My text today is from Romans
chapter 8 verses 28 through 30. That will be our first passage. And then we'll jump further down
to verse 35 and then 38 through 39 in Romans chapter 8. And the
scripture tells us, we know that all things work together for
good unto them that love God, even to them that are called
of his purpose. For those which He knew before,
He also predestinated. He made like the image of His
Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover,
whom He predestinated, them He also called. And whom He called,
them also He justified. And whom He justified, them also
He glorified. Next verse is 8. Verse 35, who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation,
or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword? In verses 38 and 39, for I am
persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, or any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This has been over the course
of my Christian life a favorite Bible verse. If you can have
a favorite, and I think we do, whether it's right or wrong to
have them, we do hold to some verses maybe more than others.
This has been a favorite of mine And the longer I live, the older
I get, the more dear this message, this passage that we've read
is to me. I hold it close to my heart.
It's quoted often, especially in times of trouble when there
are those in the church who are suffering one thing or another
because it's a verse that brings comfort. It's often misquoted. Misapplied and misunderstood
as well. Unfortunately, that's what we
as sinners do. I hope that by talking about
it today, we can put it in a place that we will see its
full meaning and gain the power that's in this verse. Very powerful passage. It really
is. It says a lot. It is loaded with
meaning. And it presents a very certain,
absolute hope for us, and I'd like us to see that. As always,
I'd like to put it in a context. Every time that I'm before you,
I say this, and you're probably tired of hearing it, that that
is that this letter to the Romans, the verses that we're reading,
were written to real people in a real time and a real place.
And it's helpful to know that time and that place and these
people so that we can see the meaning that it carried for them
and then bring it forward to see what the meaning is for us.
The letter was written by the Apostle Paul to the church in
Rome. He had not been there. He hoped
to go to Rome, but he had not been there. The time is about
55 AD. This is about 22, 23 years after death, burial, and resurrection
of Jesus Christ. There is a church, a body of
believers in Rome. Rome at the time was a huge city. It was the capital of the empire. It was the center of government,
economy, and religion. It was to them the center of
the world. Everything happened in Rome.
A very pagan city. The city had a small population
of Jews there, not a big population, but they did have a population
of Jews. Most of them were merchants or vendors of some sort. Some
of those Jews in the city were believers in Jesus Christ. The
church body itself was made up of Jews and Gentiles, the indication
that we have in the text of the scripture itself is that the
body there in Rome was made up probably of more Gentiles than
Jews. There were tensions in the congregation
between the Jews and the Gentiles and that followed the church
wherever it went. Most of our New Testament is
in one way or another the letters are addressing that tension between
Judaism and the emerging Christianity. With those tensions, there were
also some broader tensions that were in and around the church
that need to be considered. One is the tension that's built
into their very lives and their society because they were in
Rome. And Rome itself was a pagan nation. It was a brutal empire. It was built on violence and
shed blood. The Romans were quick. quit to
shed blood. The church itself was made up
of people who were mostly social outcasts. People were probably not citizens
of Rome. The Jews there were considered
foreigners. They were not Roman citizens.
So they were granted permission to function within the city,
within the society, but they were clearly outsiders. And as
Jews, they were distinctive anyway because of their dress, their
talk, their actions. So they were outside of the norm
in Rome. Now Paul, as we remember, was
a Roman citizen, but Paul was the exception to that rule. Most
Jews were not Roman citizens. So these people were second class,
clearly second class. The Gentiles that were in the
church were mostly slaves. We have to remember that. They
certainly weren't citizens. In fact, they were less than
people. They were slaves. Most of these people, slaves,
came from the regions of the Roman Empire. They were conquered
people. And they were brought there as
trophies of war. They were enslaved and brought
back. Rome at the time had a greater population of slaves than they
did citizens. Think about that. That was the condition of the
church in Rome. It is with all of that laying
behind it now that Paul writes the letter to the Romans. There
are tensions all around the church. There are tensions within the
church. And that's where we pick up.
Paul writes at this point to encourage the church there. He
wants to go there and his stated purpose is to encourage them
in the gospel. Because regardless of all the
stuff around them, there is good news. There is good news. They grasp it once. They knew
the good news. And Paul wants to go there and
encourage them even more in the good news. And that good news
goes beyond any tensions, anything surrounding, any differences
within the church. And indeed, it goes far beyond
even common human experience. And Paul wants to go there and
share that. He wants to show them initially
that all of them in the church are the same in Christ. Now that's
important. Remember the society. The people
that were considered worthy of anything in Rome were Romans. But these people are not Romans.
