"All Things Together for our Good" (Rom. 8:28-39)

Transcript:

Well, as we remain standing, turn with me to our sermon text for Tonight in Romans 8, 28, 39. This picks up just a little bit after Dan left off in his reading tonight. It's on page 1123. 1123, if you're using a Pew Bible. But now hear the word of the Lord from Romans, chapter 8, verses 28 through 39.

And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose, 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, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies who is to condemn Christ.

Jesus is the one who died more than that who was raised. Who is the right hand of God. Who indeed is interceding for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, as it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, no, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Please be seated.

And as you're taking your seats, let's join our hearts together in prayer this evening. Gracious Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you especially for this passage, which has been a bedrock of the confidence of Christians since Paul wrote it down 2,000 years ago. We thank you that this passage still bears witness to the unshakable confidence we have in Christ. And tonight, as we study this great passage of your word, we pray that you would give us hearts to understand, that you would give us eyes to see, and that you would give us ears to hear.

All that is contained in the good news of the Gospel that Jesus Christ our Savior, it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.

Well, our catechism opens with a question about comfort. What is your only comfort in life and in death? But that word comfort may lead us a little bit off course from what the Catechism is getting at, because, as R. Scott Clark pointed out in his book on the Heidelberg Catechism, the comfort in the Heidelberg Catechism's question about comfort is not comfort in the way that we often think about it. We often think about comfort as, like, comfort foods. He says, you know, something that makes us feel nice for a little while but isn't ultimately satisfying and isn't really necessary.

It's just a nice diversion for a time. And that's not at all what the Catechism is asking, what is your only comfort? And by comfort, a better translation might be something like our consoling confidence, or our confident consolation, or our certain hope. Because what the Scriptures lay down is a certainty that is not the theological word, is contingent. It's not awaiting something.

It may or may not come to pass, and we're sort of waiting to see how things play out. Our hope is certain. It is unshakable. It is not based on anything in us. That's good news.

It's not based on anything that we may or probably won't actually do. And that is even better news. Our hope, our confidence is outside of us. Our hope is in heaven, and it's Christ Jesus. And he has already done everything that was required of him so that we cannot diminish his perfect establishment of our salvation.

And nothing we can do can disqualify what he has done for us. Everything is perfect in what Christ Jesus has done for me and for you. And as an extension of that confidence, what the catechism is reminding us and what is really laid out in this passage particularly well is that as an extension, it's not just sort of a future certainty that we have that will be really nice when it happens, but everything else, well, you just kind of have to gut through it. You know, this isn't just a get out of hell free card. And then the really good stuff happens.

What we are assured of in this passage of Scripture is that all things in this life, God has a purpose for everything you are experiencing, everything you are suffering, everything you are undergoing, everything that is happening around you. And that has happened even in the days before your birth and even in the days after your death. All of these things, God is working together for my ultimate good and for your ultimate good. Our theme tonight is that all things must work together for your salvation. All things must work together for your salvation.

And I want, as we start off this, I want to note, maybe you heard it, maybe you didn't, but there's a repetition that Paul uses with the phrase all things. All things. It comes up first in verse 28, then again in verse 32, then again in verse 37, and then in verse 39. There's a very close correlation. Anything else in all creation.

In other words, all things. And so our three sermon headings are going to kind of play on that repetition of the word all things. First, all things together for good. All things together for good. Second, no things for evil.

No things for evil. And then third, in all things. Super conquerors. Super conquerors. So we'll start in the first section.

All things together for good. In verses 28 through 30. Again, as the Heidelberg Catechism question number one reminds us that in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. And so again, I want to read this precious verse. If you don't have this verse memorized, I'd encourage you.

This is a verse that you want to have hidden in your heart. Romans 8, 28. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose. God works all things together for our good.

And what Paul does is from this verse he really teases out, starting here and moving into the next couple of verses, he teases out three aspects to this promise. And I want to point them out because they are so important to strengthen us in our confidence in Christ. First, that God works all things together for good. A seminary professor point this out, that the operative word here is together. All things in life are not good.

