Romans 8:28
Notes
Transcript
If you’ve been following us this summer, then you know we are in a teaching series called “The Bible According to…Me - misunderstanding scripture”. Both here in Stratford and at our site in London, we have been looking at common passages that we often misinterpret or misunderstand. I want to thank Tim Grigg, Andrew Mugford and Jordan Berta for so capably preaching the word while I was away on vacation.
Today, I want to look at a passage in the New Testament: Romans 8:28-29.
But before we get to today’s passage, I came across a story this week I want to share with you.
Legend says that Genghis Khan, the Mongol king of the 13th century, was out hunting one hot summer day with his favourite hawk perched on his wrist. Parched with thirst, the king sought out a source for a cool drink. At last, to his joy, he saw some water drop by drop trickling down over the edge of a rock cliff. The king leaped from his horse, took a little silver cup from his hunting bag, and held it so as to catch the slowly falling drops.
It took a long time to fill the cup; and the king was so thirsty that he could hardly wait. At last it was nearly full. He put the cup to his lips, and was about to drink, when all at once the air whirred, and the cup was knocked out of his hands, spilling the precious water on the ground. It was his pet hawk who'd spoiled his drink! It flew back and forth a few times and perched on some high rocks. The king picked up the cup and again held it to catch the trickling drops. When it was half full, the thirsty king lifted the cup to his mouth. But before it touched his lips, the hawk swooped down again and knocked it from his hands.
Now the king was angry. He tried again, and for the third time the hawk kept him from drinking. This enraged the king. "What are you doing?" he screamed. Then he filled the cup again, but before he tried to drink, he drew his sword, and when the hawk swooped down, the king struck his bird with the blade. "That is what you get for your pains," shouted the king.
But this time his cup had fallen out of reach between two rocks. So the king climbed up the cliff to drink right from the source. At last, he reached the top and beheld a pool of water. But what was lying in the pool, and almost filling it? It was a huge, dead snake of the most poisonous kind. The king stopped, forgot his thirst, and thought only of the dead bird lying on the ground below him. "The hawk saved my life!" he cried, "and how did I repay him? He was my best friend, and I have killed him."
I don’t know about you, but I can relate to that story. No, I don’t mean the stabbing of hawks. I mean that sometimes I get frustrated that I don’t get to see the whole picture. As it relates to God, it can be frustrating when we don’t understand God’s plan.
When Abby and I got married, we didn’t have any money. We were married in her hometown of Edmonton so, for our honeymoon, we stayed at the West Edmonton Mall. They have a massive waterpark in this mall, which is, to this day, the best one that I have ever been to. Abby and I hiked up the stairs and we came to this one slide that we affectionately called, the blue toilet bowl. You went quickly in a straight line and then shot out into the bowl and went around and around. But what I didn’t know, until I saw it, was that there was a 10 ft. drop out the bottom into a deep pool. I was shocked to all of a sudden find my self in free fall as I dumped inelegantly out of the bottom and into the pool. I couldn’t see what was coming and so the experience was a bit jarring.
In life, that happens to us, doesn’t it? We don’t understand what God’s plan is and so when we experience things, usually negative things, it jars us and for some, it causes bitterness to take root in their hearts and can cause them to turn away from the faith. But the passage that we are going to look at today teaches us that You can trust God’s purpose, even when you don’t understand God’s plan.
So let’s read Romans, chapter 8, verses 28-29.
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. 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.
Pray.
This passage in Scripture is very familiar to many Christians. So many of us look at this verse and take such great comfort from it. It reminds us that God is intimately involved in each of our lives and it gives us a framework or a lens to understand life through.
But the problem is that too many Christians look at this verse and they apply their own definition of God’s sovereignty to it, abdicating personal responsibility. Let me give you an example: When people say things like “God caused me to sleep through my alarm and therefore I didn’t get in that car accident that was ahead of me on the way to work.” No, you just went to bed late or you didn’t set your alarm properly. God doesn’t love you more than he loves the other person who gets into that accident. God doesn’t work out his sovereign plan in a way that is designed to elevate you while pushing others down.