They're Jews and they're Gentiles. And built within that conflict,
Jew and Gentile, the Jews would consider themselves greater citizens
of heaven than Gentiles, but Paul will make the point that
all are one in Christ. He begins his letter by stating
the spiritual condition of the Gentiles, and we see that in
the latter part of chapter 1, and it's a horrible, horrible
description of people plunged into darkness and paganism. And
to that, as we read it, let us understand that the Jews in the
congregation at the time probably said, man, he hammered that.
That is exactly right about these people. They were quick to accept
that horrible depiction of their Gentile neighbors. But then Paul
would bring the point to the Jews in the congregation that
they're no better than the Gentiles. In fact, maybe they are worse. than the Gentiles because they
had the Word of God, what Paul calls the oracles of God, and
they ignored them and did exactly the same things the Gentiles
were doing. So all, all are on equal footing. There's nobody better than anyone
else. The church has one hope regardless
of your status as Jew or Gentile, and that is in Jesus Christ,
all people in all places in all times abound in sin. Covered up in sin, living in
sin, in fact, enjoying their lives in sin. But Christ has
provided the remedy for that for all. That's the broad context of the
letter and we'll narrow in on the passage, but it's worth noting
what Paul chooses to address and not to address in his letter
to the Roman church. And this is an important thing
to grasp. Notice that Paul does not, in
this letter, address national government. military rule and oppression,
privileged citizenship, financial and economic standing. Paul doesn't
address any of those issues and yet that is the world these people
lived in. Those were issues that were important
but Paul's letter doesn't give them any kind of discussion of
those issues. In fact, the letter is completely
centered in sin, the broken relationship with God, and restoration of
that relationship with Jesus Christ. Then there's practical
application to tell the believers how to live a peaceful life in
the larger society. And then how to live a loving
and caring life with the brethren within the church. Of these things, God's stated
purpose is to bring His people to Himself in and through Jesus
Christ. That is the focus of the letter.
That's not to say that the other issues were unimportant. Paul
never says they're unimportant. But they are purely secondary
to God's purpose in Christ. that's hard to grasp, that things
so critical to our physical lives would be secondary to a greater
purpose, but they are. Paul tells us the other issues,
which are important, are but a part of God's purpose in Christ. All of these things, the issues
of life, good or bad as we perceive them, are part of God's purpose. Each issue, each happening, each
event is a means to the grand end that believers will be brought
to God in the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. As we face the issues of life,
it is important that we remember that too. The purpose is to form
us, to shape us to be in the image of the Son of God, Jesus
Christ, our Savior. The events, while they're very
important to the flesh, are secondary to the spirit. Notice that the
passage begins by saying all things work together. This includes good events, what we perceive as good events,
and what happens is we are very eager, willing and able to accept
the good events as part of God's plan. There's not one of us in
here that would deny that God is doing a good work in our lives
if we got a raise at work. Or some other really good event
happened, the birth of a child. Something like that. We're quick
to stand up and proclaim the goodness of God But also built
into all things is the events that we would consider bad events. We're not so quick to accept
those as a goodness from God. But Paul tells us that all things
work together. Whole theologies have been built
up to explain away bad events. Common theology is that all the
good things come from God and all the bad things are brought
to us by the mischief of the devil. So you have a child born, praise
God. He is so good to us. But we get
sick and it's the devil working overtime to bring us away, to
drag us down. And you hear that. That's the
common theology. So what we have is this picture
in our mind of God and the devil duking it out. And yeah, right
now the devil may have the upper hand, but tomorrow God will be
on top. Now, none of us would be so ignorant
as to say that. But think about how it all fits
together. And that is the conclusion that
you draw. That God and the devil are duking it out. Who's going
to win? Who's going to win? Well, it
would do us all well to remember that God is sovereign. And nothing
happens without God. Now, we will say that God allowed
it to happen. And that's true. I will not dismiss
or deny the instrumentality of the devil in bad events. Or any
number of other factors in bad events. But God is not passive. He doesn't just turn his back
and if something slips by, goes behind him. That's not how it
works with God. So God is never passive. God is active even in His allowance
or His permission, if you will, bad events. And it is because
of that that God is never passive. that we can gain hope from this
passage. That all things work together
for good. Now the question that follows
then, what is good? What is good? Left to myself,
good means that I gain stuff. That's what good means to me.
