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
NIV And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
AMP We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.
For Good - agathon -
Vine: that which is "good, being morally honorable, pleasing to God, and therefore beneficial.
for good to and for those who love God AMP
Those who love God -
it is affection, tender and passionate
attachment, a sentiment excited by qualities in a person or thing that command our affection;
Its absence invalidates all claim to the Christian
name. It is the antithesis of selfishness.
Spurgeon: True believers love God as their Father; they are willing to obey him; to walk in his commands is their delight; no path is so soft to their feet as the path of God’s precepts. They love God as their portion, for in h im they live and move and have their being; God is their all and without him they have nothing.
Called = kletois = invited (by God in the
proclamation of the gospel) to obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God through Christ
Wuest - called is “divinely summoned
His purpose - prothesin - NT:4286
Thayer -the setting forth of a thing, placing of it in view 2. a purpose
Lexicon -that which is planned or purposed in advance
Spurgeon: No man having read chapters 8 & 9 attentively, and having understood them, can deny that the doctrines of sovereign, distin-guishing grace, are the sum and substance of the teaching of the Bible.
Wuest’s transl. of v.28
Rom 8:28 And we know with an absolute knowledge that for those who are loving God, all things are working together resulting in good, for those who are divinely summoned ones according to His purpose.
Barnhouse: Our lives are not the haphazard result of the moving of blind chance. All that comes to pass in our lives is according to the eternal plan of the all-wise, all-powerful and all-loving Father. It is for this reason that we are well assured that everything helps to secure the good of those who love God, those whom He has called in fulfillment of His design.
PRIOR TRUTHS IN ROMANS 8 - “And we know”
1. God has declared that we are righteous in his sight - 8:1 -
OUR STANDING
Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,
This is because of our justification -
Rom 3:24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
2. God has enabled us to live a righteous life - 8:3
OUR WALK
Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
3. God has enabled us to be spiritual minded - 8:5
OUR MIND
Rom 8:5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Warning of Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
4. God has given us the knowledge that suffering precedes glory - 8:17
OUR ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE
Rom 8:17 if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
Lloyd-Jones: The thing is inevitable. We must suffer if we are Christians. This is an absolute rule. As he suffered, so shall we.
5. God has enabled to see that our coming glory far outweighs any trials we have here on earth- 8:18
OUR REWARD
Rom 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Consider = studied analysis
1 Cor 2:9 "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him." 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
2 Cor 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
6. God has assured us that when we hurt He hurts with us - 8:23
OUR COMFORT
Rom 8: 23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our
weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
EXPLANATORY TRUTHS IN ROMANS 8
8:28 We know . . . for (because)
Wuest’s transl. captures this perfectly
Rom 8:28 And we know with an absolute knowledge that for those who are loving God, all things are working together resulting in good, for those who are divinely summoned ones according to His purpose. Because, those whom He foreordained He also marked out beforehand as those who were to be conformed to the derived image of His Son
1. We were foreordained to be conformed to the likeness of God’s Son
OUR ULTIMATE PURPOSE
Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For (because) whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son,
2. God the Father’s greatest delight is to glorify His Son
GOD’S GREAT DELIGHT
that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Barnhouse: Since God is love, and the center of His love is Christ, He must have His plan center in the person and the work of His Son. As we read the entire Bible we can come to no other conclusion than that God the Father never had a thought apart from the Lord Jesus Christ and His glory. And then here is the most amazing fact of all: the plan of God includes the glory of the elect, the glory of those who are called according to His purpose.
We must trust God when we cannot track Him
1 Cor 2:8 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
1 Cor 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things
1 Cor 2:16 For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
Paul’s great doxology
Rom 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
34 "For who has known the mind of the LORD?
Or who has become His counselor?" 35’Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?" 36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
Wuest’s translation
Rom 8:28 And we know with an absolute knowledge that for those who are loving God, all things are working together resulting in good, for those who are divinely summoned ones according to His purpose.
Conclusion
We live in a world in which God has permitted the
possibilities of good and of evil; and that even where evil results from the choice of wicked men, God is able to work with those who love him in order to bring good out of the circumstances.
So what
A believer who loves God can face any circumstance without despair and with a God-given peace.
Addendum
Barnhouse: The question must be boldly put and plainly answered: Do things which come as a result of sin work together for the good of those who love God and who are the called according to His purpose? The answer falls into two parts. Something that comes into my life as the result of the sin of someone else may easily work tegether for my good. The Scripture gives us many such examples. It was the sin of Naomi’s son in marrying thee Moabitess, Ruth, when the law sternly forbade such a marriage, that ultimately brought ruth into the fold of God. The sin of her husband in marrying her brought her to a widowhood which later put her in the line of the mothers of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus. She had been chosen by God for this purpose and the Lord caused the events of human living, including human sin, to bo bring about His purposes. And one must never be drawn in to the logical fallacy of thinking that this make s God a partner in sin, or that He condones sin in any way.
Evil poured itself out against the sinless Son of God and thereby worked together for the eternal good of all who are saved in the redemption which resulted from His crucifixion. Satan meant the death of Christ as his ultimate and angriest thrust at God; but God turned it into salvation from sin, and through that death took multitudes from the kingdom of Satan into the Kingdom of His dear Son.
