God is working all things for our good

Romans 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.”

Paul with respect to our presents suffering and future glory he concludes that believers know without a shadow of doubt that that God will work all things together for our good.

When Paul says that ‘all things work together for good’ he isn’t saying that ‘all things’ will turn out okay or in our favor in this life. All of us can attest to the fact that ‘all things’ don’t always turn out as we want them to.

The ‘all things” that Paul’s is specifically addressing is suffering and tribulation that believers go through which he written about earlier in chapter 8:18. And that we as believers know that the suffering and tribulations that we go through will turn out for our ultimate good because of God’s providence (His foresight to provide for particular needs (De 1:31; Ps 37:28; 2 Co 1:10; 2 Cor 9:10-11), and sovereignty.

Being that God is sovereign and he executes providence, He is at work in all things for good for believers even when we cannot see it we can be confident that “the suffering of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom 8:18).

Our present suffering as R.C. Sproul says, “are actually in a sense blessings in disguise, because the sufferings in this world are used by God for our ultimate good and for our ultimate benefit.”

Romans 5:3–5 “we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

James 1:2–3 “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.”

Paul in this verse gives us a promise that further provides us with confidence that God will work all things together for our good, we are told it will be accomplished only “for those who love God.”

I want you to think about this for a moment. It wouldn’t make sense for God to work all things for good for those who don’t love God. But the promise is “for those who love God.” The Greek for love/ agapaō to have a warm regard for and interest in another, cherish, have affection for. And the word love is a verb action and the participial phrase “those who love God” are in the the present active tense. The type of love for God is affectionate but since a verb is action, the love for God is obedience, discipleship, and living for God. Therefore, “all things work together for good to those who are presently actively affectionately loving God, obeying him, being a disciple, and living for God.

Now the last clause of v.28 connects “to those who love God,” with “those who are the called according to His purpose.”

This call that Paul is speaking of isn’t a verbal invitation that a person can reject, but it is an internal summons by God that overpowers a persons resistance and effectually causes the person to yield to God and say yes to His will.

To put effectual call another way and to quote R.C. Sproul, “When God calls, he calls sovereignly and effectively by an inward call which goes beyond the ears into the soul and into the heart. What we are speaking about is regeneration. Only God can do that and he does so by the power of his Spirit through the Word.”

Look again at the last statement in the last clause “according to His purpose.” Here in-lies the bedrock why all things work together for good for believers, it is because it is “according to God’s purpose.” When God’s purpose was to call you to salvation there is nothing that can stop his purpose, His plans cannot be derailed for He purpose and plan has be set and accomplished from eternity past to eternity future.

This is confirmed in v.29 -30 which tells us over and over again that because of God all things will work together for our ultimate good:

Romans 8:29–30 “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”

These two verse form what is called the golden chain of redemption. Within this golden chain of redemption are five links in a chain that cannot be broken, foreknowing, predestining, calling, justifying, and glorifying.

Paul begins by saying "For whom He foreknew, He predestined.” Now some will argue that the verb foreknew proginōskō should be only defined as God’s foreknowledge, meaning that God predestined to salvation those who He saw in advance by looking down the corridors of time and sees who would choose Him. This would mean that in election God would not be sovereign; He would be dependent on seeing what a person would do in the future in for Him to choose for salvation. This would be an inaccurate meaning of foreknew in reference to God’s foreknowledge. God sovereignly chooses those whom He wants to save (John 6:44; Eph 1:4).

Thomas Schreiner says, “To help understand the word foreknowledge we must go back to the OT where for God “to know” yada refers to his covenant love, in which he sets his affection on those who he has chosen (Gen 18:19; Ex 33:17; 1 Sam 2:12; Ps 18:43; Prov 9:10; Jer 1:5; Hosea 13:5; Amos 3:2).

When God said that he knew Jeremiah in 1:5 He wasn’t just saying that He foresaw that Jeremiah would be His prophet, God had also lovingly chosen Jeremiah to be a prophet before he was born. In the same fashion in Amos 3:2 when God says of Israel, ““You only have I known of all the families of the earth; Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”” God has knowledge of all nations of the earth, but He lovingly set his covenant only on Israel.

Therefore, in Romans 8:29 God has predestined only those whom he has set his covenant affection. The object of the verb foreknew is personal, it says “For whom” God has set his affection on (that’s you and I).

God’s foreknowledge isn’t confined to just knowing the facts about the world but he knew from eternity past specific persons whom He has chosen to set his covenant love upon.

The next link in the chain is predestination, Paul says that God also “predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.”

The word predestined means to preordain or predetermined those whom he chose beforehand would become like His Son Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:3-12; 2 Thess 2:13-14). The reason all things work together for good is because God’s purpose is to conform you and I to the image of His Son. So that Christ might be the firstborn, the preeminent one, the One has the first rank and honor above His brothers and sisters who have been made in the image of Him.

Romans 8:30 “Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”

The link in the chain continues. All those who have been predestined by God, He also called (internal effectual call) by which He summoned you to salvation (2 Tim 1:9), these who were called He also justified (Rom 3:24, justified means that God declared us righteous solely on the basis of the merits of Christ’s righteousness by which God imputed our sin to Christ’s account, and imputed Christ’s righteousness to our account (2 Cor 5:21). And whom God justified, these He also glorified. Now I have said that Scripture speaks of believers receiving their glorified bodies in the future at the time of our resurrection. But since God had decreed each chain in the link of redemption foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, Paul can confidently state that we have been glorified in the past tense, because it is certain, as if it has taken place already.

Therefore beloveds be comforted and know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.