I read a story where a pastor was visiting a rural family from his church. At one point, their youthful son came up to his mother proudly, and showed her a dead rat. Grossed out, she shrank away from him and so the young boy attempted to reassure her:
"Oh, it's dead all right, mama. We beat it and beat it and beat it, and it's deader 'n dead."
His eyes fell on the pastor, and thinking quickly, he continued in a tone of solemnity:
"Yes, we beat it and beat it until—until God called it home!"
To some people, our verse in Romans is an invitation to abdicate our personal responsibility and place it all upon God, because, after all, God is sovereign.
But that is not what this verse teaches us. This verse teaches us that you can trust God’ purpose, even when you don’t understand God’s plan.
So let’s break this passage down a bit more - let’s go a bit deeper into what God says to us when he says,
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.
The first thing I want us to see is that God has a plan.
God has a plan
God has a plan
For some, the idea that God has a specific and intricate plan for each person’s life is terrifying. Preferring to believe that they alone are the masters of their fate and destiny, these people have a strong sense of self-determinism and reject the idea that there are forces out there that cannot be controlled. For others, the idea that God has a plan for their lives is of deep comfort because to them, it means that there is purpose behind what they have experienced in life so far.
But whether we embrace this doctrine or reject it, it doesn’t change it’s truthfulness. Throughout the entire Bible, we read about God leading and directing individuals. God told Noah to build an ark and gave him the exact dimensions for it. He led Abraham to leave his country and move to the land of Canaan. God spoke to Moses and empowered him to be his prophet. God told Joshua to march around Jericho 7 times and then yell at the walls. God told Jonah to go to Ninevah, and he told Hosea to marry Gomer the prostitute.
God has plans for his people and, like Jonah, we can run away from those plans or we can embrace them and see the miracles that God wants to do through us.
The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.
This is so counterintuitive: that the best life is not a life where fulfill your plans, but where you live out God’s plan. It will mean that you may not have the most money you could have, or the easiest of lives but as you surrender your plan to God and embrace His plan for you, you will have the most fulfilling life.
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.
God has a plan for your life - He is working everything together. The question for you to wrestle with is: are you walking according to God’s plan or your plan?
But here’s some good news: as we keep going in our passage, we see that God’s plan is good.
God’s plan is good
God’s plan is good
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.
I was reading in my devotional time recently the book of Ruth. If you’ve never read that beautiful, short, OT book, it’s a story about a woman named Naomi, who, with her husband and sons leave Israel and move to another country when a terrible drought hits the nation. While away, her husband dies, as do both of her sons, who have since gotten married. Naomi decides to return home to Israel and her daughter-in-law, Ruth, joins her. Naomi lost pretty much everything in the move to Moab and she blamed God for it all. She let her loss and grief turn to bitterness and hardness in her heart. The book ends beautifully with Ruth and Boaz falling in love, getting married and buying back the land that had been sold when Naomi left and Naomi gets a chance at a second family.
I share this because I think Naomi forgot that God works all things together for the good of those who love him. God’s plan used the pain and loss in Naomi’s life to establish the lineage of David and later on, Jesus.
Like Naomi, some of you have experienced a lot of pain and struggle in your life. You have lost people you have loved, dreams have died, careers have stalled and relationships imploded. And like Naomi did, it becomes very easy to blame God for all the evil we experience. But God does not author evil.
And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else.
and
This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.
While God doesn’t author sin and evil, it’s obvious that we still experience it. Sometimes we experience it by our choices. We choose to do evil and have to endure the consequences. And sometimes we experience evil caused by others. Someone else made a choice that impacts us negatively.
So if we experience evil, how can God’s plan for us be good, like it says in Romans 8:28? Because we serve a Redeeming God. He redeems the evil we experience and uses it help us grow. He uses everything we experience, both the great and awesome things, the small and mundane things and the painful and heart-breaking things to help experience God’s goodness. God uses the books we read and the podcasts we listen to. He uses the conversations with friends and confrontations with co-workers. He uses the birth of our kids, the devotion of our dogs, and the losses in our families. He uses the close calls and the traumas we experience. He works all things together for good. He redeems all of it because he loves you and his plan for your life is for your good - it has a purpose.
What is that purpose? God’s purpose for you is to be like Jesus.