Not all things are good. To put that perhaps another way that's more understandable, not everything that we experience will be good. We will encounter not good things. That is to say, we will encounter a great amount of evil in this life. The promise is not that God is lining up our lives in a series of increasingly good, better, best events and circumstances.

The problem is rather that God is the one who is personally orchestrating, structuring, guiding and ordering all of the things in our life, good and evil alike, to ultimately work together for good. It's like a giant tapestry. And as God is weaving through and there's all of these, you know, there are dark black threads in there of difficult times in life. There are bright red places of suffering. And as the entire tapestry comes together, when you stand back and look at the whole picture.

You say that is ultimately good. God watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. Everything that is happening, even the evil, difficult things, even the hair falling from our head, and that would be a terrible thing to happen. God is watching over that in such a way that all of it is working together for our good, even when we're surrounded by evil. God is so profoundly good.

So that's the first part of what we see in this passage, that God works all things together for good. The second aspect of this is that Paul continues to extend this logic, is that God works all things together for our salvation. He's very clear that the good he is talking about is not necessarily more money, not necessarily a better and more convenient life, not necessarily better health in this life. All things are working together for our salvation. So as God orders and structures the good and the evil in our lives, he does so with a very clear purpose.

And specifically, God brings us through what Paul describes as this unbreakable chain of salvation blessings. One thing leads to another. And where this chain starts is in eternity past. And he talks about foreknowledge. Paul talks about foreknowledge.

First, he says in verse 29, for those whom he foreknew. Now, in the Bible, the idea of knowledge often relates an idea of love. Love and knowledge are frequently set together. And so we talk about God's foreknowledge. That's the sense that it has here.

God's foreknowledge is not his advanced knowledge that we would love him someday. That's not the basis on which God makes His eternal decisions, his foreknowledge of things that we would do or not do. God's foreknowledge refers to his love that he set in advance upon us before the foundations of the earth were laid, before he had begun creation, before we had done anything good or bad. God and eternity past set his love upon his people as those whom he foreknew. And look at the tight connection.

Those whom he foreknew. Verse 29, he also predestined. Now, this word for predestination that God predestined us means that God looked upon the entire human race. And here he did see the entire human race, the entire human race that was drowning in sin and guilt and deserving of his wrath and condemnation. And God looked at this entire human race of all of us, determining that each of us deserved eternal condemnation in hell forever.

But God in His great mercy. For those whom he foreknew, those whom he had set in his love upon. God made a choice in advance. He destined before time began that he would save some of them he loved so much. Those whom he had foreknown that he predestined that whatever it would take, God was going to do in order to rescue some his elect, his eternally predestined from the pit of hell forever.

And of course, that would take nothing less than the death of his only begotten Son. But again, notice the way the chain works. Those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. We'll come back to that in a moment, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Then, verse 30.

And those whom he predestined, he also. Again, that chain just continues to add length. He also called now, the Scriptures talk about two kinds of calling. One is a very general call. That's what's happening right now.

I am declaring the word of God to anyone and everyone who is in here. It is a call that goes out to anyone, regardless of your relationship with God. It is a call that calls you to salvation in Jesus Christ through faith in Him. Speaking on the authority of the Word of God, I declare that that all those who turn from their sins and look to Jesus Christ will be saved. But I cannot, as a preacher, no matter how good of a sermon, I cannot more effectively pull your hearts toward Christ.

And no matter how bad of a sermon I preach, I cannot push you away from Christ. Because the calling that Paul is talking about here is not a general call. It is what theologians call the effectual call. The power of the Holy Spirit at the right time, in due time, but the Holy Spirit to reach into your heart and to take away that hard, rebellious, stubborn heart of stone and to replace it with a soft heart of flesh that responds with flesh and blood beating and love and faith toward Christ. For those he before knew, he also predestined.

For those whom he predestined, he also called to faith in Christ by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. But it continues. And those whom he called, he also again, the same people in each of these categories are brought all the way through. Each link of the chain leads to the next link in the chain. And those whom he called, he also justified in justification, which is through faith in Jesus Christ.

