Rightly Ordered Love
Notes
Transcript
We have spent the last several weeks considering the middle phrase of Romans 8:28, “all things work together for good”.
And although this is indeed the crucial focus of the entire sentence, it is still the middle of the statement – though many of us undoubtedly memorized it as “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”, it is surrounded on either side by statements which clearly show that this “all things working together for good” does not apply to everyone, this is no indiscriminate, universal truth, rather it is limited to certain people. And indeed, I’m certain you will recall from our study that though God’s kindnesses are given to all alike, both the evil and the just, their opposing reactions serve to either glorify God on the one hand, or reject Him on the other.
So although I ultimately decided to start our look at verses 28 through 30 with that phrase, the burning question I hope to begin looking at today, is “does this sweeping, glorious statement apply to me?”
And how we answer that is to go back to the very first part of what the apostle actually wrote, not in the middle. For the true flow of the verse starts out with the focus being on “those who love God”, framing in a way of thinking that I thing the LSB captures very well when we read,
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.
Now, I purposefully chose to teach it through the way I did for a number of reasons – but the principle reason was because I think that a right understanding of “all things work together for good” will naturally lead us toward a right understanding of both of these statements, “those who love God”, and “those who are called according to His purpose.”
Let’s think back for a few moments to help set our stage… We’ve already realized that the world and Scripture have fundamentally different concepts of what “good” is; we’ve seen that God is in the business of stripping away our false supports, that we would rightly turn to Him as our one and only support and bulwark, “I will say to Yahweh, “My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!””, is how Psalm 91 says it. And nowhere is this more pointed than in redefining what “good” is.
The world’s idea of good fundamentally revolves around comfort and coziness, whereas God’s concept of good fundamentally revolves around holiness. The world thinks “good” is ease and self-sufficiency, God declares that good is dependence on Him with endurance. The worldly idea of good revels in pleasures now, God declares that good keeps its eye on eternity.
And we must be careful here, because even believers can subtly drift into measuring God’s faithfulness by earthly ease. We begin assuming that if God loves us, circumstances should become increasingly comfortable, increasingly manageable, increasingly successful; there is a reason that Scripture consistently tears down such illusions, so much so that we are admonished to “count the cost” before becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ.
The reality is, the attitude of everyone from their birth is universally to call evil good, and good evil – the very admonition we looked at last time in Isaiah 5:20. In chapter 5 of Paul’s epistles to the Romans he was clear – we who are now in Christ Jesus were sinners, it was out of our nature that we sinned and so should be called sinners, not that we were called “sinners” because we had already sinned. And it was while we were yet sinners (again, speaking to our nature) that Christ died for us, for not only were we sinners but we were enemies of God, we who are now in Christ Jesus once stood in open rebellion against God and all that He declares to be good. We ourselves were those who Isaiah spoke of saying they substitute darkness for light and light for darkness – we despise what God loves, and love what God abhors!
John picks up this theme to move us a little further along in our understanding with Jesus’ discussion one night with Nicodemus in the third chapter of his gospel, explaining why it is that he wrote in John 3:18 that “he who does not believe has been judged already”, writing…
“And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
Note the care and precision of John’s language – it’s not merely that those in the world needed saving in verses 16 and 17, it’s not just that salvation comes only through belief in Jesus in 16, 17, and 18, it’s not simply that those who do not believe have been judged already in verse 18, and it’s not even that men were in darkness until Christ came into the world in verse 19.
No… the crux of the matter is this: “men loved the darkness rather than the Light.” Though He had not yet been placed upon that cross between two thieves, Jesus knew the hearts of men everywhere, He understood the affections of our hearts were set against Him.
The bent of the unredeemed heart is not toward God, but away from Him; they don’t do evil and sin reluctantly, but rejoicingly, they reject God because darkness agrees with the deepest desires of their hearts, and in so doing prove they are worthy of a just condemnation by God.
And here is where it is supremely helpful for us to recall to mind how our affections work, that idea that what we love governs what we consider to be good. Our two primary affections are love and its immediate opposite, hate.
Our love is focused upon that which we deem to be the greatest good – this is what we aim our lives toward, this is what we pursue, this is what we defend.
So when John writes that men love darkness, that darkness, in context, the antithesis of Christ Jesus, is identified as the object of their love, that is what is most desirable and most pleasing. And so, it is natural for them to not only hate God, but to hate all that God represents, and to make their choices accordingly – remember, our choices are always going to be according to the strongest inclination of our hearts.
