God's Great Promise

When things go wrong, many people, including Christians, blame God. The question is asked many times why God would allow bad things to happen to good people. The problem with that logic is that there is only one that is good.

Romans 3:10–12 “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

During World War II, a British soldier angrily demanded an answer to a question, a question directed at a Christian soldier serving with him. The angry soldier demanded, “Why doesn’t God stop this war?” To which, the Christian replied, “Why should He? He didn’t start it!”

People blame God because they perceive themselves as good and because they have the wrong idea about God’s omnipotence or sovereignty. Most say that omnipotence means that God can do anything, but that is not what omnipotence means. I like C.S. Lewis’s definition of omnipotence.

C.S. Lewis:

“God has the power to do all that is possible and impossible. You may attribute miracles to Him, but not nonsense.”

God raised the dead, God made a virgin conceive, and God walked on the water, but God has not aborted a single baby, and He does not condone the practice either. God has not caused or allowed the sexual molestation of a single child.

We cannot say that God has given His creatures free will and the power of choice and made them accountable for those choices, and at the same time say that He has denied them free will, free choice, and accountability. Do you understand?

We feel that God should not allow certain things to happen, but that is pride and arrogance at its worst. It is the creature telling the Creator how to rule His creation.

Why does God allow things to go wrong? Why do bad things happen? The cause of all bad things is sin.

There was no murder inside the Garden of Eden. There was no rape or sexual immorality inside the Garden of Eden. There was no lying inside of the Garden of Eden. There was no stealing inside the Garden of Eden. Those things sprang forth from choices made in free will by man.

There are none that are good, and instead of blaming God, we should cling to His Word where He has made a wonderful promise to Christians.

Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

All things work together for good? Seriously? Do you mean it was good for me to get shocked 9 times by a defibrilator in 2013? Do you mean it is good for Madilyn and Ali-Kate to be going through their medical issues? And what about Kaitlyn? What does Romans 8:28 mean?

As we get started in 2024, let’s investigate this wonderful verse and what it means.

I. The Promise of Romans 8:28

The promise of Romans 8:28 is a targeted promise.

This is not a promise to all people. The promise contained within the verse is directed toward those who love God.

If you want things to work out for the good in your life, you must love God, and the Bible tells us how to love God.

Matthew 22:37–38 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.”

The type of love Paul is talking about in Romans 8:28 is the type of love that puts God first. It is the type of love that produces obedience in the face of whatever is happening in your life.

To obey God completely, one must make God the top priority in his or her life. That is what Jesus said.

Luke 14:26 “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”

How can you expect God to fulfill the promise of His Word if you do not make Him the top priority in your life?

What does making God the top priority in your life means? It means that in everything you do and everywhere you go, God is front and center. When you play golf, people should see God in you. When you go to school, people should see God in you. When you go to work, people should see God in you. When you go to the doctor, people should see God in you. When you come to church, people should see God in you. When you decide what you are wearing, people should see God in how you dress and not see through what you are dressed in.

Making God a priority does not mean walking around like a monk dragging a Bible everywhere. It is letting the world see Christ through you. If you do that, you love God, and you can cling to the promise of Romans 8:28.

There is another stipulation to receiving the promise, however. The promise is given to those who love God and to those who are called according to God’s purpose. In reality, loving God and being called according to His purpose cannot be separated.

What is God’s purpose for everyone?

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Ephesians 1:4–6 “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”

God’s purpose for you is to have eternal life.

That is why God came to earth in the flesh. He came so you could have everlasting life, and because God chose you for that purpose, you will be conformed to the image of Christ.

Romans 8:29 “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

If you are saved, you are conformed to be like Jesus Christ. It has been settled. It is determined. Since that is determined for you, all things in your life are going to work together for your good according to God’s master plan.

If you read Romans 8:28 with the idea that it means you will not experience awful things, that is incorrect. We are going to experience awful things or have experienced awful things in our lives because of sin, but that does not mean that God is not fulfilling His promise.

It just means that God is using those experiences to bring about the good He has planned for you according to His purpose, and I promise that no matter how awful something is on earth that you experience, it will wane in comparison to the glory God has reserved for you.

I will use me for example as I mentioned earlier about being shocked 9 times by a defibrilator. When that happened, I questioned God. It just does something to you when a doctor tells you that you should be dead. For a while, almost 3 years, I was a different person because of it.

I was living in fear of what was going to happen next. Finally, and I know it was the Holy Spirit that showed this to me, I realized that what happened to me was the result of sin, bad choices, and for me personally, I am 99.99% convinced that it happened because I was running from God not willing to do what I knew He was calling me to do.

Is being shocked 9 times working out for my good according to God’s purpose? I say yes. I am doing what God called me to do many years ago. I have a wonderful church family that is growing numerically and spiritually, and I am learning more about God daily.