God counts us as not guilty because of what Christ has done to take all of our punishment that we deserved to make for our sins, and he put it on Christ. And at the same time, God also credits to us the righteousness that Christ accomplished through his entire life of obedience. Our sin is put on Christ at the cross and all has been accomplished, all is done. And then all of Christ's righteousness is put on us. This great exchange where we are justified and counted righteous in his sight.

And then Paul concludes, and those whom he justified, he also glorified. And do you see how this is not even put in the future tense? He will also glorify. It is put in the past tense. He also glorified.

This is a done deal from God's perspective. Because what was planned in eternity past, what flowed out of God's foreknowledge of love toward his people, what God predestined to do, what God sent His Son, Jesus Christ into the world to accomplish for us, God in due time is calling us. He is justifying us through faith in Christ. And so this is a done deal. This will happen.

There will be nothing that can interfere with this. That when we go to be with the Lord, we will be glorified. It's a great blessing. Each link in this chain spans from eternity past to our glorification into eternity future. And all things, the Scriptures teach us, must work together for this salvation, every link to be brought together in this great chain.

So that's the second thing that Paul is talking about here, that all things must work together for good first. Then all things must work together for our salvation. But the third thing he says is that in all things we are being conformed to the image of Christ in verse 29. Again, I said we'd say more about this. God predestined us specifically to be conformed to the image of Son, of His Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

This is the goal of our glorification. This is what we are predestined to or predestined for, to be brought into conformity, made like Christ. Now, earlier this morning, I read from Philippians 3, verse 21, I said, there's only one other place where this word shows up in the New Testament, and it's right here when it talks about being conformed to the image of His Son. And here's that verse from Philippians 3:21. Who will transform our lowly body to be like his, Christ's glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to Himself. The greatest blessing of our good, the greatest blessing of our salvation is this unmerited dignity, this honor that God bestows upon us, though we do not deserve it, for us to be made like His Son, conformed to the image of his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Now, this last point, that we are being conformed to the image of Christ is essential for reasons I talked about this morning, that a lot of this is going to involve suffering. A lot of this is going to involve humiliation. Again, for us to be made like Christ means that we like the Son of man, who came not to be served, but to serve we also must be servants, if we would be. First, we must be the slave of all. And this will require us to suffer in order to resemble him for all of eternity.

And with this idea of suffering in mind, maybe this is a question that you walked away from the sermon this morning. If so much suffering is entailed in the Christian life, doesn't this just throw the whole thing into confusion? Doesn't this throw the whole thing into chaos and real doubt about whether God will actually bring good out of the evil that I am enduring in my suffering in life? And this brings us to the second section. If all things are working together for Good in the second section, in verses 31, 36, Paul is saying that no things are ultimately for evil, no things for evil.

And what he does here in this section is to consider three evil things. So sort of objections that might prevent, might stand in the way of our ultimate good. But then he shows how God has dealt with those concerns through Jesus Christ. So the first one deals with enemies. No evil enemies can prevail.

In verses 31 through 32, he writes, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who. Who can be against us? Now think about the question here. If you have Almighty God on your side in your corner, then does it at all matter who you're facing in your opponent as your opponent, does it ever matter what kind of enemies would rise up against you, or how many, or what kind of weapons they might wield?

Of course it doesn't. If you have Almighty God in your corner, then who can stand against us? Well, is Almighty God in my corner? Well, look at the logic. Verse 32.

Here's the answer to that. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him, graciously give us all things? Now, two parts of what I want to bring out from this verse. First of all, I don't know if you can hear, but Paul is making an allusion back to Genesis, chapter 22, in the story of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, when Abraham is willing to go through with it to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, his beloved son, his only son, whom he loved. And then at the last minute, God stops him from actually bringing down the knife to kill his son.

God says, because, because you did not spare your only son, I now know that you love me. And he blesses Abraham for this. Well, remember that whole story though Abraham did not spare Isaac in the sense that he was willing to go through with putting his own son to death, God did not spare his own son in that not only was he willing to do it, but then at the last minute diverted it to some kind of ram that was caught in the thicket. That's what was a substitute for Isaac. No, no, the ultimate substitute was not the ram.

