Romans 8:28: Do All Things Really Work Together for Good?

INTRODUCTION:

Have you ever noticed that sincere, earnest Christian believers experience most of the same troubles and tribulations as other people?

Our teeth decay. We get cancer. Our hair falls out. We get arthritis and diabetes and heart disease, at about the same rate as everyone else.

Sometimes our marriages fail.

Christian believers lose their jobs. Sometimes our children die before we do.

We had a nephew who died of cancer. His grandmother wept: “Why couldn’t it have been me? I’ve lived a long time, and he was so young!”

Tragedies happen to us and to those we love—and we wonder.

Why? Why? Why? Why does God let these things happen? It would be so easy for him to make our lives all good by just tweaking it here and there with a few little—very little miracles.

In the early centuries Christian believers had all these problems and the added one of persecution for their faith.

St. Paul warned the believers: “Through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).

Believers through the ages have taken comfort from Romans 8:28: “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

But is it true? Is it really true? Sometimes when sorrow presses us down, it’s hard to believe that all things work together for good.

I. Often this verse is misunderstood. And when it’s misunderstood, it can really stumble Christians. It can make it hard to believe in the goodness of God.

A. First of all, I want to tell you some things this verse does not mean:

It doesn’t mean that everything that happens is good.

Plenty of things are bad in this world—really evil.

Evil doesn’t come from God.

This world is a battlefield between God and the powers of darkness.

Paul had a painful affliction. He called it “a thorn in his flesh,” but he didn’t say it came from God: he called it “a messenger of Satan to torment me.”

The Bible says: “We know that we are God’s children, and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one.” (1 John 5:19).

“All things work together for good…” doesn’t mean, as some people say that “everything happens for a reason,” as if God intended every tragedy to happen for some purpose of his own.

Sometimes the “reason” things happen is because of human sin: “He lied to her and broke her heart.”

Sometimes the “reason” something bad happens has to do with the laws of nature. “The car’s brakes failed. It careened into the path of an oncoming truck.”

Another thing Romans 8:28 doesn’t mean is that whatever happens is God’s will.

Lots of things happen that aren’t God’s will.

It’s not God’s will that people sin.

Plagues and tragic accidents aren’t God’s will.

People make stupid mistakes that cause grief and sorrow.

Through no one’s fault babies are born with birth defects.

These things happen because there’s randomness—what we call chance—in nature.

Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus. God weeps with us in our sorrows.

B. Just because we are believers—doesn’t mean that we lead charmed lives.

Imagine a world in which all our prayers were answered in just the way we want.

Imagine if good people never experienced disease, or disappointment, or struggle with work, or relationships, or weakness, or old age.

Imagine if all of us believers lived always tranquil lives—no disappointments, no stresses, no loss or sorrow—and then we would grow very old, still in perfect health, and one night fall asleep and wake up in heaven.

Wouldn’t that be a wonderful world? Or would it?

What would we miss in a world like that?

We would lose our opportunities to gain wisdom.

I walked a mile with pleasure;

She chattered all the way,

But I was none the wiser, for all that she did say.

I walked a mile with sorrow,

And not a word said she,

but, O, the things I learned that day

When sorrow walked with me.

We would miss the opportunity to grow strong in faith through our struggles.

We would lose our opportunity to learn compassion because sorrow is God’s classroom for compassion.

We would miss the opportunity to prove that our faith is real.

C. In a perfect world our lives might even be less joyful.

I once taught in a school with a much older woman who seemed to me to be very wise and good.

Although she was cheerful, she had experienced a great sorrow in her life.

Her name was Goldia.

Goldia had always looked forward to being a grandmother.

But one day her husband and two daughters were killed in an auto accident. She was left alone.

She got great comfort from a poem by Edward Markham, which she told me.

It goes like this:

Defeat may serve as well as victory

To shake the soul and let the glory out.

When the great oak is straining in the wind,

The boughs drink in new beauty, and the trunk

Sends down a deeper root on the windward side.

Only the soul that knows the mighty grief

Can know the might rapture. Sorrows come

To stretch out the spaces in the heart for joy.

D. A woman named Peggy lost her 28-year-old daughter to cancer. As she mourned and suffered she poured her broken heart out to God. She offered herself and her suffering to God just as Jesus did on the cross.

