“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that we might be the firstborn amongst many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”
Romans 8:28-30

HAVING looked together at verse 28, we must look at it again together with the two verses that follow. The three verses are linked together, for verses 29,30 are in way of an explanation as to why all things work together for good to those who love God. The reason is the eternal purpose of God for those who love him, which are those God has loved first. Indeed God loved us before the world was created. Without doubt we shall be looking at these verses again after this sermon. This is Part 1.

THE GOOD GOD PURPOSES.

Looking at verse 28 again we need to think about the ‘good’ that God is working for us. It is often because we do not appreciate this that we find ourselves in trouble, and begin to doubt God’s promise in this verse.

When we think of good in our lives we tend to think exclusively as to how we feel in this world and in this present physical condition. We think of good being when things are going well for us in this life in one way or another. Then when troubles come into our lives, or when we suffer sickness; or when we find we are suffering from the way others treat us or deal with us, we feel that God is not working for our good. This is because we then perceive that this life is not good for us.

This is simply an earthly and worldly point of view. In a general sense people feel life is good for them when all goes well, but feel it is going badly when things seem against them. This perception is concerned only for this world. In fact good in this sense can be very bad for us. When life is easy and successful, then we do not consider eternal things. People are content to travel along the broad way which Jesus said leads to destruction. Because things are comfortable and happy, and life is pleasant and seemingly secure, people never are concerned about their soul.

For a Christian, to be always receiving the good things of life often stunts spiritual growth, and causes the Christian to be slack about spiritual things, and growth in grace.

The ‘good’ which God is working towards for us is the good of our eternal welfare. It is spiritual and eternal good. Because of this God works in our lives for the good of our glorification. He is concerned to keep us from the world. He is concerned that we may grow in holiness and in spiritual mindedness. He is concerned that we know him better, and become like Christ. This is made plain in verse 29 where his working in our lives is so that we might become like Jesus.

Because this is the good God is working towards for us, we will find that many of the things which God allows in our lives, and experiences he sends to us in our lives, may well be painful. Paul had his thorn in the flesh. It was painful and he asked the Lord to remove it. The answer he got from the Lord was that the ‘thorn’ was working for his good, that is his spiritual and eternal good. Paul learnt that with the ‘thorn’ in his flesh he learnt to trust God and depend on God in a way he would have never done otherwise. He also learnt humility.

Paul indicates in Romans 5:3-5 that suffering is something that is good for us, and because of this we can rejoice in it, and thank God for it. This is because he tells us that “suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character hope. It is through suffering that the eternal and heavenly become more and more real to us, and we find that we know the love of God filling our hearts and minds, and the heavenly realm is sure and precious to us. In suffering we are weaned from love of this world, and taught to lay up treasure in heaven.

Further as suffering produces character, the likeness of the character of Jesus, we become better reflectors of the love of Christ, and more usable by the Lord to bring his saving love to others. Certainly I can testify that suffering brought into my life by the Lord has been a blessing, and means of growing to know Christ better.

THE REASON GOD WORKS FOR OUR GOOD.

Here we come to the revelation of God in these verses which we find so difficult to get hold of, and which presents so many problems for us, and which we find so difficult to accept and receive. Yet when, by God’s grace, we are enabled to receive and believe this revelation, it brings great comfort for our soul.

We have to accept that what God reveals here is beyond our understanding, and we shall never be able to understand it in this life, though we may in the life to come. Certainly in the life to come we shall understand more perfectly, and our difficulties will melt away. We have pygmy minds and understanding. How can we possibly encompass the mind of God. It is part of the Christian blessing that we are able to appreciate this, and so believe when we can’t understand. Further we come to these problems with a fallen and sinful flesh, and this always gets in the way of understanding and receiving the revelation of God.

The reason God works all things for good for the true believer is given at the end of verse 28, and the explanation continues in the next two verses. The reason which we are given is that the believer is “called according to God’s purpose”.

We are saved because of God’s purpose with regard to us. We love God because of God’s purpose concerning us. We are called in God’s favour because this was and is God’s purpose for us, if so be we have saving faith in Jesus. We are called into the love of God because of the gracious purpose of God towards us.