If I had not been shocked 9 times, who knows if I would have ever gotten to the point where I could realize the good God had for me according to His purpose for me.

Now, the Bible gives us some examples for us to see so that we can understand the principle behind Romans 8:28.

A. Joseph

You talk about a messed up childhood. Joseph had a mother that feuded with his father’s other wife. He had 11 other brothers and had a sister that wanted to act like the heathens around her. On top of all that, Joseph’s father, Jacob, loved Joseph more than the other kids which made the others jealous of Joseph, and on top of all that, Joseph seemed to his brothers to be a little arrogant we shall say.

In the Bible, however, Joseph is a perfect example of how things work out for the good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Do you realize what all happened to Joseph?

His brothers really wanted to kill him, but instead they threw into a pit. They intended to leave him in the pit until he died, but they decided against that and sold him into slavery in Egypt instead.

While he was a slave, he started gaining favor with a man in Egypt named Potiphar. Joseph did not stay in favor very long as Potiphar’s wife made sexual advances toward Joseph, but Joseph resisted. As Joseph resisted, he fled from the woman who accused Joseph of sexually assaulting her. As a result, Joseph was put in prison.

Never in all this, evidently, did Joseph question God. As he was in prison, the pharaoh had a dream that no one could interpret, so he sent for Joseph hoping that he could interpret the dream for him, and Joseph did. He told Pharaoh that there was going to be seven years of abundance followed by 7 years of drought and that Egypt needed to plan accordingly.

Pharaoh was so impressed that he put Joseph in charge of saving foo during the time of abundance for the time of famine that would accompany the drought.

During the famine, guess who shows up in Egypt looking for food? Joseph’s brothers.

After a back and forth conversation, Joseph finally confronted his brothers with his identity, and I want you to notice what Joseph says to his brothers.

Genesis 50:20 “But 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.”

Joseph tells his brothers that what they did to him was used by God to bring about the purpose God had for Joseph which was to save many people. Yes, being thrown into a pit is bad. Yes, being sold into slavery is bad. Yes, being thrown into prison as an innocent man is bad, but God worked together for good those things in Joseph’s life because he loved God and was called according to his purpose.

B. Job

Have you ever heard of Job? Do you know about the bad things he experienced?

First, the Sabeans stole 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 donkeys, and the Sabeans killed all but one of the servants tending to the oxen and donkeys.

Second, and almost simultaneously, another servant came and told Job that fire from heaven or lightning killed all 7,000 of Job’s sheep and .ll but one of the servants taking care of the sheep.

Third, as this servant was speaking, another servant ran to Job and told him that Chaldeans had come and stolen Job’s 3,000 camels and killed all but one of the servants who were taking care of the camels.

Job experienced some awful things in rapid fire succession, but those things kept coming at him.

As this third servant finished, another servant ran up and told Job that all his sons and daughters were eating in the oldest brothers house when suddenly a tornado came and killed all of them.

How devastating!!! No man has suffered so much. If we had been in Job’s place, we would have been questioning God. Why God? Do you know what Job said and did.

Job 1:20–21 “Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return thither: The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

What happened to Job was awful, but God says that all things work together for good for those who love Him and who are called according to God’s purpose. Job did not curse God when tragedy struck; instead, he worshipped God, and God blessed him greatly.

Job 42:12 “So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.”

I can hear some of you now. “That’s Old Testament. That does not mean anything in the New Covenant.”

God’s Word says otherwise.

1 Corinthians 10:11 “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”

C. Paul

Paul was stoned, shipwrecked, beaten, snake-bitten, and imprisoned. Do you know what Paul said?

Philippians 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

As long as Paul lived, whatever happened to him was for the glory of Christ. Paul lived in the promise that the Holy Spirit led him to write. Everything was going to work for good in Paul’s life because Paul loved God and was called according to God’s purpose.

D. Jesus

What about Jesus? Jesus suffered immensely, but because He suffered, everything in my life can work out for the good. Satan thought he was doing Jesus in, but it was Jesus doing him in.

Acts 2:22–24 “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.”

God used the death of Jesus Christ to bring about my salvation. What happened to Jesus was awful, but He submitted to the Father’s will, and today He is living in the glory God promised Him, and because Jesus is living in the glory of that promise, I can rest assured that everything in my life is going to work together for good because I love Him and have been called according to His purpose, and He is going to take care of me no matter what happens.

That is the tragedy of today’s world. People, instead of clinging to God’s promise, think that government is the answer. People think that armed rebellion is the answer, but friend, the solution is loving God and if you do and are called according to His purpose, He has promised you that everything is going to work together for the good according to His master plan.

The answer is not found at the ballot box or at the end of a gun, the answer is found in God’s Word and the promises He has made to His people who are called according to His purpose.