What I’ve Been Learning about Romans 8:28.

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 (Romans 8:28, NIV).

This is an awesome verse, full of hope, grace, and promise. It affirms that God is both sovereign and good. God is all-powerful. But that unbounded power is not capricious, it is guided by His love for His people and His desire to do them good. It encourages us that God is using His sovereign power to bend all things to the benefit of those who love Him—even the bad, rotten, painful things. There is no sin or evil that ends up doing anything to stop or take away from the good God plans for us. What Paul is teaching us is that in fact the opposite is true. In all things God works for the good of those who love Him.

Unfortunately, this verse is often misused, misapplied, and misunderstood. In fact, I had a conversation about this with my friend and fellow blogger Wally Fry just the other day. When I shared I was thinking about writing a post on the subject sometime, he encouraged me to “get to work.” So let me share some things that this verse does not mean…and yes, I copied his meme! J

This verse does not mean that everything that happens is good because God works our good out of it. It means that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him. God works in the midst of evil, suffering, and sin to bring about good. We should not use this verse in such a way as to minimize the reality of evil, the sting of pain, or the pangs of loss.

This verse does not mean that God enjoys or approves of the sin and evil and suffering that He uses to work for our good. Sometimes it seems that some people get so caught up in the fact that God is sovereign, that He is in complete control of His creation, that the line is blurred between what theologians call His will of command and His will of decree.

God’s will of command is what God has told us He wants us to do in His Law—the Ten Commandments, the Great Commandment, the Golden Rule, etc.

His will of decree is what He permits, wills, and allows to happen—regardless of whether it is in line with His will of command.

God is always against sin and evil. This verse does not excuse evil, sin, and pain just because God in His sovereignty is master over it and turns it on its head so that it serves His own purposes. It does not make evil less evil.

This verse does not promise that things will get better. Sometimes the “good” that God is working in the bad things that happen in our loves is never fully realized this side of heaven. Another verse that is often misused in the same way is Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV), “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” So often I hear this quoted and used to teach that “God has a wonderful plan for your life.” God’s idea of “wonderful” and ours do not always mean the same thing. In the case of that verse, the hard reality was that God’s wonderful plan was that the Babylonians would sack Jerusalem and take God’s people into exile for 70 years.

This verse does not say that God will make it clear how He is working for our good in all things. Yes, God works in all things for the good of those who love Him, but we don’t always see, understand, or appreciate what that “good” is. Paul says “that” He is working, not that we will always understand how good can come from any particular event.

For instance, I have been walking with two women who are victims of rape. Not surprisingly, it is very hard to understand or appreciate that good can come from such an evil. This is a big part of what it means to be learning to live by faith and not by sight. Sometimes we may need to accept the fact that we will never have the answers or explanations we want this side of heaven, and we need to trust that God will make good on that promise even when we don’t see how it is possible.

Sometimes we find ourselves in the position of Job where there is no clear link between our suffering and our personal sin, or between our suffering and our personal sanctification. Job knew that God was both sovereign and good and so he says in Job 13:15-16 (NIV),

Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;
I will surely defend my ways to his face.
Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance,
for no godless person would dare come before him!

Yet he has no answer. And so he says in Job 16:18-21 (NIV),

Earth, do not cover my blood;
may my cry never be laid to rest!
Even now my witness is in heaven;
my advocate is on high.
My intercessor is my friend
as my eyes pour out tears to God;
on behalf of a man he pleads with God
as one pleads for a friend.

And says in Job 19:25-27 (NIV),

I know that my redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
with my own eyes—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!

Job knew that he was not being punished for some secret sin. He knew that the answer was beyond him and only God could explain it and was not giving that explanation to him. Romans 8:28 promises that God is sovereign and good. But it is not a universal key to understanding how God uses all the evil and suffering we experience for good.

This verse does not mean that in all things God works for the private good of those who love Him. By “private” I mean personal or individual good. Again, Job is a clear example of this fact. His friends were insistent that his suffering must mean that Job was guilty of something; they were convinced that suffering was always connected to divine judgement, discipline, and correction. Job steadfastly refused to accept that this was the case. He had been meticulous in his self-examination and found no just cause for his suffering. Can anyone bring charges against me? If so, I will be silent and die (Job 13:19, NIV). And in the end, God affirms that Job was speaking the truth and that his “friends” had not been speaking truthfully about Him (Job 42:7-8). Job’s suffering (and let’s not forget the suffering and death of his children too) was not because of anything he did, nor was it for his own personal sanctification. It was to prove that Satan was a liar.

In his excellent book Our Ultimate Refuge: Job and the Problem of Suffering, Oswald Chambers writes,

The biggest benediction one man can find in another is not in his words, but that he implies: “I do not know the answer to your problem, all I can say is that God alone must know; let us go to Him… Thank God for theology, but theology is second, not first; if we put it first, we will do what the friends [of Job] did, refuse to look at facts and remain consistent to certain ideas which pervert the character of God. In the final run God will not have us say an untrue thing for the sake of His honor.