Romans 8:28
Today we come to one of the most
popular and most loved promises in the Bible: Romans 8:28.
“We know that all things work together for good
for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (NRSV)
Perhaps along with John 3:16 and
Psalm 23, this verse has helped people to face life difficulties and challenges
with confidence. In fact, all the rest of chapter 8 can be seen as Paul’s
effort to help us understand and believe this truth: all things will work for good
for those who love God and who are called according to his purpose. Today we
will explore Romans 8:28 together and study what this promise really means to
us.
God’s Promise for Christians
First of all, this promise that God
is working for people’s good is not for everyone. There are two things that need to be true for this
promise to apply to us. This promise is for those (1) who love God and (2) who are
called according to God’s purpose. These are not two separate groups of people.
This is one group of people with two things true of them. In fact, here Paul
gives a definition of what it means to be a Christian. Two weeks ago we focused
on Romans 8:9-10. There Paul defines a Christian as a person who is inhabited by
Christ, under the sway of Christ, and owned by Christ. And now here in verse 28 Paul
defines a Christian as a person who loves
God and is called according to God’s purpose. And now our question is this:
why does Paul mention these two things to be a Christian and to be true for
this promise to apply to us?
Prevenient Grace
First, Christians are “called” people. God calls his people according to
his purpose. Before we ever reach out to God, God reaches out to us. Before we
know God, he first loves us. 1 John 4:10 says, “This is love: not that we loved
God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our
sins.” John Wesley called this prevenient
grace, the grace of God that calls us, invites us into a loving
relationship with God. Prevenient grace creates within us a desire to know and
love God. It leads us to repentance, sorrow over sin and the realization that
we are unable to save ourselves. It empowers us to say “Yes” to God’s
invitation. God does not force us into belief or faith. We have a choice to
accept or reject God’s grace. But when we say yes to God, our loving,
life-giving relationship with God begins. James Small beautifully describes God’s
prevenient grace in this way:
I’ve found a friend, O such a
friend!
He loved me ere I knew Him;
He drew me with the cords of love,
And thus He bound me to Him;
And round my heart still closely twine
Those ties which naught can sever,
For I am His, and He is mine,
Forever and forever
Last week we heard the story of
Stephnie Fast. Even after she was adopted and her parents talked about the love
of God, she still thought, “He can’t love me! I was raped. He can’t love me! I
was abused. He can’t love me! I have this awful anger inside. He can’t love me!
My daddy says I need to forgive, and I just don’t want to.” But that night
Stephanie came to the realization: “He… loves… me! He loves me as I am!” This
is God’s grace that calls us into a loving relationship with him. This is God’s
grace that is greater than all our shame and guilt and sin!
Justifying Grace
When we say yes to God’s grace, we
receive God’s justifying grace, the
grace of God by which, through faith in Christ, we are set right with God. Justifying
grace points to Jesus as our Savior, Lord, and Treasure. It gives us assurance,
“I’m forgiven! I’m accepted! I’m beloved by God because of what Jesus has done
for me!” And we fall in love with Jesus. That naturally leads to the second
definition of a Christian. Christians are
those who love God who is fully and perfectly revealed in Jesus Christ. Christians,
regardless of nationality, race, age, or gender, have one thing in common. They
have a story to tell. We, Christians, have our love story with Jesus: how he saved
us, how he healed us, how he picked us up and turned us around. We have our “before
and after” story. We have assurance of pardon. We have “born-again” experience.
Last week I attended Asian
Commission Retreat. On the second day we had time to share our conversion and
call story with each other. It was so rich and powerful. Each person had a
unique story to tell. But whatever the story was, the one main theme kept
occurring: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! (Romans 5:8) And by
God’s grace we came to realization that Jesus loved us just as we were. That changed
us inside out forever. And then, we just fell in love with Jesus. Because we
loved him so much, we wanted to obey him and put our lives at his disposal. These
were the main stories of ours. One of the pastors there used a Lego metaphor as
he shared his story. When we have a Lego set, we can make whatever we want, many
different things, with those pieces. But if we want to use every single piece
for the best, we’d better to follow the assembling instructions in the manual.
