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Romans 8:28-30, And 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. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
This passage is so awesome, so amazing, one of the most wonderful promises anywhere in all the Bible. It is biblical gold and silver, infinitely better than anything this world can give us. There is nothing greater. These verses declare that, whether we live like it or not, God is controlling every single event in our lives, and He is controlling it based on His own purpose and for our good. It’s like God is flying the airplane, He knows exactly where He’s going, and we can either be fearful, worry, anxious, angry, bitter, whatever, or we can trust Him, sit back, and enjoy the ride. It’s like being in the boat with Jesus. As long as He is in the boat, we’ve got nothing to worry about. Our responsibility is to humble ourselves under the mighty, sovereign hand of God, that He may exalt us at the proper time, meanwhile casting all our anxiety on Him because He cares for us. Or we can live like a practical atheist, as if there is no God whose eye is on the sparrow.
I’m going to handle these verses a little differently this morning. I want to present it as my credo, and I hope it is yours as well. A credo is a statement of beliefs that guide one’s actions. I want to live out what God is promising and assuring me of right here. If you are a believer, one who loves God in Christ, this is your credo as well. Here are four beliefs to guide your life.
I BELIEVE GOD IS IN ABSOLUTE CONTROL OF EVERYTHING IN MY LIFE.
Romans 8:28, And 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.
For some reason the NASB didn’t follow the original language in this verse. The KJV, ESV, and LSB did. Here’s a literal translation: “And we know that to the ones loving God (in an emphatic position) all things are working together for good, to the ones, according to purpose, are being called.”
“And we know…” Let’s face it, there is much we don’t know. Last week we saw in our weakness we don’t know how to pray as we should. We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. We don’t know when Jesus is coming back. We don’t know the day of our death. We don’t know who will win the election in 2024 or if there will even be one. But here is something we do know for sure. We do know without a doubt that God is sovereign and in absolute control of every single thing in your life – all things. The Bible assures us over and over that God controls everything, not just in our lives, but in every single moment of time and history. History is the unfolding of God’s sovereign plan, minute by minute, hour by hour. Psalms 103:19, The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all.
This particular promise of all things working for good, though, is not for everyone. There are two limitations. First “to the ones loving God” and “to those who are called.” Who are the people who love God? Believers in Jesus Christ. You can’t have faith in Christ without coming to love God. Paul describes us this way because it is these and these only who can claim this wonderful promise: not lovers of self, lovers of money, lovers of pleasure, lovers of the world, but lovers of God. And it is present tense – to those who right now are loving God. True Christians can be defined as those who love and obey God. This is genuine faith. Remember Jesus challenged Peter, “Peter, do you love Me?” Peter insisted three times, “Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus responded, “Feed my sheep.” How do you know if you love God? Do you love God’s Word? Do you desire to please God? Do you diligently seek Him? This promise in Romans 8:28 isn’t for everyone. It’s for those who love God, not for hypocrites or fake Christians. It’s for those who have turned from living for self and are now living for Christ. They trust Christ as their Lord and Savior.
The second limitation in verse 28 is that this promise is for those who are called. We didn’t love God on our own. This call is God’s effectual call, which results in us coming to faith in Christ. There is a general call of the gospel message that goes to all people, but here God calls us by His Word and His Spirit resulting in bringing us to faith in Christ. There is authority and power in this call like when Jesus called Lazarus from the grave. “Lazarus, come forth!” Guess what happened? Did ten people come forth from their graves? No. Only Lazarus came out of his tomb. That’s the effectual call spiritually to our dead spirits. God calls us and gives us spiritual life. First Corinthians 1:9, “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Second Thessalonians 2:14, “He called you through our gospel.” First Peter 2:9, “Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Jude 1:1, “To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.” God didn’t just invite you to open the door of your heart. God actually called you and gave you spiritual life. Thank God. If He had left it up to us, we would never come to faith in Christ.
This knowledge is for every true believer. Every believer is to know that God is sovereign, that He rules, that there is no such thing as chance in all the universe. God is not only in absolute control of everything in my life, but He controls all things everywhere all the time in precise agreement with His plan that He drew up before He created the universe. This is called “the counsel of His will” in Ephesians 1:11. Somehow within this sovereignty, every human being is fully responsible for his actions and can never blame God for any sin or evil or tragedy. But the fact is, God and His sovereign purpose is immutable, nothing can change it. His sovereignty is the bedrock foundation on which this great passage lies. God is in absolute control of everything in my life.
