For the Good of the Elect

Introduction

What do you see as the good life? Is it success in business? A healthy and happy family? Financial security? A morally and socially acceptable standing in society or in the church? All of these can be good gifts from the Lord, but they are small and insignificant compared with the good God has for his saints...

One of the problems with the prosperity Gospel is they sell themselves short, replacing the longing and groaning in hope with being detracted with trinkets and bobbles in this life...

All Things for Good

Our text begins by stating that we know all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. Let us break that down.

We Know - What Paul writes is taken for granted, as if it is something the readers are already familiar with. If there is one thing we know, it is the love of God. This has been clear in Romans up until this point.

Romans 3:24 ESV

and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

How is it that salvation is a free gift? How is it that God, whom we have offended, would give us a way back to him that was free? Only love can explain this.

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Scripture is clear that the purpose of God’s salvation through the work of Jesus Christ is to show his love for sinful humanity. However, this love is specifically for the elect, as we will see. While God loves the world, this love is displayed in loving a remnant whom he has called to himself.

We know that God loves us, and that is proved at the cross. The Gospel is a message of love and if you don’t realize that, you will not understand the Gospel. You will see it as a give and take, as if God is saving you to get something from you. To believe God is to trust in his love that drives his actions to save us. This love is not earned or because we are so lovable, it is because of his grace and mercy towards sinners and his desire to glorify himself by showing that love to those who least deserve it.

For those who love God - Notice this qualifier. God does not work all things for good for everybody. For many, God works for their destruction and disappointment.

When Psalm 2 speaks of Christ’s second coming as a mighty warrior, it says Psalm 2:9

Psalm 2:9 ESV

You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

Revelation 19:21 ESV

And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.

God’s good graces are reserved for those who love him. Love is reciprical. God seeks a relationship with humanity, and if we are not willing to surrender our love to God, we cannot expect his kindness towards us to last.

Those who love God are those who have beheld him and, rather than continuing in the rebellion of sin, adore him. They seek him earnestly,

Hebrews 11:6 ESV

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

God wants to be pursued, he wants to be loved, not because he is desperate and needs our love, but because he created us to be in relationship with him. It is a matter of accepting our glorious and joyful purpose. We are created with the great privilege of being loved and loving God, something no other creature has. Even the angels, who adore God in worship, cannot be in the same loving relationship that his image-bearers can.

What this expresses is that God engages lovingly with those who engage with him lovingly. God does have a love for the lost expressed in kindness that is meant to bring them into his love, but the love he has for his Saints is special and it is reciprocated. God created us for loving relationship with him, and it is those who love him that he accepts and works in their lives for good.

for those called according to his purpose - this phrase clarifies further those whom God works for good. Those who love God are those called according to his purpose, and if you are called according to his purpose you love God. When God calls someone, he sends his Holy Spirit to do a work in their hearts so that they no longer love sin, but instead repent (change their mind) and begin to love him instead. Christianity, we must remember, is not about forsaking sin for the sake of it, it is turning from sin in order to walk in the love God has called us to as his chosen ones.

all things work together for good - This is one of the most well known, least understood, and most difficult verses in the NT to understand. Many Christian read this verse as a source of comfort, that God will make everything good in the end. Others find it discouraging as they face life’s most difficult circumstances and wonder, how can God really be doing this to me for my good? It is difficult thing to grasp, as God does have his children go through immense suffering and loss at times. Saints endure poverty, sickness, persecutions, loss, mental and emotional turmoil, difficulties, and disappointments. We go through the same difficulties in life as the world, and often worse difficulties, and yet we are to believe that God works all things for our good. Sometimes our stories don’t seem to have a happy ending, and we need to make sense of this verse in order in order to receive the comfort that it is meant to convey to the Christian.

Predestined

In order to understand what is meant by that phrase, we need to step into verse 29.

Those whom he foreknew -

He predestined to be conformed to the image of his son - a lot of the time, only the first part of this is verse, but it is the second part that is truly defining in what this means.

Predestined.

Conformed.

firstborn among many brothers - The ultimate purpose of our new birth shines through here. This is the end to which we are saved. Jesus is the firstborn, the primary inheritor of all of God’s blessings and glory, but he means to share it with a host of siblings known as the Church.

The Work of God’s Salvation

Verse 30 highlights how this amazing process of salvation is done.

Called

Justified

Sanctified and Glorified - sanctification is implied here. It isn’t mentioned because Paul isn’t familiar with our systematic way of organizing theology, but it is implied because it is the process by which glorification is reached.

2 Corinthians 7:1 ESV

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Ephesians 4:22–24 ESV

to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Glorification: the final state of being in the exact image of Christ (in his humanity) as glorified human beings ready for an eternity of holiness and glory, partaking in the reign of Christ and knowing him as both our brother individually and our husband corporately.

This is the ‘good’ that verse 28 talks about. God has called us according to this purpose, to share in the glory of Christ for all eternity. So we should understand that phrase to refer, not to our temporal condition, but to our eternal one.

Conclusion

If you love God and our Saviour Jesus Christ and have trusted in Him, you are secure for a lifetime of good and an eternity of glory.

Remember that the good we are speaking of is eternal good. The process may be painful, but the end is nothing to be compared to the “glory that will be revealed” when we are revealed as the fully formed children of God that we are.

If we are going to live a fulfilling Christian life, we must always put all things in the context of what God is doing. Of course God cares about your suffering now, but he cares more about your eternal destiny and your salvation. He cares about making you, through his discipline and the Spirit he has caused to reside in us, holy as he is Holy so that we may share in the glory of our Holy Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Christian mindfulness is needed. Get into the habit of reminding yourself what God is doing in your life, even when you don’t understand it. It is really for good, and that good is to conform you to Christ. Will you submit to the hand of our ever-loving but effective spiritual surgeon, or will you kick and scream and possibly ruin the work God is doing in you?

If you do not know Christ, know that he is willing to do this good work in you if you will lay back in faith, get into the surgery chair, and trust that God will do what is good for you to enjoy glory with him forever.