So man, in his depravity – not talking about degree or the depth of depravity, but rather the encompassing extent or breadth of that depravity in which the whole of man is involved in rebelling even against all that God declares to be “good”, even if they don’t go to the intensity of others – man in his total depravity treasures anything and everything other than God, and that love drives all of his decisions and choices.
On account of this, man in his natural state, with his heart set against God, must inevitably twist the definition of “good” to match as a matter of moral choice. Instead of “self-exultation”, he calls it “freedom”. Instead of “lust” he calls it “fulfillment”. Instead of “worldly-mindedness”, he calls it “wisdom”.
It is then no wonder that men exchange good for evil, light for darkness, sweet for bitter – they actively suppress the truth of God’s declarations in unrighteousness!
And men and women the world over will defend those things against any suggestion they might be wrong – remember, not only do we pursue what we love, what we deem to be good, but we will defend it.
And here’s the rub… no one is above this, all are born into this love of darkness. Paul was clear, when he turned to those now in Christ Jesus in Romans 3 and said “you are no better than these sinners.”
What then? Are we better? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.”
Now, there is of course a significant cry of protest here at this point from people who fundamentally disagree with this statement. “Those other people are the really bad ones, I certainly do good” is the cry throughout the ages.
And, if God were to use man’s concept of “good”, they would be right.
But He doesn’t. This is why a proper, biblical understanding of “good” in this statement of Romans 8:28 regarding “all things work together for good” is so necessary for us, because even we who are in Christ Jesus are prone to misinterpret “good”, and the world about us is doubly committed to retaining and defending any concept of “good” that opposes God.
In other words, it’s not simply that those outside of Christ don’t do good, but even more to the point, they fundamentally are in sharp disagreement with God on what “good” is in the first place.
And it all ties back to the object of their love – remember how our affections work here, that in our hearts, we love what we deem to be the greatest good, and hate that which stands in opposition to that which we love.
So, when a person comes across a verse like Romans 8:28 and reads,
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.
…many in the world today will protest and say, “but I do love God, so this promise is for me”, without really examining whether they love God Himself, or the benefits He can give.
The sad truth is, when most people say that they “love God”, what they really mean is that they love the idea of some great power that exists primarily to serve their own desires, and if there is anything asked of them at all, it’s really more of a suggestion.
And so, we see people on stages, broadcast into our livings rooms and onto our smartphones claiming all the while to love God, to invoke His name, to reference the parts of His word they like, but all the while hating the God who reveals Himself in His word. They reject the very things that define who God is in their quest for His gifts, and self-aggrandizement, and that “warm, fuzzy feeling” they get from doing something “religious”.
But, when it gets to things like divine authority and sovereignty? “No, thank you.” Holiness? “No, that’s just for those exclusivists, that’s puritanical, these holiness-talkers can’t be right, they shouldn’t be trusted.”
And they twist God’s own words, declaring that He should not judge, lest He be judged – and they are all too ready to condemn Him and anyone else who declares as John did , “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Well did Jesus pronounce to his half-brothers in John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you,” – now, remember they didn’t believe in Him and were trying to get Him to go up to the feast in Jerusalem where the Jews were seeking to kill Him – “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I bear witness about it, that its deeds are evil.”
Oh, but people love to lust after His blessings! The crowd of 5,000 men who ate their fill on the grassy mountainside and had 12 baskets left over from the 5 barley loaves and two fish in John 6 saw the sign He had done and were saying “this is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world”, but chased Him down afterwards in their small boats afterwards when they discovered He was gone – they wanted to take Him by force and make Him king.
But it wasn’t on account of the realization that He was a prophet, no!
Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
This is a frightening reality, because it means a person may speak even constantly of loving God, while they are in point of fact merely loving only the comforts, securities, or blessings they imagine He provides. The real question is not merely whether we desire help from God, but whether we desire God Himself.
They loved the bread and the miracles, but when He pressed them with the spiritual truth that the bread of God comes down from heaven and gives life to the world, telling them “I am the bread of life” in verse 35, and making it explicit in verse 38, saying “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me”, many grumbled, many complained, many were offended by Him, and they left Him.
The fact is, people will claim to love God – and probably do pretty good job of convincing themselves that they are truly Christian.
But when comfort gives way to suffering, when reputation give way to disgust, when prosperity turns to poverty, when control over their lives and destinies is questioned, the plain truth of the matter is revealed – it was not so much God that they love, but His usefulness to their own comforts.
This is a false “love”, a love centered not on God, but ultimately on self, taking what they perceive as the best of the God of the bible and repackaging it toward their own selves.
A false love does not merely reject God outright, but it frequently attempts to recreate Him into a more desirable form.
