Romans 8:28 (2)

Yesterday we started looking at Romans 8:28 and saw two things, “And we know” and "that for those who love God,” but this morning let’s turn to the next phrase “All things.”

“All things.” What things? Some things? The good things? The holy things? No, he specifically says, “all things.” Piper said that includes the painful and the pleasurable. Let’s trace Paul’s use of that phrase, “All things.”

Romans 11:36, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”

Ephesians 1:11-12, “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.”

Look at the things that follow this passage in Romans 8:31-34 and 35-39. Verse 32, “how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

1 Corinthians 3:21-23, “So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”

And then Romans 5:3-5, “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

So notice what he has said—all things belong to Him, are from Him, through Him and to Him. He works all things according to the counsel of His will which leads to glory, He graciously gives us all things, and all things are ours in Christ and that includes life, death, present, and future, and then Romans 5 makes so much more sense when we understand it in light of 8:28. All things! Good and bad…

“Work together for good.” Notice he didn’t say all things were good—there are terrible things that happen to us and to those around us—they are not good, but God is able to work them for good. What good is he talking about? If we go to verses 29-30 we can see the good in context of what he is saying…, “For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined eh also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified.” Three specific things he speaks of that are good—1) we are conformed to the image of His Son. God uses the good and bad to conform us to the image of Jesus. If we could just grasp this it would help us in difficulty. To know that this will somehow make us more like Jesus will lead us to trust God in the midst of heartache.

The 2) thing he speaks in terms of working it for good is found in the phrase “firstborn among many brothers,” we will see this in the next few weeks, but he means God is using all things to lead us to exalt Him and to hold Him preeminent.

Finally, 3), He is working all things for good in terms of glory. God is using all the events of your life to prepare you for glory.