God’s purpose for you is Christ-likeness
God’s purpose for you is Christ-likeness
Romans 8:28 should never be read separated from Romans 8:29. If you separate them, it’s easy to think that God works all things out so you have a wonderful life full of health, money, and endless vacations sipping Pina Colada’s on boat while Gordon Ramsey cooks you dinner.
But when we link it to Romans 8:29, we see that the good that God works all things together for is very different than that.
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. 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.
God’s purpose in his plan is for you to be like Jesus. Now this has two ways that it applies to us:
1. Here and Now. Being a follower of Jesus means you are on a lifelong journey where you grow to be more and more like Jesus in your character and in your cause. It means that we react to people, problems, and to possibilities like Jesus did. Someone sins against you, you forgive them, just like Jesus did. Someone acts unjustly, you call them out on it, like Jesus did. You see someone hurting, disenfranchised or cast out, you love them like Jesus. You relate to God as your good father, like Jesus. You know the word of God, like Jesus. You lift people up like Jesus did. Your primary mission in life is to bring glory to God and make disciples just like Jesus.
God calls us to grow to be more like Jesus.
Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.
To accomplish this, God uses everything in our lives to teach us, to humble us, and to strengthen us. I’ve personally seen how God has helped me be more patient through my daughter, Hannah. I’ve seen how God has broken my pride through painful events. I’ve seen how God has used my wife and my other daughter to help me see the struggles that women face in our world today and my role in empowering women in ministry in the church.
2. In the future. When we take Romans 8:28-29 and we put them in the larger context in Romans 8, we see that right before our passage, Paul is talking about a future hope that we have. A future where creation itself is healed and free from decay. And a future where Christians receive a new, resurrection body
For those of us who study the Bible, this should connect in our minds to 1 Corinthians 15 when Paul says the same thing, but in greater detail. One of the great truths of Christianity is that although we die physically, one day Jesus is going to come back and we will receive new resurrection bodies. And in this way, we become like Jesus. Just as Jesus died physically and came back physically and now lives forever at the right hand of the Father, we too are going to die physically and then God is going to resurrect us and give us these new bodies that last forever so we can worship God for all eternity.
But there is a caveat to this promise that bears making a note of: that this offer for new, eternal bodies that will allow us to be in the perfect presence of God is not open to everyone in the world. It’s a privilege reserved only for those who have put their faith in Jesus.
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. 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.
God’s people are those who put their faith and trust in Jesus. And at the end of the age when Jesus returns, he gives to his people new, resurrection bodies so we can live together forever in the beauty and presence of God. If you haven’t decided to follow Jesus yet, my hope is that even today, you would make that decision - that you would pray to the Lord, acknowledge that Jesus died and was resurrected for your sins, confess your need of the Holy Spirit in your life to help you follow God’s ways and dedicate your life to him right now.
And if you are already a follower of Jesus, may this reminder of the exclusivity of Christianity impart in us a passion to share, in a winsome and humble way, the good news of our Resurrected Redeeemer to those whom God has placed in our lives.
God has a plan for you. He is working all things - all the good things and all the painful things - together for a purpose: to help you become more like Jesus, both here and now in the way you live and in the future when we die and are resurrected just like Jesus was.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Everytime I drive to Stratford from my house, I go past that construction site for Knightsbridge - that new community being built on Mornington, north of town. For a couple of years, I saw the signs, and there was nothing. Then the machines started clearing the land, and moving dirt and I get to see it change a little every day. But, most days, I have no idea what’s actually happening there or how it will look. I am not privy to the community blueprints that will show how it will look. I just see them moving dirt around, digging stuff, prepping roads. I can’t see the plan before it will be finished so I have to trust the builders have a better view of what it’s going to look like than I do right now and that they are doing the work it takes to accomplish the vision.
In the same way, we don’t know the plan of God. We can’t always see what he’s going to bring into our lives, or what’s going to happen to us and how it’s going to shape us. We just have to trust the builder and know that we can trust God’ purpose, even when we don’t understand God’s plan. God has a plan for your life, that plan is for your good. And that good is you becoming more like Jesus and so God is going to work all things together to accomplish that purpose.
Pray.