I BELIEVE GOD IS USING EVERYTHING IN MY LIFE TO BRING ABOUT HIS GOOD PURPOSE.
Romans 8:28, And 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.
All things. Not some things or many things or just good things, but all things. This is all-inclusive. Nothing that comes into your life slips past God. All things – good things and bad things. Blessings and afflictions. Maybe God has given you a good family, good spouse, good kids, a good mind, good health, good eyes, good hearing. He’s blessed you with many good things. For these good things we give thanks, right?
But what about those bad things? Maybe you have bad health, a bad job, bad kids, a bad spouse, bad eyes or hearing. God uses these bad things to work together for good to fulfill His purpose.
Nothing in your life is out of God’s control. God is in control of the timing of all things happening in your life. God was controlling all things when Joseph’s brothers threw him in the pit and sold him to slave traders. God was in control working out His good purpose when Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him, he was thrown into prison, forgotten by someone he helped, then promoted to second in command over all Egypt. Meanwhile God was in control when Jacob in distress said, “All these things are against me” (Gen. 42:36). God was in control when He sent the famine to bring Jacob and his whole kit and caboodle down to Egypt. God knows when to pull the trigger for something to happen. He controls time. But the final word, the Romans 8:28 of the Old Testament, was from Joseph to his brothers in Genesis 50:20, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”
Centuries later Judas betrayed Jesus and the religious mob called for His execution. Was God in control then? When Pilate delivered Him to be crucified, when they abused Him and hung Jesus on the cross to die, where was God? Seven hundred years earlier in Isaiah God wrote the script of exactly what would happen. Where is God when bad things happen? Where is God when trouble comes your way? Where was God when Paul was headed to Damascus to arrest Christians. Where is God when you go in for surgery? God is using all things, good and bad, to bring about His purpose.
We could string out a long list of tragedies, disappointments, accidents, deaths of loved ones, even little babies. Is God in control? Is He using all these circumstances and experiences and people in your life for good? It doesn’t say all these things are good. It says all these things work together for good. What causes everything to work together for your good? It certainly is not fate. It’s not an impersonal cause and effect karma. It’s not random chance. It’s not “que sera sera.” Behind the working together is the personal loving and sovereign God of the universe. S. Lewis Johnson wrote, “Every hour and minute, God personally superintends the life of every believer, even when they are hurting and suffering.”
Working together is “sunergeo,” which means literally “working together.” God is like a master conductor or pianist or writer of great musical scores. You have all these various instruments, or all those black and white keys, or all those notes and sharps and flats. And God sovereignly orchestrates or writes the score of your life – every single thing, all things, all inclusive. God sovereignly controls and works into your life every detail, every circumstance, every relationship, every experience. Did I say all things? Sometimes you barely escape a horrible accident – God orchestrated that. Sometimes someone gossips about you. God orchestrated that. Your entire Christian life in this world is working together under the mighty sovereign loving hand of God Almighty, and it is all for a specific good purpose.
All things working together for good doesn’t mean you’ll see the benefits of your present trials, although often we do. But what God is saying is that you and I can be assured that nothing can come into your life that can eternally harm you if you are His child. We’ll see this more later, but in all these things we are more than conquerors. For Paul that meant prison time and final execution.
Oh, how important it is to know the character of the God who controls your life. He always, always, always means for our good. Therefore, I can face whatever comes my way because I know God is loving and kind and good and caring. I can trust Him come what may. Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.” I recently read a short booklet entitled, Behind a Frowning Providence. What you are facing may seem dark and hurtful. You know God is in control, but why this? Why me? What have I done to deserve this? Behind a frowning providence is the loving and sovereign and purposeful hand of God. He means everything for your good.
I got into train wrecks while preparing this message. In his great little book, The Invisible Hand, R. C. Sproul talks about the train wreck of the Sunset Limited, which he and his wife survived in an Alabama swamp around 3 AM, September 22, 1993. A barge hit the railroad bridge and knocked the rails apart about three feet and caused the worst train wreck in Amtrak history. Forty-seven people were killed, but Mr. and Mrs. Sproul survived. When asked why he thought this happened, he said he had no earthly idea. But he added, “We were profoundly grateful for God’s providential care.”
