Today’s passage brings us to the end of this week’s look at familiar passages that are often misunderstood or misapplied. We began by looking at Philippians 4:13 (What ‘All Things’ Can We Do Through Christ?). Then, we considered Jesus’ call for us to love our enemies in Matthew 5:44 (“Love Your Enemy” – What Does That Look Like in Real Life?). We also reflected on Psalm 23 (Psalm 23 – Finding Peace As God Leads Us), and looked at John 15:5 and spiritual fruit (What Does It Mean to “Bear Fruit” in John 15:5?). Yesterday, we focused on 1 Timothy 6:10 (“The Love of Money Is a Root of All Sorts of Evil).
God Causes All Things to Work Together for Good
That brings us to today, and 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.” But what exactly does this mean?
When I was young – before the NIV – we all read and heard this verse from the King James Version: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” And we often heard this explained as “God works all things for good.” The result was that many people understood Paul to say that whatever happened, God planned it that way. In the abstract, that sounds fine – but we don’t live “in the abstract.” How can you tell a parent who has lost a child that God caused this for good?
I suppose you can tell people that, but you shouldn’t. I don’t believe that Paul is saying that God causes all things. Instead, I believe that Paul means that no matter what life throws at us, God is at work for our good in the midst of it. And that’s a huge difference!
All Things Are Not Good, But God Is At Work
This verse and its interpretation really highlights an important issue that divides the major “streams” of Christian theology. Those who emphasize God’s complete sovereignty, and minimize human free will, would say that God does cause all things that happen, and that we need to trust His good purposes even when we don’t understand them. Those who believe that God has given us free will, however, interpret Romans 8:28 as I mentioned earlier – that God is at work even in the bad circumstances of life to fulfill His good purposes in us. For clarity, this is the theological camp in which I reside.
So what that means is that when bad things happen, we do not automatically “blame” God for them. Sometimes, bad things happen to us because we make bad, sinful choices. God did not cause us to do that; he gave us the freedom to choose, and we chose badly. “No one is to say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone” (James 1:13).
At other times, we suffer bad experiences because of someone else’s sinful choices. When one spouse decides to commit adultery, the other spouse didn’t “choose” that – nor do they “deserve” it. And God certainly didn’t cause it! Many circumstances in life fit this pattern. A drunk driver causes an accident that causes injury or death of an innocent party. A child is killed in a drive-by shooting. A community suffers from toxic chemicals dumped into their water supply. We could go on and on, but the principle is the same: sometimes bad things happen to innocent people through no fault of their own.
God Is At Work for Our Good
But… 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 are not good, but God causes them to work for good. In a very simplistic way, God takes our lemons and makes lemonade. I hate to put it that way, because it might be seen to trivialize the problems and pain that we face. And I certainly don’t mean to imply that God trivializes our pain! Jesus entered into this life precisely because of the pain and suffering that sin has caused, and He gave His life to redeem us. So when we say that God works in the midst of the bad for our good, we are not minimizing anyone’s pain and suffering and the challenges that they face.
God Works For Our Spiritual Good
However, to be theologically accurate, we have to acknowledge that God’s ultimate purpose goes beyond this world and our physical life here. God’s ultimate purpose is to form us in the image of Christ. Scripture makes it plain that God often uses the difficulties that we face to refine us. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4, NIV). So we are to consider it pure joy – because joy is not our natural response to trials! James does not mean that we ignore the pain, or deny that it exists; instead, we allow God to comfort us in the midst of the pain.
And one of the ways that we allow God to comfort us is to recognize that He is at work for our good in the midst of bad times. As I mentioned earlier, sometimes our struggles come because of bad choices we’ve made. So we ask God to show us if we’ve caused or contributed to these circumstances. If He says “yes,” we ask Him to help us to recognize what led us that way, so we don’t do it again.
How God Works
At other times, there may not have been any way for us to realistically avoid the situation. But are we focused on trying to fix it ourselves? Maybe God is at work to help us to learn to trust Him rather than ourselves. Sometimes, the lesson is not learning how to avoid the trial, but learning to receive God’s comfort and strength in the midst of it. After all, Jesus’ call to follow was not a promise of comfort and pleasure.
- “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24).
- “Then they will hand you over to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name” (Matthew 24:9).
- “These things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
That doesn’t sound like everything will be sweetness and light!
God Works for the Good of Those Who Love Him
The last point that Paul makes is that this promise is for those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. That means that those who are not part of God’s family are excluded. That’s not because God hates them; God loves everyone, and wants His best for them. But because He’s given us free will, He won’t override that free will by forcing His best on us. Paul doesn’t say that God is at work “for those whom God loves,” because God loves everyone.
That may seem unfair, but God’s purpose is for our spiritual good. Those who don’t share that purpose, who don’t acknowledge God’s sovereignty, are naturally outside the scope of this promise. We’re called to follow Jesus; that’s God’s purpose. We respond to that call because we love God. Because we follow Jesus, we submit to God’s work. That lays the groundwork for God to work for our good.
Be Careful!
My last point is that we need to be careful when we’re applying this passage. To put it bluntly: don’t run around willy-nilly, “comforting” people that you barely know by quoting this passage to them. Too many times, well-meaning people have seemed to minimize someone else’s struggles and pain by blithely telling them that “God is at work for your good!” That doesn’t mean that it’s never appropriate to tell someone this, but I suggest that you have to earn the right to talk to someone on such a deep, personal level.
One other caution: we need to be careful applying it to broad social events. For example, I don’t think it’s ever appropriate to say that “God is at work in all things” to justify political actions or the outcomes of events. To be safe, the best way to apply this verse is to ourselves – to acknowledge that God is at work, and seek His direction on how we can best understand His purposes in us.
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