I gain stuff. But is that what good really
means? The passage defines good for
us. It's not left up to our imagination. And this is where the problem
comes in with this verse is because often times we truncate it. We
stop it. We get to a point. All things
work together for good to those who love God. That's where we
stop the verse. I can't tell you how many times
I have told people that. And how many times people have
told me that that's where they stop it. That's not where the
verse stops. That good is defined. It's not
left to our imaginations to fill in the blanks. That good is in
accordance with God's purpose. And his purpose as stated in
the following of the verse is that his people would be conformed
to the image of his son. That's what's good. That's what's
good. It is not necessarily good that
I get a new car. Not necessarily good that I get
a raise at work. Now those things I consider good,
but that's not necessarily good as defined by the purpose of
God in creating me in the image of His Son. There is a verse
that I link to this and I don't know that I can explain it all
except to say that we're told in the scripture that Christ
was made perfect through suffering. So you can see suffering linked
to the purpose of God. suffering linked to the process
of shaping us into the image of His Son. And this is the stated
goal of God. That His people will be conformed
to the image of His Son. And then as he goes on and tells
us, Paul tells us that those that he knew before, that he
foreknew, he predestinated. He called and He glorified. He
takes the process from election before the foundation of the
world to glorification in the great and final day. So we can
see that Paul clearly states that God's purpose is to make
His people in the image of His Son and He will achieve the goal. Not a question. It is not a question. The goal of God was established
before time and is worked to completion in time. Now this
brings up the issue of predestination because it's mentioned right
in the verse and we're told that the purpose of God is from before
time. Predestination, as any of us
in this room know and understand, is a very divisive issue. The minute you throw that word
out, people pull their hair and run the other way. But understand
in its day and its time when Paul wrote this letter, predestination
was not an earth-shaking concept. We lose sight of that. But to
the Roman world, everybody believed in predestination. The Roman view was largely taken
from the Greek view, but there were a pantheon of gods, and they were controlling human
history. Their gods were many, and they
were egotistical, arrogant, petty, and they warred amongst themselves. And people, you and I, were their
playthings, and we worked out their issues. We didn't control
anything. We were designed to work out
the issues that the gods had. Predestination. The Romans had
no trouble with the concept of predestination. So Paul mentions
to the church in Rome predestination. It didn't shake up the Gentiles
who were there. It didn't bother them. They had
a concept of predestination. Wrong, but they had a concept.
The Jews themselves that were in the congregation understood
predestination. Predestination was a Jewish concept. Now they didn't necessarily take
it down to the individual, but they understood that there was
an elect nation, a chosen people, and that God was designing a
course for that people. Predestination did not upset
the Jews in the congregation. By mentioning this, what Paul
does is correct everybody's view of what real predestination is. And that's important. We all,
everybody, every Christian whether they throw their hands up and
scream at the Word or not, has a view of predestination. I get
somewhat tickled when I talk to people who are big prophecy
experts, and they'll tell me, now this is exactly what's going
to happen. I mean, it's all right there
in the Bible, and this is going to happen, and this is going
to happen, and this is going to happen. They tell me that.
Well, you believe in predestination. Oh, no, no. I believe in prophecy. OK. Events established before
the foundation of the world is not predestination. No, no, no,
no. Well, everybody's got a view
of predestination. The argument comes in and the
interpretation. And Paul in this is encouraging
the people in Rome with a proper view predestination. And that has to do with a grand
and glorious plan of one God. Now that's important because
the Romans had many gods. The pagans that were the slaves
had many gods. But the plan of one God before
the foundation of the world, working in time with a specific
purpose. And that purpose is completely
centered in Jesus Christ. There is a predestination. Paul
did not shake anybody up by throwing that out there. But what he did
was offer hope to the congregation there with a proper interpretation
of predestination. Our problem today with predestination
comes in because most people say predestination and they don't
drive their viewpoint from the Bible, they take it from their
remembrance or somebody's telling of old mythology, fate. And if you'll remember from your
school days, the fates, that was human course being driven
by gods, not God, gods. And because the gods were petty
and bickering all the time, it was usually negative. So most people, when you say
predestination, they think mythological fate and it's all about moving
people around and killing a bunch of folks and one god angry at
another and the view is negative. It's negative. They think, oh,
you're talking about God striking a bunch of people down, and predestination
is often called by those who would take away from it, fatalism. And they say, oh, you just believe
whatever's going to happen is going to happen. Well, actually
I do believe that, but I don't view that as a negative. Because
Paul tells us that predestination is driven by a grand purpose
of God in Jesus Christ. The fates were driven by their
own petty attitudes or their anger. Well, that is negative. That
is negative. I'm terrible. But God is driven by an eternal
purpose in Jesus Christ and there is nothing negative for His people
about that. Nothing. Nothing at all. But think about your discussions
with friends and family and the subject of predestination and
see what their views are. I would hope that none would
confuse predestination as the Bible presents it in Jesus Christ
with a pagan view of fate. But it has been my experience
that most Christians I have talked to do exactly that. Exactly that. And because they
have this very negative and fatalistic view of predestination, they
run from it. And actually as that's presented,
I would run from that too. That is not at all encouraging.
