One and a Half Verses to Get to Know Better

Romans 8:28 doesn’t promise only good things will happen, but that God weaves even suffering, loss, and opposition into His greater plan for our ultimate good. With Paul, Joseph, and even the cross as examples, we can trust that no enemy or hardship will finally prevail, because if God is for us, nothing can stand against us. 

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Good Morning. Here’s a little-known fact for you as we begin. Romans 8, where our epistle lesson comes from, is probably the second most taught, preached and studied chapters of the Bible, behind only the 23^rd Psalm, which tells us how “the Lord is our Shepherd.” Unlike the 23^rd Psalm, which is meant as a message of comfort at funerals and times of distress, Romans 8 is a foundational text of God’s plan of salvation. And it’s full of great verses to commit to memory. I had to memorize the whole chapter for Seminary.

This morning, we’ll look especially close to 1 ½ of them which don’t necessarily mean what they look like they mean out of context. In Romans 8:28, Paul tells us We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, those who are called according to his purpose. Great encouraging verse.

We’ll begin though with a half verse and a question. Shortly after that, we have v. 31, the second half, which says If God is for us who can be against us? It sounds easy to answer, but it’s not. Remember context. Later, verse 36, Paul says, For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. I presume that those who kill us are against us. Paul was beheaded for the Gospel.

In Luke, Jesus says I will give you a mouth and wisdom, . . . and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. 

So we have Jesus saying in the same sentence, “You will be hated, you may be killed, but not a hair of your head will perish!” Important context.

So, if God was for Paul, was anyone against him? Yes, but not with final success. They killed Paul. But somehow, both Jesus and Paul feel that not a hair of Paul’s head perished. So, what are they talking about? Seems important!

When Romans 8:28 says that all things work together for good for those who love God, looking at Paul’s life, we have a taste of the kinds of things that are included in the “all things.” It is not always good things. It is all things. And all things includes both good things and bad things, like martyrdom.

The whole context both before and after Romans 8:28 is a list of bad things. Two weeks ago, we read in the how Romans 8:17 says we will be glorified with Christ if we suffer with him. Verse 18 says that the sufferings of this present time which we will undergo are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed to us. Even all of creation groans in pain because of sin. It goes on into this lesson until, in verse 35, it says there is going on tribulation and distress and persecution and famine etc..

But in the middle of all this, verse 28 says, “All this suffering and futility and bondage, works together for good for those who love God.” Yes, there will be many enemies. Yes, there will be many adversaries and obstacles and miseries. But, No, in all these things we are more than conquerors because of the love of God in Christ. Nothing will finally succeed against us.

Over and over in the Bible and in history, the truth of Romans 8:28 is witnessed by the people of God. There is no better example of bad things leading to the good than the cross.

But lets look at one famous example from the first book of the Bible. In Genesis we find the story of Joseph.

His brothers hated him because he had a dream that someday he will reign over them. They throw him into a pit and then sell him into slavery in Egypt.

But Joseph prospers in Potiphar’s house as a slave, until Potiphar’s wife lies about him and accuses him of attempted rape. So Joseph is put in prison. Even worse. But in prison things go so well that the jailer trusts him to run the prison. He interprets a dream for Pharaoh’s butler, but the butler forgets for years how he helped.

Finally, after about seventeen years of nothing working together for any lasting good for Joseph, he interprets a dream for Pharaoh and Pharaoh rewards him by making him a kind of vice Pharaoh in charge of all the food and economics in the land just before a seven-year famine comes. He prepares Egypt!

The famine brings his family in from Canaan and so the brothers who hated him and tried to get rid of him come on their knees to him for food. Only they don’t recognize him, what a story. The point of the story is given in Genesis 50:20. Joseph says to his brothers, As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. Not just Joseph’s family, not just the Egyptians, but all of the people from other lands who came to Egypt for food, as the famine was over all of the Middle East, and only Egypt had food in reserve.

Joseph’s life is an Old Testament version of Romans 8:28. God used the evil things done to his servant Joseph, but worked them together for the good of all of the children of Israel. His being sold into slavery. His being wrongly thrown into prison. All these put him in the right place. Go

And I hope you can think of trials in your life that have brought blessings and understandings on the other side you would never would have seen otherwise.

Years later, Paul would describe the effect of his false imprisonment in chains this way:

I want you to know that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are more bold to speak the word without fear.

All things, including jail, work for our good and God’s glory.

What effect should this have on us? For Paul he is hoping that those who read his epistle will want to see that even in trials, they can trust God. If God is for you, who can be against you.

He works everything for your good, if you trust his Son.

It’s God saying: “Whatever happens, I’ve got you.

Whatever comes, I’ll use it for good.

Whatever enemies rise up, they won’t win in the end, because I am for you.”

And if God is for us—who can be against us?