May 17, 2010

We Know ...

I suppose that Romans 8.28 is one of the more well-known verses in all of the Bible. Perhaps you have it memorized. If you attend Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church, you’d better! I think it probably gets quoted at least twice a month, either in the prayer meeting, the classroom, or the pulpit! So go ahead and say it to yourself, from memory. Come on, I know you can do it. Here’s a hint: “God causes all things to …”

Okay, I’ll finish it for you if you’re struggling to get it just right. “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” See, I told you that you probably had it memorized, at least in a summary way. And it’s a wonderful verse, isn’t it? All things for good? Even the worst things? Yes … if you belong to God. It’s one of the greatest promises in the Bible. And we could spend a couple month’s worth of this article space unpacking the beauty of this verse!

But let me just make one point … namely that, if you’re like me, you probably tend to overlook the first four words of the verse. In fact, you may not have even noticed, above, that I left the first four words out. How does the verse actually read? “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Can you say those first four words with confidence? Whatever it is that you are struggling with, worrying about, fretting over, grieving for right now … can you say: ‘I “know that God” will work this for my good’?

How do “we know” that? Well, for some of us, because we have already lived through enough to have seen, first-hand, that it’s true. We’ve seen God take fears, and use them to draw us to Himself. We’ve seen Him take heartaches, and use them to bring our family closer together around His word. We’ve seen Him use times of difficulty to remind us that this world is not our home. We’ve seen Him use great pain and trial to remind us how special it is to have the church family. We’ve seen Him restore us and even mature us through our greatest stumbles into sin. And the list could go on. When you have walked, as a child of God, through the valley of the shadow of death, you know Romans 8.28 is true.

But what if you are still young? Or what if you are a new Christian and you haven’t yet gone through any very steep valleys? Can you still say: I “know that God causes all things to work together for good”? Yes you can! You don’t have to have deeply experienced it yet in order to know that “all things for good” is true. After all, it’s right here in the pages of Scripture! So, whether we feel like we’ve experienced it or not, we know that Romans 8.28 is true!

Now that is important to remember. Because, when you are in the midst of the valley, you won’t always feel that God is working everything for your good. On the back side of the trials, it may become a great deal more plain. But in the dark valley, it is hard to see. So you have to “know that God causes all things to work together for good” not simply by sight, but by faith. When experience seems to give no evidence, you need to “know that God causes all things to work together for good” simply because He has made you a promise … and because God never breaks His promises!

Finally, how do “we know that God causes all things to work together for good”? Come with me to the cross. Here is the farthest extreme to which the words “all things” can be pushed. For nothing could be more dreadful, more awful than the Son of God being spit upon, beaten with rods, mocked, and lashed with bone-tipped cords until His back looked like ground meat. Nothing pushes the idea of “all things” to its limit like the Son of God being thrown on the ground, tied to a giant stake, and then nailed in place for good measure. But you tell me … does God really work “all things” for the good of His people? Isn’t our whole life bound up in those cords with which He was whipped? Doesn’t our eternal destiny hang on those nails? Doesn’t all that is ultimately good depend upon and flow from this most horrifying of historical events?

Dear Christian, no matter what you experience in this world; no matter how far the words “all things” may someday stretch you … you will never suffer like Jesus suffered. You will never be treated so brutally and unjustly. So if you are ever tempted to doubt whether this event or that really has any good purpose, walk again to the hill called Calvary. Search the wounds. See your life – your forgiveness; your heaven; your relationship with the Father – all flowing to you in the blood of Jesus. And as you look on Jesus, you will be able to say with certainty: “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am glad to have lived long enough to know this truth from experience...but even gladder to have been, to go with some regularity, to that awful, horrible, wonderful place--the Cross--and behold, again and again, my Saviour...MY SAVIOUR...suffering anguish, giving ALL that Justice demanded for me..that I could-would hope in Him; that I could-would live for Him here in this life because I am united with Christ, in Christ. How great is my debt; how delightful the privilege to love and serve Him in return. Indeed, how sweet are these words, "and we know."
Kathy S.