Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. I. THERE IS A SIDE ON WHICH THIS STATEMENT IS UNLIMITED. All things work for our good. The apostle, in this tremendously sweeping statement, is speaking about things external to us, and not what transpires within a man's own breast. , commenting on this passage, included under it even sin itself. His own experience helped him to see that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. What Paul does say, however, is that everything external to us is working for our good. The stars in their courses fight for the Israel of God. A Pagan view of life would tell us that we are placed in a world where law and necessity reign. Stern, hard-and-fast laws, like a huge machine, are grinding out their unalterable decrees. They may work out ill, but all we can do is to resign ourselves to the inevitable. That is not the Christian view of God's creation. One of the laws of God, one of the things that on this earth very nearly constitute a necessity, is — "If man does not work, neither shall he eat." Men have often fretted at such a law. The Christian accepts this law, and acknowledges that God's law of work is part of the great discipline of life. He would not have it otherwise, even though he could. It may need an exercise of faith to see that all these laws, which we call laws of nature, are working for our good; that the universe, with its great forces; the earth, with its lightnings; the sea, with its storms and shipwrecks, can do us no harm. Yet, when once we get a Christian view of the world, that is a certainty. These laws constitute the will of our heavenly Father. Let us now take a step further. Christ has helped us to see even in adversity a power working for good. Lastly, we may say that that which has been reckoned the great enemy of man — Death itself — is among the things that work together for good to them that love God. It is death that does for us the great service of perfecting our life. This Christian reading of life has been the death of death. Are we not now in a position to answer the question — "Do all things work for our good?" If our life is set upon mere physical happiness, then all things do not work for what we think our good. That is not the good for which things are working, But if we go deeper, and interpret by the good, the larger life, the maturer spirit, the holier existence, then there is a conspiracy in all things without to help us. II. THERE IS AN ASPECT IS WHICH THIS STATEMENT IS LIMITED. It is limited as regards persons — "to them that love God." Is there any need why this broad and general statement of Paul's should have any limitations whatsoever? Could we not say in the fullest sense that all things are working for good to all the children of men. There is nothing vindictive in God. "He maketh His sun," etc. God is no respecter of persons. "Are not My ways equal," saith the Lord. May not the explanation of the mighty difference in God's providence to those who love Him lie within the heart and not without? The laws of the Infinite are abiding and eternal. The manner in which they fall upon different men lies with the individual soul. The laws of God's universe are such that if a man is out of sympathy with God, all things seem to work against him. The further he is away from God, the more he is made to suffer. The selfish man who has been all his life long absorbed in schemes of self-aggrandisement; who has trampled on the rights of others, and been careless of their feelings, is at last met by such a body of adverse opinion that he is crushed. He set himself against God's law of true usefulness, and so in trying to save his life he loses it. A good sailor, with his hand on the helm, can pilot his little boat amid rough waters, and never ship a sea. The man who has no skill or knowledge has his boat struck by every wave, and ships sea after sea, until at last he suffers shipwreck. So do men by unwisdom, amid favourable enough conditions, make shipwreck of their souls. On the other hand, if we hearken to God, all God's creation will hearken to us. If we love God, we are in harmony with the whole working of God's universe. "For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." It is a hopeless struggle to fight against God, and the man who is on the side of the Almighty is not engaged in it. (D. Woodside, B.D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. |
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