This blessing of salvation and the gift of eternal life; this blessing of being loved by God; this blessing is from God alone. It is God’s purpose, not ours. In the experience of our lives we have a time when we are convicted of our sins, and this commenced the process whereby we sought Christ. But where did this process come from? The truth is that no one would experience this process but for the grace of God. We see our sin and repent of our sin only because of the purpose of God - his purpose of love and grace and mercy. Nobody would be saved unless God purposed to save them. We have to realise this if we are ever to come to terms with the revelation of God in these verses. It is one of the clever manipulations of the devil that so many Christians resist the truth of God’s sovereign grace in redemption. Satan works on our flesh and our human pride and our fallen reasoning, and so we come up with ideas that cause us to imagine that somehow it is not worthy of God to sovereignly choose people for salvation.

The truth about us, unless God in sovereign grace purposes to save us, is given by Paul in verses 5, 6 and 7 of this very chapter, and this is only one of many places that teach us the truth about fallen human nature.

Verse 5 of chapter 8 of Romans tells us that human beings have a sinful nature, and that we all, unless God purposes otherwise, follow what that sinful nature desires. We have a mind set which is fixed on the desires of our sinful nature. This may not seem very bad in terms of the world’s estimation, and we may present ourselves in our life as very upright and moral, but the truth is that deep in our hearts we have the mind of death, and we are dead as we live (v.6). This means we have nothing of the life of God and nothing of the eternal life of God. This death means that we are living for eternal death, which is not the ceasing of consciousness, but the experience of consciousness where there is no good whatsoever. This death in the midst of conscious earthly life is totally hostile to God. So Paul tells us in verse 7. We are by nature enemies of God and opposed to God. This is still true even when we are religious and have a belief in God. Indeed we may be very religious just as the Pharisees were, and just as Paul tells us he was before he was saved by the purpose of God in grace towards him. In all Paul’s upright religious life before Christ met him on the road to Damascus, he was hostile to God in reality and this was revealed in the way he persecuted Christians with virulent intensity.

This is so hard for us to appreciate. There is so much good religion about, which has all the trappings of Christianity. It calms the soul, and appeals to the senses. It has a spirituality which is real, but is in fact counterfeit. All our striving after God always comes to a cul-de-sac. We never find God, and the devil is happy to keep us in blindness to this.

The truth is that there is nothing we can do to save ourselves from the just wrath of God against our sins. While our sins are un-cleansed, and our nature unchanged, we remain in death and enemies of God, and the wrath of God abides on us. Only the gracious purpose of God to save us will help. It is of God’s free mercy that he does purpose to save some.

God’s purpose to save some is an act of tremendous proportion. There is nothing deserving in us that God should love us. If God had said he would treat us all according to our sins, and condemn us all to hell, this would be all that we deserve. In us dwells no good thing, and however attractive we may appear in this world, in the spiritual, eternal and holy realm of God, we stink to high heaven because of our sin, and the corruption of our nature. We can’t accept this or appreciate this unless God shows it to us. When God does show us this truth things are different. God showed this to Martin Luther the great German reformer in the middle ages, and he described his righteousness as a ‘filth stinking puddle’.

There is nothing in us in our sin which is desirable to God, or is remotely lovable. We are enabled to love God because God first loved us. God in his eternal purpose chose us in our filthiness and set his love on us. This love was not based on anything in us that was lovable or merited God’ love, but simply because God purposed in his sovereign good pleasure to save us. Paul expresses this sovereign good pleasure of God in the first chapter of his letter to the Ephesians. In verse 5 we read “God predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Christ Jesus, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace which he has freely given us in the one he loves (Christ).

The wonder of God’s purpose is that he purposed this sovereign love at all. The wonder is further seen that his purpose is so complete, as we shall see as we consider these verses in Romans, that he has done everything that is necessary to bring us to his glory. His purpose is so complete that he has left us nothing to do. If he had left anything in our hands it would have meant that salvation would have failed, and this is because nothing left to us would be completed in the perfect way that is required.

So this purpose of God to save some is a purpose of pure grace,mercy and love. There is and was no obligation upon God in anyway to act in this way. Nobody deserves God’s love. Rather we all deserve only everlasting damnation. If God had purposed to save no one, and deal with us all according to our deserving, then all of us would be condemned to everlasting perdition. If God does not purpose to save some, but leave them to be dealt with justly according to his law, this means hell for them, but God has not acted unjustly nor has he been unloving. This is so hard for us to accept. The fact is that all have the opportunity to receive the benefits of Christ’s saving work, but nobody will avail themselves of this benefit unless God in his grace and mercy determines, according to his eternal purpose, to make them willing by his power. Neither is this power coercive. Those he purposes to save in his sovereign love, he graciously makes to desire Christ and see him as their loving and all sufficient Saviour.