All for Good
A Study of Romans 8:28 in its Context
By Pastor Dan Trepanier

Shortly after my sister Pat decided to become a Christian, I noticed for the first time ever a Scripture plaque in her home. It was of Romans 8:28, which says, “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

That reflects a supreme confidence. On what is it based? Earlier in the chapter, the apostle Paul speaks of himself and fellow Christians as being “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (8:17). The apostle Peter describes the Christian’s inheritance as that “which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith …. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials” (1 Peter 1:4-6). Paul echoes in Romans 8 that suffering in this life is a temporary reality for the heirs: “Fellow heirs with Christ … suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him” (v. 17). As it was with Jesus, suffering leads to glory for the Christian.

Although Christians do not relish suffering any more than anyone else, the good news, says Paul, is “that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). Elsewhere he wrote, “We do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). The process of decay in this world was set in motion by the Fall of mankind. As the Book of Genesis truly states, human disobedience brought death into the world. The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus died and rose again to reverse that situation in all who accept Him as their Savior and Lord. When He returns, all who trust in Him will be made new in both body and soul.

Until that great climax, “the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19). When man, the crown of God’s creation, fell, all the lesser aspects of God’s creation fell as well—both animate and inanimate matter. At first in Genesis 3 we read of thorns and weeds, but the devastation of creation has rippled like shock waves into earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and the like. The hope is “that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” for in the meantime, “we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now” (Romans 8:21-22). As sung in the famous hymn, this is the true “Joy to the World,” which has Jesus’ Second Coming in mind:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground!
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

Creation, of course, is not alone in anticipating this, for “also we ourselves … groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons,” which the text goes on to define as “the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23). Imagine a body no longer subject to frailty and corruption! That is the legacy of all who trust in God through Jesus Christ.

What do we do in the meantime? Sometimes it is difficult facing the mundane aspects of life, for they are an outworking of the fall of creation. The answer is to live in “hope for what we do not see, with perseverance” (Romans 8:24), trusting in God’s Spirit, who “helps our weakness” (v. 25). How does He help? Paul goes on to explain that “we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (vv. 26-27). This is a language beyond words, known only to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Its purpose is aiding those who have been made holy or saints through their faith in Christ’s finished work on the cross.

God Himself, in His Triune essence, is there for those who trust in Him. That is our lead-in to Romans 8:28. Let’s now examine that crucial Scripture verse in the word order as it appears in the Greek language of the original text: “We know that to those who love God all things work together for good to those who are called according to purpose.” It is God who is making things work together for good, but not for everyone.

A Divine Qualification

The confident promise of Romans 8:28 has a qualifier, and it is not Pastor Dan’s qualifier or any other minister’s; it is God’s qualifier. The only way you can rightfully be confident that all things—even bad things—in your life will ultimately work out for good is if you love God.

Many people claim to love God, but the only way to know if such a claim is valid is to see if that love matches biblical criteria. The key issue, according to God Himself, is how a person regards Jesus Christ. God the Father declared of Him, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” (Matthew 17:5). Let’s then pay careful attention to what Christ Himself said: “The Father … has given all judgment to the Son, in order that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:22-24). “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine” (John 8:31).

All things do not work out for the good of those who openly reject Jesus Christ, or those who claim to love Him but do not obey Him. Jesus, speaking to a very religious crowd, said that “unless you believe that I am He [the Son of God, as the Father declared], you shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). This is a great tragedy, from God’s perspective as well, for He declared, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn back from his way and live” (Ezekiel 33:11). God is just in punishing the wicked, however, “for since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). Yet people persist in doing what they want, not what God wants.

Even worse is when people deceive themselves into thinking they are on God’s side when they really aren’t. Individuals like that said to Jesus, “We have one Father, even God,” but He responded, “If God were your Father, you would love Me …. You are of your father the devil” (John 8:41-44). To a very different group of people Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me…. He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him…. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father who sent Me” (John 14:6, 21, 24). Be grateful you are reading this, for this is God’s saving truth from heaven, delivered to us personally by Jesus Christ.

If you have embraced God’s saving truth, you have a right to the supreme confidence of Romans 8:28. That kind of “hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5). This speaks only of Christians, for “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him” (Romans 8:9). For true Christians, those who’ve been changed on the inside by God’s Spirit, “the love of Christ controls us” (2 Corinthians 5:14). That love brings about this benediction: “Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible” (Ephesians 6:23-24).

A Comprehensive Confidence

Let’s now go back to the love of Romans 8:28: “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” How many things work together for the believer’s good? “All things.” That does not mean, however, that all things are good.

Human sinfulness is never good, and neither are its by-products, such as the diseases and devastations that trouble our fallen world. Cancer is one of them. My sister Pat, the one with the Romans 8:28 plaque in her home, died from cancer last year. As terrible as the cancer was, I can tell you that it brought about the good of ushering Pat into Christ’s very presence. I also know that I and her other loved ones in Christ will see her again with Him.

It is the province, purpose, and power of God to work even evils like cancer for good. Such things “work together,” not independently or randomly but with benign purpose, for the good of those who love God through their faith in Jesus Christ. God is using “all things” for believers’ good—not just for later but for now! That includes pain, persecution, personal failures, and even sin.

How can sin possibly be included in that list? For one thing, our sin brings about discipline, “and those whom the Lord loves He disciplines…. He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Hebrews 12:6, 10-11).

Consider how Simon Peter was so trained. Just before predicting that Peter would deny Him three times, Jesus said, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31). Peter’s denials were undeniably devilish and completely wicked, but they changed his life forever for the good. Peter did indeed strengthen his brothers and sisters in Christ as a foundational leader of the early church.

