PART 2: Can we still believe in Romans 8:28?

We continued on Part 2 of this Sunday,  We again had a great deal of discussion.

 Can we still believe in Romans 8:28?

So many things in life seem unexplainable. Why does a tornado destroy one house and leave another untouched? Why does one brother excel while another struggles all his life? Why does a tumor come back when the doctor said he thought he got it all? The list of such questions is endless. Seen in isolation, they make no sense whatsoever. If there is a purpose behind such tragedy, we cannot see it.

 

Our danger is that we will judge the end by the begin­ning. Or, to be more exact, we judge what we cannot see by what we can see. When tragedy strikes, if we can’t see a purpose, we assume there isn’t one.

 

But the very opposite is true. We ought to judge the begin­ning by the end. Here is where Romans 8:28 gives us some real help. Paul says, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good.” The phrase work together in Greek is where we get our English word synergy from it. And what is synergy? It is what happens when you put two or more elements together to form something brand new that neither could form separately. It’s what happens when I make a big pot of Brenda’s enchilada soup.  I put a bunch of different ingredients in the soup.  Several I would never eat by themselves – hominy – ugh, Rotel – hot, so I don’t think so, cumin, no way. But all combined together make for a great pot of soup.  That’s synergy–the combination of many elements to produce a positive result. (BTW:  See end of lesson for recipe.)

 

That’s what Paul means when he says that God causes all things to “work together." Many of the things that make no sense when seen separately are in fact working together to produce something good in our life. There is a divine syn­ergy even in the darkest moments, a synergy that produces something positive. And the “good” that is ultimately pro­duced could not happen any other way.

 

Paul is saying that our experience is like making soup. God begins with the different materials of life, including some parts that seem to serve no good purpose. Like “cumin”.  When putting all the items in the pot and applying heat we get good results.  That is how we must look at life. We must not judge the end by the beginning, but rather the beginning by the end.

 

Can we still believe in Romans 8:28? Yes, we can. But we need a long-term perspective.

 

This is the crux of the matter. Paul says that “all things work together for good.” But what is the “good” he is talking about? For most of us, “good” equals things like health, hap­piness, solid relationships, long life, money, food on the table, meaningful work, and a nice place to live. In general, we think the “good” life means a better set of circumstances.

 

Once again, that’s not necessarily the biblical viewpoint. In this case we don’t have to wonder what Paul means. He defines it for us in the very next verse: “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son” (Romans 8:29). That makes it very clear. God has a plan for each of his children. That certain end is the “good” of Romans 8:28. It is that we might be like Jesus.

 

Put plainly, God is at work in our life making us like Jesus. IF we let him! Anything that makes us more like Jesus is good. Anything that pulls us away from Jesus is bad. When Paul says that all things work together for good, he is not saying that the tragedies and heartaches of life will always produce a better set of circumstances. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. But God is not committed to making us happy and successful. He is committed to mak­ing us like his Son so that we can be with him for eternity. And whatever it takes to make us more like Jesus is good.

 

Everything that happens to us-the tragedies, the unexplained circumstances, even the stupid choices we make-all of it is ingredients for God to make us like His son. He will not give up even when we do.

 

The main problem we have fully understanding Romans 8:28. Our good and God’s good are not the same. We want happi­ness and fulfillment and peace and long life. Meanwhile, God is at work in us and through us and by everything that happens to us to transform us into the image of his Son.

Does that include the worst that happens to us? Yes.
Does that include the things that hurt us deeply? Yes.
Does that include the times when we are heartbroken? Yes.
Does that include the times when we sin? Yes.
Does that include the times when we doubt God? Yes.
Does that include the times when we curse him to his face? Yes.

He is always at work. He is never deterred by us. Noth­ing happens to us outside his control. God use all these things even when we don’t believe it.

 

There are many things we don’t know. We don’t know why babies die or why cars wreck or why planes crash or why families break up or why good people get sick and suddenly die. But this we do know-God is at work, and he has not forgotten us.

 

Can we still believe in Romans 8:28? Yes, but we must properly define what “good” means.

We must understand limitation of this verse. Notice the last phrase of Romans 8:28. It is a promise to “those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” That is an all-important limitation. This verse is true of Christians and only of Christians. It is not a blanket promise to the whole human race. Why? Because God’s pur­pose is to make his children like his Son.

 

This raises a very important question:  Have we ever responded to God’s call?  We either answer “Yes” or “No” to this question.  There is no middle ground.  Until we can answer “Yes”, this verse does not apply to us.

 

Can we still believe in Romans 8:28? It sounds good. We want to believe it.

 

We can believe in Romans 8:28 as long as we keep two things in mind.

 

1. We must not try to explain the unexplainable.

Sometimes in our zeal to protect God, we try to explain why bad things happen to good people. That’s almost always a bad idea. We are like little children looking into the face of an infinitely wise Father. It is not possible that we should understand all he does. It is enough that we love him and know that he is there. We need to be very careful with our feeble attempts to justify the mysterious ways of God. Better to say nothing than to speak of things we know nothing about.

 

2. We must understand that God’s values and our values are not always the same.

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.   “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.  For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

God values His children – their souls and where they will spend eternity.  We tend to value things like houses, jobs, cars, vacation and the list could go on and on. We must understand that we will often not understand at all. Let’s be clear on this point. We are not called to praise God for evil, sin, and death. But we can praise God for the good he can work in the dark­est days of life. Romans 8:28 is not teaching us to call evil good or simply to smile through the tears and pretend everything is OK. But it is teaching us that no matter what happens to us-no matter how terrible, no matter how unfair-our God is there. He has not left us.

 

Can we still believe in Romans 8:28? Let answer this question with another. What is our alternative? If we don’t believe in Romans 8:28, what do we believe in? Fate? Chance? The impersonal forces of nature?

 

This does not answer every question. But it does answer the big question: Does God know what he is doing? Yes, he does, and we know him, and that is enough.

 

 

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ENCHILADA SOUP

 

2 lbs. ground chuck - Brown meat, drain of grease and add a teaspoon of cumin and chopped onions. Cook until onion is “clear”.  Then add this mixture to pot and then these ingredients:

 

2 cans      -     Pinto beans w/jalepanos (Trappey’s)

2 cans      -     Hominy (white or yellow)

2 pkgs     -      Taco seasoning (El Paso)

2 pkgs      -     Hidden Valley Ranch Party DIP mix

1 sm.can  -     Green Chilies (chopped, El Paso)

2 cans      -     Rotel (mild but can use hotter if desired) This is what will make soup “hot”

2 cans      -     Black Beans (Green Giant)

4 or 5 cups of water *

 

Cook for about an hour.

*My pot will not hold that much water, so I rinse several cans out with water and add to mixture. Then I add more water as it cooks -- if it needs more.