Thank you for the cross, thank you for the nail pierced hands, the Darling of heaven crucified – worthy is the Lamb.
”Let that picture of the cross remain indelibly imprinted on your mind – so that it may influence every part of your life, every part of your thinking, every decision you make. There never has been a more remarkable and history-changing event than Myself – clothed In humanity, giving it all to the many, many beloved who I have and will still create, so that we can all join in the glorious kingdom of the new Heavens and the new Earth.
Romans ch 8 is written as a “chiastic”. It opens with a specific thought moves to another, then completes this second thought and finally finishes with the first thought. Something like double brackets. So today we read Romans 8:28 – 30, which completes the teaching about suffering as a cause for the reader to feel separated from God, the second bracket to the suffering teaching. Next week we will see the closing of the bracket about sin causing us to feel separated from God and then a summary refuting the whole idea of being separated from God.
Today’s passage is such a well-known passage that it is worth spending a whole session on it. Roman’s 8:28 is often easily quoted even by non-Christians. However it is often, subtly misquoted, even by our own brethren. It is a comforting thought that “in all things God works for the good”. That is where many stop however, claiming that as an assurance that everything is going to work out “allright” in the end. But there is much more to this idea as it should be read in it’s entirety.
There are two questions that need to be answered: 1. Who is this promise aimed at? And 2. What is the purpose of God’s “work”?
So we see that the promise is for “those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” This clearly defines the limits of this promise. It is not aimed at any and everyone who finds themselves in difficulties or suffering, because it is the initial statement of the bigger purpose of God’s work in the life of the believer, the one who has been adopted as a “Child of God”.
The rest of the paragraph describes God’s purpose then. The purpose that He is using suffering to complete. We have already seen in 5:3 that the purpose of suffering is to promote hope. Hope is the confident expectation and desire to see and experience of the glory that will be revealed in us. Then in 8:18, where Paul introduces his teaching on suffering there is the important statement that the way to deal with suffering is get our thinking into perspective, seeing the huge promise of glory one day as much greater than the pain of present suffering.
So what does the present paragraph then emphasize? It shows the process God is using to prepare the believer for the glory, which Paul mentioned before. Here is a useful illustration of this process that God is busy with. Imagine God is building each believer into a beautiful building, which will only be completed when we are with the Lord one day. Each phase is carefully planned to ultimately reveal this “perfectly glorious” building. But to build the building God, like any good builder, needs scaffolding to reach the building as it rises. The onlooker at that stage cannot see the building because the scaffolding is in the way. In our lives the scaffolding represents the suffering and difficulties we experience. They so often cloud our vision that we don’t see past them where the glorious building is being built. The way to cope with suffering then is to look past the scaffolding and remind ourselves of the glorious final product we will receive one day.
To God this process of preparing us for glory is far more important than our comfort and ease in this life. Seeing our whole lives in this perspective helps us to fit ourselves into God’s bigger purpose for each one of us. We will see further on that God is always “for us” and therefore will never hurt or harm us intentionally, but always seeks to complete us for His and our glory, eventually.
May He bless you as you think through this valuable teaching.