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The Greatest Promise of All Romans 8:28-30 |
September 19, 2004 Pastor Tom Marcum |
In just eight days we will be sending another group of men to Mexico on our latest home building mission. This project will be slightly different from our previous projects as we will be building a home for a local church pastor and his family.
One of the highlights from the men's mission trip last year involved our on-site lunches. Typically, our lunches are made at our mission base camp each morning and we take them with us to our work site. The standard lunch consists of a handful of chips, a piece of fruit, a couple of cookies and what must surely be the world's thinnest sandwiches. But last year, was different.
Throughout the morning, while we worked on the construction of the house, the mother in the family for whom we were building the house worked right along side us, preparing a hot lunch for us. So, all morning long we were treated to the wonderful aromas escaping from the iron pot she had simmering over her fire pit. And every day at noon, she would set out large bottles of iced cold coke and dish up simple but delicious home-style Mexican dishes.
While we enjoyed the food immensely, we were also concerned about the expense of her generosity. This family was incredibly impoverished. The looks on the faces of her children made it clear that she didn't have the resources to provide these kinds of meals for even her own family. We couldn't imagine how she could find the money to feed our group of 12 men like this.
When we returned to our base camp after our second day of work and our second wonderful lunch, we expressed our concern to our missionary host and she said she would check into it. The next evening, after our third delicious lunch, our missionary host told us that she had solved the mystery. She had learned that in the weeks prior to our arrival, the woman cooking for us had gone throughout her neighborhood telling people about the group coming to build her a new home and asking people if she could borrow a dollar or two so she could offer us a hot lunch every day, telling them she would pay them back when she could. She had actually gone into debt to provide those lunches for us.
Folks, the first 3 lunches she prepared for us were absolutely delicious. But, I bet you won't be surprised in the least to know that our appreciation of those meals, our enjoyment of the meal still to come and our love for that dear woman who fixed those meals grew exponentially when we learned the rest of the story…when we finally came to understand the extent of the planning, preparation and sacrifice that made those meals possible.
This morning, our journey through the book of Romans leads us to what is, for many, not only their most cherished verse in Romans but their most cherished verse in the entire Bible. And it's not hard to understand why that is. Romans 8:28 offers every Christian the incredible promise that God will work in their life in such a way that every single experience in their life will ultimately serve their good.
So, does that mean that Christians are going to be spared struggle, hardship, pain and tragedy? Absolutely not. What it means is that God will work in the life of every Christian in such a way that the struggles, hardships, pain and tragedies in their life will not ultimately lead to their undoing, but to their good. Romans 8:28 assures us that there is nothing we can experience in life that is beyond God's ability to redeem for our good.
Folks, could there be a greater promise than that? I don't know how. Every experience in your life will ultimately be of benefit to you. Every one of them. Folks, what promise could possibly be better than that?
The life that is built upon that promise as its foundation and the life absent that foundation are as different as night and day.
--With that promise there is confidence, security, stability, hope, joy and peace that cannot be shaken.
--Without that promise there is uncertainty, confusion, fear, anxiety and instability that cannot be escaped.
Folks, no wonder we treasure the promise of Romans 8:28. And folks, my hope this morning is that we will treasure it even more as we come to understand the foundation that this promise is built upon. Verses 29-30 show us the extent of God's planning, preparation and sacrifice that made the promise of verse 28 possible. So, my hope, today, is that even as our delight in those Mexican lunches and our love for the one who prepared them grew when we came to understand the whole story, so too, our delight in this incredible promise and our love for the one who made it will grow beyond measure as we come to understand the whole story.
So, let's dive into our text. Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
Folks, verse 28 does two things.
--First, it offers a promise. It promises that God is going to work in the lives of certain people to insure that every experience in their lives will ultimately work to their good.
--The second thing verse 28 does is identify the people to whom this amazing promise is offered. This promise is given to those people who "love God" and "have been called according to his purpose."
So, let me ask you a very important question--Do you love God? Do you truly love Him? Do you long to spend time with Him? Do you delight in worshiping Him? Do you set aside time to talk with Him and to listen to Him? Do you delight in the study of His word? Do you love God?
Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And He also said you can know what you love by looking at what you treasure. So, let me ask you--Is God your treasure? Is God the most valuable presence in your life?
Folks, the greatest promise ever spoken is given only to those who love God. And that means that your answer to that question is very important.
And that leads to the second important question that needs to be asked--Have you been called according to God's purpose? As we'll see in just a moment, Paul clarifies what he means here when he writes in verse 30, "those he called, he also justified."
The call that Paul is talking about here is that call from God that moves you from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive. It's the call that moves you out of spiritual darkness and into the light of God's truth. It's the call that that moves you to stop resisting God's invitation to salvation and trust Jesus to be your Savior.
So, when you put these two descriptive phrases together--"those who love God" and "have been called according to his purpose"--this is what you get: God offers this amazing promise to those people who at one time did not love Him, but now do love Him because God's call woke them from their spiritual sleep and empowered them to see the truth and respond to Him in faith.
Now, before we move on to the next verses we should ask one final question--What was Paul's point in adding the phrase, "according to his purpose?" Why didn't he just say that this promise is given to those who love God and have been called by God? Why does Paul add the words "according to his purpose?"