That hasn’t made her suffering any easier, but now everywhere she goes she meets people who have lost adult children to death. Peggy sits next to them on airplanes, meets them in the supermarket, and bumps into them on vacation. She shares their suffering and offers them Christ and his comfort. Her suffering, united with Christ’s suffering has meant salvation for many.

When you are experiencing pain, offer your pain to God. Ask him to use it for the comfort of others.

So often it is people who have known great sorrow or great pain who have great sympathy for others in need and are most useful in the world.

II. So what does it mean that “All things work together for good…”?

A. It means that God in his infinite power and wisdom can somehow fit even disasters into his plans for goodness for the people he loves.

He can weave bad things together to make good outcomes.

There’s a story in the Bible that is often used to illustrate this truth. It is the story of Joseph.

Joseph’s tragedies began while he was still a lad. You know the story.

He was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers.

As a slave in Egypt he was falsely accused of a shameful crime and put into prison—where he languished for several years.

But through a series of improbable events he came into a position of power and authority and was instrumental in saving thousands of lives—both of the Egyptians and of his family.

At the end of the story Joseph’s brothers come to him to beg forgiveness for their terrible deed. Joseph weeps and says, “Fear not for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:19-20).

Sin is sin. It was not good that my friend Jim was a hard-core, career criminal. It isn’t good that he was a thief and a violent man. It isn’t good that he hurt many people.

But it is good that he found Christ. And as a humble, repentant, Christian believer he can go into prisons and tell the good news of the gospel with special effectiveness—because he has been where his hearers are. God has brought good out of evil—not the good that could have been, but good nevertheless.

Many times people are convinced of the truth of the gospel by watching how believers respond to pain and sorrow.

When we become old and pain and sickness come, and many of the things we used to enjoy are no longer available—now is our chance to show that God is real.

You have strength from God. Let people know. The strongest evidence for the truth of God is the courage and hope he gives his people in the midst of suffering.

B. A pastor tells about a woman in her congregation who became engaged to be married.

She was so excited. She told her pastor, “I’m 60 years old, and I’m getting married for the first time!”

A week later, the woman was hospitalized with complications from a cold.

Then she had a stroke. A few days later she died.

When the pastor visited woman’s mother to plan the funeral, the grief-stricken mother’s first words were: “It just didn’t turn out right.”

Sometimes things “just don’t turn out right.”

You have had this experience. I have had this experience. Sometimes it just doesn’t turn out right—not in our lifetimes. But there is another world beyond this. And we have faith that God is able to make things right in the end.

And that is what Romans 8:28 means. God will make it right in the end.

CONCLUSION

One thing more. Our verse ends with words “…to those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

It’s not automatic.

Part of it depends on us. Sorrow can make us bitter; sorrow can make us give up on God.

A proverb has it: “The same sun sweetens the apples and sours the milk.”

Do we respond to trouble by clinging more closely to God?

Do our sorrows make us more determined to live for God?

Does our sorrow make us more sympathetic to others who suffer—more eager to help?

Do our troubles make heaven more real to us and the things of earth less important?

Our troubles can mold us into Christlikeness.

We can share with Christ the sorrows of the world.

A thousand years from now we will look back and say, “It was good. God made everything work out right.”

Philippians 1:20-21: "To Me, to Live Is Christ"

INTRODUCTION:

The apostle Paul was sitting in prison; we’re not sure where—maybe in Rome.

He was writing a letter to some dear friends in the Greek city of Philippi.

It seems that he had only visited Philippi once, but he had found a few people hungry to know God and had left a thriving community of faithful Christian believers there.

When they heard that he was in prison and in need, they had sent him a gift of money, and they had even sent one of their members, a man named Epaphroditus, to serve him while he was imprisoned.

Paul begins his letter by telling them his pleasure in remembering these friends so far away and assuring them he thanks God for all of them and continues to pray for them.

He writes, “This is my prayer for you that your love may overflow more and more in all knowledge and full insight, to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God” (1:9-11).

Later on in the letter he makes this declaration of his purpose in life: vv20-21: “It is my eager expectation and hope that I shall not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (vv20-21).

I. When he says that his eager expectation and hope is that he will not be at all ashamed, he is declaring his intention to be faithful to the end, no matter what happens.

A. He will not be ashamed because he will not have reason to ever look back with regret on missed opportunities.

We know that Paul was always bold—so bold that many times he was arrested.