Think about the Founder of the church Himself and the sinful maelstrom into which He willingly stepped: He was betrayed, treated unjustly, mocked, scourged, and crucified. Did all that work for our good? Absolutely! “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation” (Hebrews 5:8-9). The literal rendering of “having been made perfect” is “having brought to completion,” which is what Jesus meant when He said on the cross, “It is finished!” just before willing His spirit to leave His body.

God used sinful men to make redemption possible. Peter, restored and strengthened, explained it this way to his kinsmen: “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know—this Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. And God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power” (Acts 2:22-24). The result of that powerful sermon was an audience “pierced to the heart,” resulting in 3,000 conversions.

One of the ministers to these and other new Jewish believers was James, a member of Jesus’ Jewish family and therefore a half brother of our Lord. He wrote, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4). James must have thought long and hard about Jesus’ life when writing that.

Peter was thinking specifically about Christ’s sufferings when he wrote that Christ “suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:21-24).

Peter didn’t understand those truths at first. When Jesus “began to show His disciples that He must … suffer many things … and be killed, and be raised up … Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying ‘God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to you’” (Matthew 16:21-22). Jesus, in return, gave apt rebuke: “Get behind Me, Satan! You … are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” From a human perspective, trials don’t look good. The key is to trust God and desire that His purposes are carried out, no matter how we feel at the moment. In Romans 8:28 terms, this is a strong, settled faith that “God causes all things to work together … according to His purpose.”

As truly awful as Christ’s sufferings were, they all took place because there was no other way to pay the just price for our sins. Peter came to understand and proclaim with power that “there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Likewise, Peter explained, our trials and sufferings come only when “necessary,” that the proof of our faith, “being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7).

Does that mean we should rejoice over, say, a flat tire? Not in the tire itself, but in God’s promise to use even distressing circumstances whenever necessary to promote our good and His holy, perfect purposes. Tackle your problems with faith and assurance, not fear.

A prime biblical example of God’s working even evil for good is the life of Joseph in Genesis. Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him and grew to hate him, to the point of plotting his murder. God, however, did not let their plans advance that far, and worked out circumstances so that Joseph was sold into slavery instead. He was taken to Egypt, where God watched over Joseph, and over time elevated him to the second highest position in Egypt.

Joseph used his God-given skills to spare the lives of many during a terrible period of famine. Meanwhile, Joseph’s father, Jacob, responded to the trials he faced in that famine by saying, “All these things are against me” (Genesis 42:36). It would be Joseph’s privilege to teach his father and brothers to view their mutual trials from God’s perspective: “Do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life…. It was not [ultimately] you who sent me here, but God …. Hurry and go up to my father, and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph’” (Genesis 45:5, 8-9). Joseph later clarified further for his brothers, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to … preserve many people alive” (Genesis 50:20). He comforted his brothers and spoke kindly to them. God seeks to do the same for us in His Word when we choose to believe that He works all things for the good of those who love Him.

Joseph was distressed when he went through his many trials; he didn’t know God’s purposes in the midst of them. Neither will you nor I. The important thing to latch onto in the midst of our pain is that God’s good purposes still stand, and will be revealed to us when or if we need to know. Joseph came to understand those purposes later in his life. Job, as far as we know, did not during his lifetime, but the biblical book bearing his name declares them to us, and reveals that Job did mature in his trust and faith in God by the end of his worst difficulties.

A list similar in intensity to the trials of Job is what happened to the apostle Paul in the New Testament. He was starved, stoned, shipwrecked, hunted, beaten, imprisoned, and engaged in exhausting, intensive missionary work. In perhaps his most painful trial he confides, “I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me” (2 Corinthians 12:8). How did God answer? By assuring Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (v. 9). How did Paul respond to God’s answer? With an eagerness for Christ’s power to be on display in his life, concluding, “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (v. 10). The difficulty didn’t change right away, but Paul’s attitude sure did.

Likewise, our attitude will change when “we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). As a simple illustration, that’s like knowing from experience that a chocolate cake tastes good, even though not all the ingredients that work together to make it are appetizing themselves. If you love God through His Son, know that God is purposely blending the various ingredients of your life into something wonderful.

The Ultimate Purpose

What is God’s ultimate purpose for those who love Him? “To become conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29). Elsewhere Paul referred to that as “the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14). It is the specific New Testament application of this Old Testament longing: “I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness” (Psalm 17:15, NKJV). “Beloved, now are we children of God,” writes the apostle John, “and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:2-3). The future for those who love God is literally glorious!

In the meantime, Romans 8:29-39 guarantees that what God starts in believers’ lives He finishes. Here is a one-verse summary of that confidence: “I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). What can get in the way of bringing this about? “Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loves us” (Romans 8:35, 37). That is because God is on our side.

God’s love for those who would become His children existed before time began, for “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will” (Ephesians 1:4-5). Romans 8 explains further that “whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (v. 30). The call of God leads inevitably to our glory, which is to joyfully reflect Christ’s glorious Person in our own unique way.

The promise of Romans 8:28 to you who love Christ is that right now and every moment after, God is causing all things to work together for your good in fitting you for your glorious future. When things seem at their worst for you, resist the temptation to focus on yourself, and instead look to Him who is working inexorably for your good.

 

This is edited from several Sunday-morning sermons given by Pastor Dan Trepanier on Romans, chapter 8 during January and February of 2005 at Fellowship Bible Church in Methuen, Massachusetts. The Scripture quotations are mostly from the New American Standard translation (© 1995), which Pastor Dan used when delivering these messages.

© 2005 by Fellowship Bible Church. All rights reserved.

For information on downloading the taped version of this material in MP-3 form, or purchasing CDs or tapes, contact the church, directing your e-mail to the attention of Paul Casaletto / FBC Tape Ministry.