Romans 8:28-30 - Assurance of God's sovereign care
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[Intro]
It’s that time of year again. The new year feels like a fresh new start to life. Maybe there’s new goals we want to hit for the new year or perhaps 2022 was full of trials and you want to completely forget it. So good changes we want to make and bad things we want to forget. Now trying to make life choices that better ourselves, whether it revolves around health, careers, or anything else, is not a bad thing when done for the right reasons and in the right ways. Also, about the trials, we know as Christians, they’re going to happen. Trials are guaranteed in life. But in light of these two things, I want you to start off the year thinking about the scriptures we’ll be going over today which will be reminders for us on:
What is truly “good”
An important promise of God, which will help a lot when you are going through a tough time
These two things actually go hand-in-hand.
[Body]
28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. 29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
These 3 verses are very encouraging. They provide hope in all circumstances. We’re going to dive into them more to try and truly grasp the peace and joy that is found in these verses. It’s important to understand these verses are a promise. I’m reading the NLT, and if you look at the very beginning of verse 28, it reads “And we know”. Sometimes there are Greek words in the Bible that we don’t exactly understand their meaning or how to translate them best. In those situations scholars will have to try and sort-of guess based on the context of the rest of the scriptures around it. And so depending on which translation of the Bible you use, it might read slightly differently. This is not one of those scriptures.
The NIV reads “And we know”. The ESV, “And we know”. The ASV “And we know”. What about the King James Version, surely that ones going to be a little different - “And we know”.
This is not a should, could, might, hope for, better pray for it thing. This is a for sure thing. We know this will happen.
What is it that we can know and count on with certainty? “That God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”
Whatever translation you read, it’s going to say “everything” or “all things”. Not some things or even most things, scripture says “everything”. That means every single thing that happens in your life will work together for good. Now the important thing to think about is what is good referring to here? There are a lot of things we see happen on earth that we can point out at as generally bad or generally good according to the Bible. However, the “good” that Paul is talking about here isn’t anything temporal. It’s not something that we believe to be “best”. There are some things that seem to go flawlessly just as we had hoped for. And then there are tragedies that happen in life that sometimes don’t have a happy ending.
Let’s read verse 29 again.
“For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”
The good that Paul is referring to is that God will conform us to the likeness of Jesus. You are an image bearer of God and your purpose is to glorify God. How do you do that? Become more like His Son. And it’s a process. In verse 28, Paul writes in the present tense. It is not a one time event or every once in a while where God helps you in a crunch, it is an ongoing work of God for your good. He’s always working for your good. It’s so easy to look at a tough situation when you’er in the middle of it and think, “has God forgotten about me?” Quite the opposite, He is working things out for your good.
Many months ago, we talked about God’s will and how there is his revealed will through scripture and also his secret will. The stuff that nobody but God knows. Nobody can say with certainty what will happen tomorrow. Do not let the uncertainty discourage you. Hold on to your faith in God and his promises for you.
A lot of bad things that happen are hard to understand how on earth it could bring about any spiritual growth in you. But remember, it’s only a small piece in a big puzzle. Only God can see the whole picture.
If you ask James about trials he would say “Consider it pure joy”.
2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
We spent the last few months going over 1st and 2nd Peter, which talks a lot about the endurance of our spiritual life.
7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
You are being refined. You will conform more to the likeness of Christ through trials.
Another important note on this promise is that it is not for everyone. In verse 28 it clarifies who it’s for, those “who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” You must be a believer in Christ to receive this promise. Sometimes it may feel like God is blessing the wicked and the righteous are being punished. We have to look at things spiritually, he’s working everything out with his sovereign hand of care. In the end the wicked will be destroyed. But for the believer we have so much to look forward to.
Let’s re-read verse 30 again. At the beginning I read everything from the NLT translation but I want to re-read this from the NIV.
30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Now right at the beginning we see predestined. This is a challenging word that often brings up discussion or arguments from two groups of people. In Christianity we have so many denominations and then within that we have those that call themselves Arminians and those that call themselves Calvinists. We are not going to dive into that today. I chose the NIV because I like the verbiage it uses of justified and glorified.
The start of Verse 29 of the NIV reads “Those he foreknew he predestined”. Before any of creation had come into existence, in the beginning, God knew you would come to faith in Christ. God is all-knowing. God doesn’t guess on anything, he doesn’t have to process any information, he just knows everything from beginning to end. And as an all-knowing God he chose you into his family from the very beginning. It can be hard to understand his sovereignty over all when we are living and breathing creatures making decisions every day. That’s because He is God and we are not, we cannot comprehend how he works. But we can know that He is always at work.
Now there’s one thing that seems off about verse 30. I’m going to read it again and then I want you to think about it for a second before we dive into it more. I didn’t catch this until going through the commentaries.
“And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”
There are a few different stages or events in the life of a believer.
Justification - This is when a person comes to faith in Christ. This is a one time event.
Sanctification - This is the work of God in a believer molding them to his likeness. This is basically what we just discussed when God is working everything together for your good. This is an ongoing process while you’re alive on earth.
Glorification - This when you are called to Heaven. This is obviously a one time event.
So we look at verse 30 and say well as a believer reading this now, being predestined, called by God and justified are all past events. They’ve already happened so it makes sense to read this in past tense. But Paul also writes about our glorification, a future event, in past tense. Paul, being moved by God and writing scripture can talk about things from God’s perspective. God is timeless and not waiting around for anything to happen. He declared this from the beginning of time, as a believer your name is in the book of life and the day of your glorification is a done deal. It’s as if it already happened. Complete assurance.
When we went through 1st and 2nd Peter we also talked about how God will sustain you through all of life’s challenges and so you can hold on to the faith. And as we read here in Romans, you will come out of those challenges more like Christ and stronger in the faith.
God has blessed us so much in giving us everything we need while here on earth. And it’s so reassuring to know that even when life’s biggest challenges come to the forefront of our lives, we can know God is still working on our behalf for our good.