Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Romans 8:28-29 ... And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
IN CONTEXT: WE KNOW THAT ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD (2)
This holy word from God means more than "You gotta take the good with the bad" or "You gotta make the best of things, looking on the good side." (Yet, if a Christian believer puts it like that in simple faith, he or she has it right!)
When the apostle Paul writes, "…We know…", He says that not necessarily on the basis of personal experience but on the basis of God's revelation of Himself in His Word. "We know" because the Holy Spirit has convinced us that all things work together for our good. The Bible not only tells us God is love (1 John 4:8), but also that He has shown that love for poor sinners by sending His unique Son into this fallen world on a rescue mission.
Note carefully that all things work together--or cooperate--for the good of those "who are the called according to His purpose." Paul tells us what God's purpose is by taking us back even before the beginning of time, saying: "... For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren."
Wonder of wonders, God's loving purpose is to make each of His children into images or copies of His own eternal Son! Jesus came into this sinful world, suffered and died an innocent death for our sins, and then rose as the firstborn from the dead. Now all who believe in Jesus shall follow Him through this life into life eternal.
Beloved, "It is well!" God's ways are always right,
And perfect love is o'er them all Tho' far above our sight.
Beloved, "It is well!" The path that Jesus trod,
Tho' rough and strait and dark it be, Leads home to heav'n and God.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 519:1, 4)