He had been whipped several times with the standard 39 lashes.

He had been imprisoned on several occasions before now.

Once he was stoned and left for dead.

But he never gave up.

He was determined to live faithfully, no matter the cost. And his sufferings weren’t over when he wrote this letter.

Eventually he would give his life to seal his testimony.

B. When he says that the aim of his life: that “now and always Christ may be honored in my body, whether by life or by death,” the word translated here “honored” is the Greek word megalunō, which means “to magnify,” “to enlarge.”

We see that word in Mary’s song in Luke: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.”

How might Christ be magnified in our lives?

Christ may be magnified by how we handle adversity—does sorrow or pain make us bitter…complaining…despondent?

Or does adversity make us hold tighter to God? In trouble can we find strength in God to be cheerful and trusting?

How can Christ be magnified in our relationships? When we are courteous, helpful, sympathetic, generous—Christ is magnified in our relationships.

Christ can be magnified in what we talk about. Does anything in your conversation reflect your love for God? Do you ever mention your faith?

Paul’s desire was that when people looked at him they would think of the greatness of Jesus.

Sometimes we want to impress others.

Some of us wonder about the impression we make on others.

We want them to think: “She is nice,” or “he is smart,” or “she is pretty,” or he is “talented.”

Paul wanted people to look at him and say, “Jesus is wonderful!”

II. We have talked about verse 20. Now we go on to the next sentence. Paul writes, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

A. Here is what I think Paul means when he says, “For me to live is Christ...”

Paul is a man in love. He is so in love with Jesus that his life revolves around Christ.

I have known people whose life revolved around music. They might say, “For me, to live is music.”

I have known people whose life revolved around business. They might say, “For me, to live is business.”

I have known people whose life revolved around learning. They might say, “For me, to live is learning.”

I have known people whose life revolved around travel. They might say, “For me, to live is travel.”

I have known people whose life revolved—for a time, at least—around a sweetheart. A girl might say, “For me to live, is Johnny,” or a boy may say, ”For me to live is Carolyn.”

For Paul, Jesus is always in the front of his mind.

Paul wants his whole life to magnify Jesus, to make Christ so attractive to other people so that others will want to know him as he does.

That is why Paul was willing to endure hunger, danger, persecution, and pain to bring the gospel of salvation to as many places as possible.

It always costs something to follow Jesus. And it is a price true believers are willing to pay, because of our love for him.

B. Paul says, “For me to live is Christ,” and then he adds, “and to die is gain.”

For an unbeliever death is great loss.

A woman I knew in a nursing home told me once: “I don’t know how people can live without God.” I don’t either. Especially when we get old. How can you live without hope?

For the one who lives for the pleasures of this life, death means the end—the loss of everything, or every hope or expectation.

But death for the believer is gain because death is the doorway we pass through to be with our Savior.

He continues: “If it is to be life in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account” (vv22-24)

Paul says that the only reason he is content to remain in his body on earth is that that means greater usefulness for those he served.

Paul had such a vision of the joy of heaven and the pleasure of being with Jesus and the saints and angels in glory that he longed to depart and be with Christ.

Some of us have had this experience. We’ve had enough of the tribulations of earth. We long to be free.

The older I get, the more real heaven becomes.

Imagine yourself in the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, sitting on the green grass beside the river of the water of life.

Imagine yourself with your dear ones—and with the saints and angels.

Imagine the time when every tear will be wiped away and death will be no more.

And especially, imagine yourself finally meeting Jesus and seeing him face to face.

We used to have a record we played on our Victrola when I was a child. An evangelist named Gypsy Smith sang “The Glory Song.” It was a scratchy old record, but we played it many times. It went like this:

When all my labors and trials are o’er,

And I am safe on that beautiful shore,

Just to be near the dear Lord I adore

Will through the ages be glory for me.

O that will be glory for me,

Glory for me, glory for me;

When by his grace I shall look on his face,

That will be glory, be glory for me.

CONCLUSION

When Paul wrote these words he was assured that he had yet more work to do.

It appears that he did live at least a few more years.

For us, it may be that most of our work is over.

We can look back on lives touched for Jesus, on others we have blessed.

Jesus promised that there will be rewards for faithful service.

If we have been faithful in the trust Jesus gave us, we can look forward to his words: “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.”

God means for us to look forward with joy to our resurrection life with Jesus.