The ultimate substitute was God's only begotten son, Jesus Christ. And if God did not spare his own son, the highest act of sacrifice that God could give up, then what would he withhold from you? If he's willing to do the greatest possible thing for you, then what else would he say no to? So there's Almighty God in your corner when your enemies arise against you. Well, just think about what he was willing to do for you.

He gave and did not spare his only son. How will he not also be in your corner for whatever you are facing in life? Well, the next section is the next part of this. The second part is not only no enemy, no evil enemies can prevail, but then he turns to no evil charges can prevail. Verse 33. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect.

Now we are actually moving into something that potentially has a lot more problems involved with it. Because now we are moving from just human enemies that, well, surely God can defeat those. Now we are moving to the enmity which is against us with God. Because the issue is that our greatest problem is not anything that we can find in this world. No enemies in this life.

Our greatest problem is that we are at enmity with God. We are guilty before God, and God knows all of the evil charges that might be brought against us. But again, Paul is flipping this. He's showing that even this potentially serious problem is no problem at all because of what God has done for us through Christ Jesus, who shall bring any charge against God's elect. Well then he says it's God who justifies.

You're talking about bringing charges against the elect of God when God is the one who justifies. God is the one who counts some righteous. All those who have faith in Jesus Christ. And then verse 34, who is to condemn? Well, Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised.

Who is the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us? In this short summary of the work of Jesus Christ, we see the reason there can be no condemnation against us. And again, if you remember the officer reading, starting in verse one, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Why is that? Well, because the only begotten Son of God took upon a human nature so that he might suffer and bleed and die for sinners.

And more than that, he did not remain dead. No, he was raised from the dead in victory over your sin, over your death. And more than that, we read, he was not only raised. Who is also at the right hand of God? Who indeed is interceding for us, the crucified and resurrected God.

Man is at the right hand of the Father. And what is he? There he is, bending the ear of his Father, pleading for you. If that's your advocate, if that's where your defense attorney is pleading his own perfect merits on your behalf in the throne room of heaven, who can bring any charge against you, the greatest guilt you have, where your shame is heaviest, where it blankets you with despair, understand, Christ Jesus has conquered. Who can bring any charge against you, if you are in Christ, no evil enemies can prevail, no evil charges can prevail.

And third, no evil circumstances can prevail. And this is where Paul lists a great number of evil circumstances. He says, who shall separate us, verse 35, from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine, or nakedness or danger or sword. And then he lists the worst of the worst, verse 36, as it is written. This is even the experience of God's people.

As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. This is the experience of believers throughout history. This is the experience of believers in some parts of the world today.

And the question is, and Paul doesn't immediately answer what God has done for us, he will in the next section. This one sort of hangs. But what he's saying is even these things, even these evil circumstances, even being killed all the day long, cannot do lasting damage. And if this is the worst of the worst, if this is the worst that we could endure, shouldn't even this give us pause? But again, our catechism is so good, our only comfort in life and in death is that I am not my own but belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

We belong to him even in the grave. Our bodies are united to him even when they lie in the grave awaiting the day of their resurrection. Now, the profound promise that Paul has, he doesn't hesitate even with death itself. That doesn't diminish his eagerness to remind us of the great promises and hope we have in the Gospel. So he doesn't hesitate.

He only soars higher with praise. Promises we have. And this brings us to the third section in all things. Super conquerors. Super conquerors.

In verse 37, we have another statement of all things. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors. This word for more than conquerors is a word that's. That's a pretty good rendering of it. But if you put it literally, it's huper or super conquerors.

It's above conquerors. More than conquerors. We are greater than conquerors. We exceed what it would mean to be a conqueror. We do not do this on our own strength.

We do not do this in our own merit. We do not do this independently, autonomously. We are more than conquerors through Christ, through Him who loved us. Us. Notice this isn't even a transactional kind of a thing.

Well, just because we have the right promises and assurances guaranteed in some contract. It's in the fine print somewhere there. Well, then we can rest assured it's much more than that. It's the promises that come that flow out of the love of God, which was set upon us in God's foreknowledge in eternity past, that is, carrying all the way through into eternity, into the future, all the way through, in our glorification. So in whatever we face and whatever experiences arise, whatever enemies we encounter, we're not diminished, we're not victims.