I believe that Paul's goal here is to drive home the point that this whole process comes about at God's initiative, not ours. Yes, God calls and we respond in faith, but that call originated in God's purposes, not ours. It was His idea, not ours. There would have been no response of faith from us if God's call had not first awakened us and made that faith response possible. In other words, God's call is an effective call. God's call empowers the very response that God is seeking from us.
Now, as we move on to verses 29-30 the first thing we need to notice is that verse 29 begins with the word, "for." It's an important word because it connects verse 28 to verses 29-30. It tells us that verses 29-30 are the foundation that the promise in verse 28 is built upon. So, verse 28 says, "we know that God is working for our good through all the circumstances of our lives," and verses 29-30 say, "And these are the reasons why we know that." And Paul identifies 5 very specific reasons for our confidence.
Beginning in verse 29 he writes, "For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified."
Let's look first at that word, "foreknew." It tells us that God had knowledge about something before it actually happened. So, what is it that God knew beforehand? He knew who His children were.
It's a mind-boggling concept for us because we are time-bound creatures, but God is not. You and I cannot help but think in terms of past, present and future, but God does not think like that. God is eternal. He has always been. He will always be. And He lives in what some have called, "the eternal now." It means that God experiences all of eternity in every moment of His existent. And that means, in part, that even before we existed God knew that we would be His children. Consequently, "we know that in all things God" will work for our good because He has had His eye on us for all of eternity. He claimed us as one of His own before history had even begun. We know He's working for our good.
Which brings us to the second key word in verse 29, "predestined." "For those he foreknew he also predestined…" As it's used here, "predestined," means that even before we existed God already had a very specific plan that He was going to accomplish in our lives. He "foreknew" that we would be His children and He planned the destiny of each of His children. Verse 29 says that we are "predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son." In other words, God is working in us to make us like Christ. That's our destiny.
2 Corinthians 3:18 says it like this, "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." God's Spirit is working in each of God's children to insure that we bear the family resemblance. He is making us like Christ.
And that's one more reason that, "We know that in all things God" will work for our good because our destiny is already determined, we've seen it and it's good. Even now God is working through the circumstances of our lives to make us like Christ.
And that brings us to a third key word, "called." Verse 30 says, "And those he predestined, he also called." We've already talked about the meaning of the word, "called," but let's take just a moment to see how it fits into the series of events we've seen so far.
Before history began God already knew the identity of His children and the destiny to which He would lead them--they would be like Christ. Then, as history began to unfold God began to call out to His children and one by one they…we…responded in faith.
How can we be so confident that, "in all things God" will work for our good? How about this--because, since before time began, He has been patiently waiting for us to get here just so He could call us to be His children. Folks, it's more than hope. We know that God is working for our good.
And that brings us to our next key word--"justified." "…those he called, he also justified..." As we made our way through the previous chapters of Romans we looked often at this word, "justified" because it is the central theme of those previous chapters. In short, the word justified refers to God's declaration that things have been made right between God and us. Here's how the process of justification works.
Because of our sin we stood guilty before God and the penalty for sin is death--to be sentenced to spend all of eternity in Hell, separated from the presence of God. But because of His love for us, while we were still sinners God allowed His only Son, Jesus--who had never sinned--to die on the cross and He accepted Jesus' death as payment in full for the penalty of our sin.
Everything that had to be done to make it possible for us to get right with God was done for us by Jesus. All God asks of us is that we believe…that we place our faith and trust in Jesus as our Savior. And the moment we do so God forgives our sin, He credits His own righteous to our account and He declares that we are justified.
How can we be so confident that, "in all things God" will work for our good? How about this--God was so determined to get us into His family that He was willing to allow His only Son to die to make it possible. Folks if He can bring good from something as unthinkably horrible as the death of Jesus, He can bring good from "all things."
And, that brings us to the word, "glorified." "Those he justified, he also glorified." The word "glorified," points to the time when God finally accomplishes in us the goal for which we were predestined. He predestined us, "to be conformed to the likeness of his Son," and when he glorifies us that process will be complete. We will not only reflect the glory of the Lord, we will also share in the glory of the Lord.
In Romans 8:17 Paul said that if we are God's children, "we are…heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ…that we may also share in his glory."
Then, in Romans 8:23 he told us that God's children eagerly anticipate, "the redemption of our bodies." That day when God frees us from the limitations of these slowly decaying bodies we currently occupy and gives us brand new spiritual bodies that are free of all imperfections.
So, when God glorifies His children He is going to do everything necessary to make it possible for us to see and experience as much of the beauty and wonders of His glory as is possible.
And, interestingly, even though this is a future event for us, Paul describes it here as if it had already taken place. Why? Because God has already decreed that this is our destiny and that means that it's as good as done.
How can we be so confident that, "in all things God" will work for our good? How about this--no amount of pain and hardship in this life will keep God from sharing His glory with us forever.
If you are a child of God, you have heard good news today. God promises to work for your good through every experience of your life. And how can we know that?
We know that God works in all things for our good not because we chose Him but because He chose us.
We know that God works in all things for our good because God is working out His plan in us.
We know that God works in all things for our good because He called us and we responded in faith.
We know that God works in all things for our good because He drew us into His family by the sacrifice of Jesus.
We know that God works in all things for our good because one day He will complete His work in us and we will be like Jesus.
We know that God works in all things for our good.
We know it. We know it.
© Copyright 2004 Pastor Tom Marcum