Then, we will finally have the masterpiece the same as the one on the cover
picture. At the end the pastor said, “I loved Jesus so much. So I closely
looked at all the pieces that I had – all my gifts. And I sensed that I was
called to ministry.” Christians are those
who love God and live their life in a manner worthy of their calling according
to God’s purpose.
Sanctifying Grace
Romans 8:28 promises that “all
things” work together for good for Christians. All things, not just the easy things or the good things, but the hard
things and the bad things. In other words, here Paul is not saying all things
are good. He is saying all things, including all the bad things, are turned by
God for good. It means that God makes
all things work together for good for Christians. In this process we grow in
the faith. We grow in our love for God. Our will becomes more and more one with
God’s. Wesley called this sanctifying grace, the grace that changes our hearts,
our minds, our wills, our ideas, our hopes, our goals, to naturally do God’s
will. Wesley said sanctifying grace pushes out the “love of the world, the love
of pleasure, of ease, of hounor, of money; together with pride, anger,
self-will, and every other evil temper.”[1]
In today’s scripture, verse 30,
Paul lays out the process by which God conforms his children, Christians, to
the likeness of his Son. This is a glorious, unbreakable chain. “For those whom
he foreknew, he also predestined; those whom he predestined,
He also called; and those whom he called, he also justified; and those whom he justified, he also glorified.” Five verbs, five undeniable affirmations. Here Paul
speaks of our future glorification in the past
tense. Why? Because it is so certain as if it were past, although it is
still future. It is a so-called ‘prophetic past’ tense. James Denney writes
that ‘the tense in the last word, “glorified” is amazing. It is the most daring
anticipation of faith that even the New Testament contains.”[2] This
process of holiness, this process of the Christian life, is like a chain of
five links, and each of them is unbreakable because of God’s grace – prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace of God!
A Message for You!
Today we observe International Day of
Prayer for the Persecuted Church. When I think about the persecuted church, for
me personally, one story of our Christian brothers and sisters in North Korea
always comes to my mind. In 1974, a North Korea newspaper article proclaimed
the government had finally killed off the last remnant of Christian believers
in the country. For almost two decades about 30 brave Christians had lived
underground. They would sleep underground during the day. At night they would
leave their hiding place to collect tree roots they could eat. Around that time
the communists were working on making a new road as their leader Kim Il Sung
was planning to visit. During construction, they uncovered the hiding place of
the underground Christians. They were told to lie down on the road, and the
officials ordered a steamroller to run over the prostate Christians. To
maximize the pain, the steamroller started by rolling over their feet and then
up toward their heads. As the Christians waited for their death, one of them
began to sing this song. Then the others joined their voices.[3]
More love to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee!
Hear Thou the prayer I make on bended knee.
This is my earnest plea: More love, O Christ, to Thee;
More love to Thee, more love to Thee!
Some of us may say, with fear, what if I give up? What if I suffer for Alzheimer’s disease and stop believing? What if my children’s love for God grows
cold and dies and they stop believing? What
ifs…? The answer is: remember and believe today’s promise. By his grace God
will strengthen you, help you, and sustain you. By his grace God will make all
things work together for good. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you
will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you
into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful! (1 Cor 1:8-9).
God’s grace is always enough and active in our lives. What we need today is to
say “Yes” to God. What we need today is to repent. What we need today is to
respond to God’s love and reorient our lives in love and service to God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us make our earnest plea together, “More
love to Thee, O Christ! Let me fall in love with you! Let me stay in love with
you always!” He who calls you is
faithful. He will surely do it.
[1]
David Watson and William Abraham, Key
United Methodist Beliefs (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2013), 77.
[2]
John Stott, The Message of Romans: God's
Good News for the World (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 253.
[3]
North Korea: Good News Reaches the Hermit Kingdom (Living Sacrifice Book
Company, 2008), 45-46.
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