The Romans

UNDERSTANDING ROMANS 8 VERSES 28-29

Because God is sovereignly in control, accidents are just incidents in God’s good plan for you. Because every day of your life was written on God’s calender before you were born, everything that happens to you has spiritual significance. Everything!

Romans 8 28-29 explains why: “We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them. For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son.” (NLT)

This is one of the most misquoted and misunderstood passages in the Bible. It doesn’t say, “God causes everything to work out the way I want it to.” Obviously that’s not true. It also doesn’t say, “God causes everything to work out to have a happy ending on earth.” That is not true either. There are many unhappy endings on earth.

We live in a fallen world. Only in Heaven is everything done perfectly the way God intends. That is why we are told to pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is done in Heaven.” To fully understand Romans 8 28-29 you must consider it phrase by phrase.

“We know”: Our hope in difficult times is not based on positive thinking, wishful thinking, or natural optimism. It is a certainty based on the truths that God is in complete control of our universe and that He loves us.

“that God causes” There’s a Grand Designer behind everything. Your life is not the result of random chance, fate or luck. There is a master plan. History is His story. God is pulling the strings. We make mistakes, but God never does. God cannot make a mistake – because He is God.

“everything”: God’s plan for your life involves all that happens to you – including your mistakes, your sins, and your hurts. It includes illness, debts, disasters, divorce, and death of loved ones. God can bring good out of the worst evil. He did at Calvary.

“to work together”: Not separately or independently. The events in your life work together in God’s plan. They are not isolated acts, but interdependent parts of the process to make you like Christ. To bake a cake you must use flour, salt, raw eggs, sugar, and oil. Eaten individually, each is pretty distatseful or even bitter. But bake them together and they become delicious. If you will give God all your distatseful, unpleasant experiences, He will blend them together for good.

“for the good”: This does not say that everything in life is good. Much of what happens in our world is evil and bad, but God specialises in bringing good out of it. In the official family tree of Jesus Christ, four women are listed: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. Tamar seduced her father-in-law to get pregnant. Rahab was a prostitute. Ruth was not even Jewish and broke the law by marrying a Jewish man. Bathsheba committed adultery with David, which resulted in her husband’s murder. These were not exactly sterling reputations, but God brought good out of bad, and Jesus came through their lineage. God’s purpose is greater than our problems, our pain, and even our sin.

“of those who love God and are called”: This promise is only for God’s children. It is not for everyone. All things work for bad for those living in opposition to God and insist on having their own way.

“according to His purpose”: What is that purpose? It is that we “become like His Son.” Everything God allows to happen in your life is permitted for that purpose!

Extract from The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. (Page 195)