Take, for example, when Aaron sinfully made the molten calf with a graving tool. He didn’t claim this was a new god, but rather,
And he took this from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”
Aaron even had the gall to proclaim the calf to be “Yahweh” in verse 5.
Now, what is the point of all this?
The point is, there is an intentionality to this rejection of God, and love of something – anything – else, even when the love is something that God provides. Right were the Puritans when they demanded people inspect themselves even by asking “is my love for heaven, or is my love for God – if God were not in heaven, would I still desire to be there?”
In Romans 1, Paul explains that those outside of Christ “suppress the truth” in verse 18, they “exchanged the glory” of God for something else in verse 23, and in verse 25 they both “exchanged the truth of God for a lie”, and “worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator”.
This is not merely not having the right information or some case of mistaken conclusion, but rather we go right back to the point from earlier – a natural man or woman is at enmity with God, loving darkness rather than Light, it is natural for such a person to not only hate God, but also to hate all that is associated with Him, he or she begins life with reality flipped on its head, so that the God of Scripture is bad, and any other sort of god can be good.
And this is precisely why Scripture never presents love for God as something the natural man is able to produce himself. The problem is not merely that man lacks information about God, but that his affections are corrupted against God. He does not simply fail to seek the true God accidentally, but rather purposefully refuses Him, because the God who truly is stands opposed to the loves of his heart.
This is why men will so readily invent religions, and idols, and systems of morality for themselves, while simultaneously resisting the holy and sovereign God revealed in Scripture. The issue has never been an intellectual darkness, but a root-level moral hatred of the Light.
In other words, sin is, most fundamentally, disordered love; love that has been divorced from its proper object. Man was created to love God supremely, to delight in Him as the highest good, and therefore to interpret all things in relation to Him rightly. But in the Fall, our loves became inverted, distorted into something it was never designed for. We began loving self rather than God, loving creation rather than Creator, loving darkness rather than Light, loving the gifts rather than the Giver.
And because what we love governs what we perceive to be good, fallen man inevitably twists both morality and truth itself. He calls evil good and good evil because his heart is attached to the wrong object of love.
Our reactions to providence often reveal more about our hearts than we realize. When comfort is interrupted, when recognition is removed, when earthly stability begins to shake, what rises from within us often exposes what we truly treasure, it is for things like this that the many writers of the New Testament continually admonish us to test ourselves, to examine ourselves, to peer into our hearts and lives in order to see if we are of the faith.
For when a person is saved, his or her affections are reordered. The man or woman who is now in Christ Jesus is given a new heart by God, so that what was once hated is now loved, and what was once loved is increasingly hated and put to death. God Himself becomes the supreme object of the believer’s love.
In Christ, we now love rightly. In Christ, we now are able to understand good rightly.
This is one of the most fundamental elements of regeneration and salvation that so sadly too often misunderstood. The purpose of salvation is not exhausted by changing our eternal destination, though it does do that. Nor is salvation primarily about forgiveness, though that, too, it most certainly involved.
No, regeneration is fundamentally reaches far deeper than even these exalted and praiseworthy things.
This is precisely why Christianity cannot merely be reduced to behavior modification, religious activity, or external morality! The problem reaches deeper than mere conduct – the heart itself loves wrongly, and unless God changes the heart, the object of love never changes.
And the Old Testament has some pretty stark truth to give us on the matter. Take, for example, what we read in Deuteronomy 30,
“Moreover Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
Just as circumcision involves the removal of flesh by another, so too is regeneration something that a person cannot produce in themselves – there is a fundamental change of heart that only God can produce – this “love for God” that Romans 8:28 speaks of is not something that a person is even able to manufacture within themselves – it takes a divine action on the part of God for this to happen.
“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to do My judgments.
Love for God – a real love for God, not the emotional, mushy-gushy people mistake it for, is not a natural religious thing. Our inclinations are against God, our love of darkness rather than light requires a supernatural activity on the part of God – it’s not something that can just “happen”, we cannot self-correct our primary affections of love and hate in this matter.
When we read in 1 John 4:19…
We love, because He first loved us.
…it brings us a decisive answer in this question about loving God. We don’t love God because I one day woke up and decided all on my own to change the object of my love, no! I can love in the way that love was meant to be, is because God first showed love to me.
And when that happens, when we are regenerated in this way, our soul can begin perceiving the beauty and excellency of God Himself as He really is.
And in this, I then truly will love God – love God Himself on account of who He is, rather than what benefit He might bring to me.
What an amazing reality is contained in this simple idea of “those who love God”!
Let us pray!