On December 29, 1876, a famous hymnwriter, Philip Bliss, and his wife were on the train Pacific Express headed back to Chicago to assist D. L. Moody. Mr. Bliss wrote many hymns including Hallelujah What a Savior, Wonderful Words of Life, and Dare to be a Daniel. He wrote the music for It Is Well With My Soul. They had left their two children with Philip’s mother after enjoying Christmas together. As they were approaching Ashtabula, Ohio, by Lake Erie, they crossed a trestle bridge over the Ashtabula River. The train included eleven coaches. Suddenly the trestle bridge collapsed, and the coaches plummeted 75 feet into the ravine, ablaze from all the kerosene heaters. Only 14 passengers survived; 92 died, including the Blisses. In a chest someone discovered the last hymn for which Philip had written the music. The hymn “He Knows” included the words, “I know not what awaits me; God kindly veils my eyes.” Aren’t you glad God doesn’t show us the future? It is enough to know He controls our future for our good. But was God in control there for the Blisses like He was for R.C. and his wife?
One more train wreck story. Tom Simpson’s grandfather, Homer Thomas, was the captain of the Purdue football team back in 1905. On a train ride to a game between Purdue and Indiana University, two trains going opposite directions crashed. Moments before the accident, Tom’s grandfather traded seats with another player. That player was killed. Tom’s grandfather survived. As Tom puts it, “Had my grandfather not switched seats, I probably would not be here today.”
We are thankful when God’s providence, God’s control of all things, turns out nicely. But these train wrecks teach us we dare not develop an unbiblical superstitious view about God’s good sovereignty in our lives. And we dare not interpret good as surviving and coming out of a disaster intact in this world. The outcome of good has to do with God’s purpose, and that good will always be accomplished.
I BELIEVE GOD DETERMINED MY GOOD FROM ALL ETERNITY.
Romans 8:28-29, And 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. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
God has this incredible, invincible purpose for each person He calls, and He is accomplishing it. No one, including the devil, can mess it up. God’s purpose extends all the way back into the eternal council of God. His purpose is for those whom He foreknew. God’s foreknowledge takes us back before He created the universe. God’s purpose for your life is grounded in His eternal plan, in His foreknowledge. Foreknowledge is not knowing stuff ahead of time. Foreknowledge speaks of God loving us and choosing us way back in eternity past. He knew and set His love on every believer back in His eternal council. He foreknew you, not in the sense of looking ahead through time and seeing that you would choose Christ and therefore He foreknew you. No, it looks back to eternity past. That’s when He sovereignly chose all those He would save for a specific purpose.
And don’t be afraid of that word predestined. It simply means God set out a destiny for all those He chose to save, all those on whom He set His love with the determination to save. That destiny is for every believer to become just like His Son, Jesus Christ. That’s His purpose in choosing and calling us. Imagine that! Scottish theologian Robert Haldane explains it this way: Foreknowledge is God’s loving choice of whom He would save and predestine is the destination of those He foreknows. We’ll see more of this next week.
I BELIEVE GOD’S GOOD PURPOSE IS TO MAKE ME JUST LIKE JESUS CHRIST.
Romans 8:29, For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
But what is the good in these verses? Here it is clear what God’s good purpose is for all who love God, whom God has called through the gospel. Right here you have your eternal destiny described. God is tailoring everything in your life – your past, your present, your future – and everything He sovereignly brings into your life is to ultimately make you just like His own Son. Interesting that God didn’t set His love on you and then predestinate you to be happy or escape hell or have a purpose in life. Praise God we do escape hell and we are happy and live with the purpose to please God, but God chose and loved us in eternity past to ultimately become just like His Son in His perfect and glorified humanity. And notice, He is the firstborn among many brethren, not a few brethren. God knows how many brothers and sisters He has chosen to finally be transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the head of the new race, the first-born out of the dead. We have His Spirit within us now, and finally we’ll be just like Him – in glory, love, holiness, beauty, grace, humility, tenderness, patience. Nothing impure will enter Heaven (Rev. 21:27). Even our very bodies will be conformed to His glorious body:
Philippians 3:20-21, For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
Is there anything more amazing and glorious than this? You and I, born dead in our sins, children of wrath, wicked in heart, liars from our mother’s womb, will be lifted out of our misery, redeemed by the blood of Jesus, to be perfectly conformed to the spiritual likeness of Christ as our elder Brother, to be like Him and with Him forever and ever! This is pure spiritual gold and silver. And it is by His sheer and sovereign grace that we’ve been included. This is my credo! I hope it is yours! Romans 8:28-30 was written for those who love God and are called according to God’s purpose.
Do you love God through Christ? Have you been called by God’s grace to faith in Jesus? You might ask, “How do I know if God has called me?” If you have repented of your sin and are trusting in Christ alone to save you, you can be assured God has called you. And if you are trusting in Christ, then you are also one of those who love God, and therefore for whom God is working everything for your good.