We are more than conquerors. But he goes on, and he just. He considers the entirety of the created order. He says, for I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us. And then it comes back to the love of God, from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What's our hope? What's our confidence? It's in the promises of God. It is in what Christ has done for his people through his life, death, death, resurrection and ascension. But the foundation of all of this is that God loves you, God cares for you.

And so our application to all of this Tonight is this. Entrust yourself to your faithful Savior Jesus Christ. Again, our only comfort in life and in death is that I am not my own, but belong body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. What a precious truth. And it calls for a serious application, namely, that we must entrust ourselves to Him.

There's sort of the trusting part where we are trusting him, but there's also the entrusting of ourselves to him, where we say, lord, whatever you have for my life, I know it comes from your love, which was set upon me in your foreknowledge in eternity past. I know that it is in line with your eternal decree to predestine me for adoption as your son. I know that it has brought about my calling and my justification and will ultimately result in my glorification. So I trust you.

We can entrust ourselves to him first because he has liberated us from sin and laid the decisive eternal claim over us by sending Jesus Christ to die in our place. Again, Heidelberg Catechism, Question one. Says, he has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and has delivered me from the tyranny of the devil. We were guilty, but he paid the price. We were slaves, but he is the one who ransomed us, delivered us, redeemed us from the devil's tyranny.

But the second thing that we must recognize and the reason we can trust him and entrust ourselves to him, is because, as the catechism says, he watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for my good, for my salvation. God has promised that he will work all things together for your good. This morning I gave the illustration of thinking about God as the great tailor who is fitting you for eternal robes of glory. And as you wait and as you're patient and sometimes as the pins prick you with suffering and all, you're looking at it the whole time.

It looks like the burlap sack of a slave. But in eternity, God will turn, turn those robes inside out for you to recognize that he has fitted for you a glorious robe for all of eternity. Well, I want to shift the metaphor. Instead of as a tailor, I want you to think of a personal trainer at the gym. Imagine if you were an athlete.

I have to imagine a lot for that. But imagine if you were an athlete who had a personal trainer. The best athletes have personal trainers. And imagine if your trainer did not only teach you proper techniques. Well, you want to do this a little bit differently, do that a lot of little bit differently, maybe add a little weight here, maybe change your form there.

But imagine if this trainer had such control over your regimen of training that he could design not only your training exercises, but he could perfectly control the competitions you enter into. He knew exactly what challenges he would bring to you, exactly when, exactly what you would face on the field of competition, exactly in line with your training. Sometimes you would get the best of things, sometimes they would get the best of you. But he knew through all of it that he was training you and preparing you so much. So imagine this trainer had such control that even if you were injured, you could trust him, knowing that that injury is only going to bring you back stronger, wiser, faster.

If you had such level of granular control in your trainer over the course of your training, how would you go about pursuing athletics? You could just go at it with abandon. You could just live, you could just compete, you could just throw yourself into whatever your trainer gave to you, because you could trust that everything that was happening you was ultimately for your good, was ultimately for your glory. The experience of the Christian life is one of increasing trust in the Lord to fulfill his promises, specifically his promises to save us to the uttermost through Christ, especially by conforming us to Christ's image. When we endure tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or the sword, no matter how painful those blows might be against us, we know that God is using those blows to chisel off whatever is unnecessary and whatever is unwelcome, specifically the sin that deforms the image of Christ in us.

But little by little, day by day, with perfect care, precision and purpose, as he continues to chip away at the sinful flesh of your life. One day we will ultimately discover that his work throughout all these years has left nothing but the glorious stunning image of Jesus Christ to whom we have been conformed. And if you believe that, how would your life be different tomorrow? How would you live with abandoned tomorrow, trusting that whatever waves washed up against you, you ultimately came from him? Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we pray that you would bless your people. And we pray that you would grant us by your spirit, the kind of trust to entrust ourselves to you, that whatever happens, we would know that you were doing it for the good of your people, for our salvation, and to conform us to the image of your Son, Jesus Christ. We rejoice and exalt in the love that you have for us. And we thank you for all that Christ has accomplished for his people. We pray this in Christ's name, Amen.