But the Bible presents and Paul lays out for us a wonderful predestination
in Jesus Christ. Now, driving biblical predestination
is God Himself. And God is benevolent. This is where the positive aspects
of predestination come in. God is benevolent. God, as the
scripture tells us, is love. And love drives predestination. It's not fatalism. It's driven
by the most positive aspect there is in life. Love. God so loved the world. We know the verse. You see it
on every football game on TV. John 3.16. God's so loving. And that love is what drives
predestination. That is predestination. He is always caring for His people
in all places, in all times. God is benevolent. God is love. And this is where all things
tie in to this eternal purpose of God. Sin has entered the world. We know that. Our relationships
with God are affected by sin. Our relationships with each other
are affected by sin. And in fact, our very relationship
with the earth is affected by sin. That's the all things. Everything that happens to us
happens to us on earth, in or around our bodies, often involves
other people, and certainly involves our relationship with God. Everything
that happens to us involves those things. That is the all things. And Paul tells us that God is
working in all these things. Everything. And it's for our
good. That good again is that we would
be conformed to the image of His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. We don't see all things as good. And again, the Scripture doesn't
say that all things are good as we perceive them. It doesn't
say that. It just says they are working
for good and that good again is defined in Jesus Christ that
we be conformed to His image. Let's look from the verses that
follow Some of the things that are a part of the all things. Tribulation. Anguish. Persecution. Famine. Nakedness. Peril. The sword. Death. Life. Angels. Principalities. Powers. Things present. Things
to come. Height. Depth. Any other creature. These are some of the things
that Paul says are included in all things. Now this is important. He mentions these things. And
these all, if you look at them, this is a very negative list
of things. But these people lived in a very
negative time. The most brutal and barbaric
government that the world had known to that time, these people
were subject to. They were on the fringes of that
society. They were not recognized as worthy
citizens. And really, some of them weren't
even recognized as people. And yet, Paul tells this church,
all things are working for good. All things. There is a theology
present today that would deny this very concept. Preachers on the TV, on the radio,
in the bookstore, they will tell you that if you will come to
Christ, it's all hunky-dory from now on. God would have you to
have all the money you can possibly think of, all the stuff you want,
happy kids, health, all this stuff. But that's not in keeping with
the Scripture. Scripture never shies away from the fact that
life can be tedious. It can be ugly. It can be scary. It can be deadly. Scripture never
shies away from that. God never walks away from that.
What he tells us is that there is a purpose even in these horrible
things. And it is that we would be conformed
to the image of His Son. And we are told with the assurance
of Christ Himself that He is with us through all of this. An ever-present help in our time
of need. God is using even the worst of
sin in this world to make us a better people. That is not to say that God is
sinful. He is not. That is not to say
that God is corrupt. The world is, but God is not.
But it is to say that He is using these things to make us into
a better people. And that is His purpose. It's
important that we remember this. And I've thought a lot about
this over the years because at times things have been really
difficult. And in fact, at times, they've
been rotten. And it doesn't make sense. On
one hand, I would hear people I knew from church say, well,
God doesn't want that for you. What He wants is for everything
to be good for you. And you know, if you'll just
pray harder or do this or do that, Then you
get past this and God would not desire this for you. That's not what Paul was telling
us in this passage. He's telling us that life can
indeed be very difficult. And in a very real sense, that
is what God desires for us, for you, for me. But it's not without
love. It is not without purpose. And
the purpose is stated, again, that we would be brought closer
to Him in Jesus Christ. We would be conformed to the image of His Son. It's hard to grasp, and it's
only by the grace of God that we can even begin to see that.
And by the continuing grace of God as He perseveres with us,
that we can begin to hold to it as truth in our hearts and
live it. It is hard, hard to accept the
bad times. It's hard to accept the bad times,
but it is not without its purpose. I'll end with Romans 8, 38, 39.
That will close this because it sums it up very well, very
well. For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.