Passage: Romans 8:28
The Big Idea
God promises to work all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. God is truly in control, and God is truly good. Like a baker mixing ingredients that taste awful on their own, He works all things together into something good. Joseph’s story shows it: betrayed, enslaved, falsely accused and forgotten, he kept trusting that God was with him, and he could finally say, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” Joseph points to Jesus, whose suffering became our salvation. Our trials train us to lean on Him and grow in grace.
God Is in Control, and God Is Good (8:28)
We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).
Another translation puts it: God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love Him.
What is this about? God is truly in control. And God is truly good. Can both be true in the same universe?
There’s no contradiction with God. In our minds it can feel full of contradictions, but God sees clearly.
Like a Baker
He works all things together.
Think of a baker mixing ingredients. Mixed together and baked, they become a delicious cookie. But taste them one at a time, flour, salt, baking soda, raw egg, and they’re awful.
Or think of an artist or author who uses many different elements, some dark, some light, to create something beautiful.
God is doing the same. But can we believe it when we’re going through something hard?
It’s hard to stay focused on the truth when life feels out of control. Some of us tend to fixate on the painful thing right in front of us, and it’s hard to let it go and remember that all things are working for our good. It’s hard to believe God is there on the days we need Him most. We get frustrated and upset. We even wonder, “Why was I born? Why did God put me here?”
Remember Joseph
Someone in the Bible went through something much worse, and it always helps to remember him: Joseph.
- He was the second-youngest of twelve brothers, and his father’s favorite. His brothers were jealous.
- They threw him into a pit and sold him as a slave to traders headed for Egypt.
- He became the slave of Potiphar. Alone and betrayed, he may have felt God had abandoned him too. But Joseph kept believing God was with him.
- He served Potiphar so well that he was put in charge of the whole household.
- Then Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him. Joseph refused. He still believed God was with him.
- She lied about him, and he was thrown into prison. Joseph still believed God was with him. Soon he was running the prison.
- Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker were imprisoned, and Joseph interpreted their dreams.
- Later Pharaoh had a dream, heard about Joseph and called for him. Joseph interpreted it and was made ruler over all Egypt, second only to Pharaoh.
- Then his family came down, and he cared for them and for everyone who needed food in the famine.
Joseph kept his eyes on God through every “bad ingredient.” Listen to what he told his brothers: they had meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, to save many lives (Genesis 50:20).
Joseph’s life had crazy twists and turns. It would have been easy to give up and stop trusting God was with him. It’s always easier to give up, but it’s better to trust that God is with me through every up and down.
Joseph Points to Jesus
Joseph is a picture of Jesus.
- Jesus was also rejected by His own, and He trusted God when He was handed over to die.
- On the cross He prayed Psalm 22: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
- Jesus trusted His Father through it all. Yet on the cross, as He bore our sin, He experienced being forsaken, so that we never will be. He was abandoned so that God will never have to leave us (Hebrews 13:5).
- And Jesus rose from the dead! His new life is ours, just as His death was for us.
What do we do with this new life? Grow in grace, like a field of grain growing a great harvest.
Light Affliction, Eternal Glory
Paul says everything is for our sake, so that grace, spreading to more and more people, may cause thanksgiving to overflow to God’s glory. So we don’t lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For our light, momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond comparison (2 Corinthians 4:15-17).
- When we believe God’s love and trust Him, His life is ours. That takes humility and faith.
- We receive the life of Jesus poured into us. That’s grace.
- It isn’t the outside that’s being renewed, but the inside. And trials help us lean into Jesus.
- We learn He’s faithful by trusting Him in hard situations.
- He has always been faithful and always will be. But there are still dark corners of our hearts that doubt it, and God is willing to fight to bring His light into every one.
How Can a Bad Situation Be Good?
Paul says we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope (Romans 5:3-4).
- Grace works many things in our lives.
- Whenever something hard happens, we can rejoice, knowing God has identified a need in us that He wants to meet, and He fully intends to supply the grace to transform us.
- Notice Paul says we. We’re meant to go through life together, helping each other and bearing each other’s burdens (Galatians 6:2).
What About Death?
Paul wrote from prison that he was confident it would turn out for his deliverance through their prayers and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Whether by life or by death, Christ would be magnified in his body. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. He longed to depart and be with Christ, which is far better (Philippians 1:19-23).
Even death is good for the believer!
For Those Who Love Him
This promise is for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. When we choose to receive Jesus instead of rejecting His offer of grace and forgiveness, we’re in His plan, and everything will work together for our good.
Grace Takeaway
You may be tasting a bitter ingredient right now, something that on its own seems senseless or cruel. But God isn’t finished mixing. He took the worst thing ever done, the crucifixion of His Son, and worked it into the greatest good. He can do the same with your story. Like Joseph, keep trusting that God is with you. One day you’ll see what He was making.
← Suffering, Glory and Walking in the Spirit | All Romans notes