Text: Romans 8:28-30
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Want to See the Blueprint for Your Life?
I. It’s all for your good (v. 28)
II. It begins and ends in eternity (vv. 29-30)
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ,
People often ask me the difference between the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, which Living Word in Petaluma is a member of, and the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, which Christ Lutheran in Windsor is a member of. Both synods teach and believe the same things about God, the Bible, and salvation. The only difference, really, is in their backgrounds. The Wisconsin Synod is German in background, and the ELS is Norwegian.
They each also have their own unique history. A defining feature of ELS history occurred way back in the 1880s when there was no ELS, just the Norwegian Synod. Another occurred in 1917, when the church body that would become the ELS broke off from the Norwegian Synod. Both of these significant events centered on the doctrine of election. This is a teaching that is very easily misunderstood. But it’s also a teaching which is full of comfort for the Christian when understood correctly. Its roots are found in the verses we look at today. Want to see the blueprint for your life? Here it is. It’s all for your good. And it begins and ends in eternity.
I. [It’s all for your good.] But wait. How can God’s blueprint for my life be for my good? Life can be so difficult. We saw this in the Old Testament lesson from Job this morning. Earlier in this same chapter of Romans, chapter 8, Paul discusses how difficult life can be, especially for Christians. And we see it in our own lives.
It’s not easy when we face financial difficulties, is it? When we barely have enough money to scrape by. It’s not easy when we face relationship problems, whether it’s marriage difficulties, or our relationships with friends, family members, or co-workers. And the worst problem we have is the sin that we all face all day, every day. When we sin we hurt ourselves, we hurt those around us, and most importantly, we hurt our relationship with God. And this leads to eternal punishment.
Paul writes that “God works all things for the good of those who love Him.” But sin causes us to doubt that this even applies to us. Because of the sin that we’ve committed countless times, we’re left to ask ourselves, “Have I really loved God?” We’ve acted unlovingly towards Him and our neighbor countless times. And so can this possibly apply to me?
And yet, having faith, this comfort is for us. The doubt which I just mentioned is a trick of the devil. The verse says that “In all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” He works all things for the good of those who are called according to His purpose. In other words, those who have faith in Christ as their Savior..
Let’s look at Joseph in the Old Testament. His brothers sold him into slavery. How many of us can say we’ve had that horrible experience? I mean, my brothers and I didn’t always treat each other the very best, but we certainly never sold each other into slavery! And then he gets there, gets a good job with Pharaoh’s captain of the guard, and the captain’s wife falsely accuses Joseph of coming on to her! So he ends up in prison! Talk about a rough life! And yet he had faith. And God was working everything for his good. God helped him to eventually rise in power to become the most powerful person in Egypt behind Pharaoh. And then God used him to help people all over the Middle East who were struck by a famine. God used the difficult situation for the good of Joseph, the good of his family, and the good of the whole Middle East. And really, He used that situation even for our good. Because of Joseph, the line of our Savior Jesus was preserved.
But Joseph went through years of difficult times for him to realize why things were happening the way they were. Sometimes it takes us years to realize why we go through the difficult things that we do. And sometimes we never see why it is. Remember Job in the Old Testament? He lost his whole family, all his possessions, and was infected with painful sores? As far as we’re told, he never found out why that was. And yet how many countless people today, and in the thousands of years since it was recorded, have found comfort in that account? But Job never saw that. The point being that we don’t always see the reason we go through tough times. But we hold, in faith, to what Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, says to us. God works all things for our good… for the good of those who love Him.
This is a great comfort for the Christians. I have a friend and classmate who is in his last classroom semester right now. His wife is 28 weeks pregnant with their first child, but this past week it was discovered that she has a form of stomach cancer. So this evening they are planning to induce her. God willing she will give birth to a healthy 28 week old child, but shortly thereafter will begin chemotherapy. That’s a tough situation! When her husband Paul wrote an update email this past week, he closed it with this passage. “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him.”
What a comfort that is! To know that everything in our lives is happening for our good and for the good of God’s kingdom. Recently, I had a different friend who was going through some tough times and made the comment that “Eventually everything will be okay.” But here’s Paul’s point. No matter how difficult life gets, no matter what you’re going through, everything is okay right now. Everything is working according to God’s plan, according to His blueprint for the world. We just can’t see that whole blueprint right now. We only see the tiny time and place that we’re in. If we could see God’s whole blueprint, we’d have a different perspective. So Paul unrolls the blueprint and offers us at least a little insight into God’s plan for the world, and for us. And it stretches from eternity to eternity.
II. [It begins and ends in eternity.] Before the creation of the world, God knew you. And He didn’t just know you in some vague sort of way, like how we know some of those people at our big family reunions. He knew and knows us intimately. Even to the point where He knows how many hairs we have on our heads.[1] Most importantly, God knew, from before time began, that we would be called to be His children.
And Paul writes that “For those God foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.” Predestination is a word we don’t hear too often in everyday life. It refers to the Bible’s teaching that God elected Christians from eternity. He “destined” us to hear the Gospel of Christ, to believe it, and to receive all of its blessings. Some church bodies say God predestined some to heaven and some to hell. This leads to the idea that God gets the glory for salvation, but also the blame for condemnation. This says more than the Bible does… especially since it says that “God wants all men to be saved.”[2]
Other church bodies say that He elects some people because He knows they will “choose” Him. This doesn’t blame Him for those that reject faith. But it also doesn’t give Him all the credit for those who are saved. This belief makes faith a good work, and a cause of salvation. This was actually the issue in the two controversies that the ELS faced a hundred years ago.
Meanwhile, Lutheranism just holds to what the Bible says. The word “predestination” occurs 6 times in the Bible, and they are all used in reference to God’s plan, or purpose, of salvation. God predestines “the elect” to heaven. Grace is freely offered to all. Unfortunately, because of the hardness of the sinful human heart, some reject it. For those who are not saved, it is their own fault. Christians have the same sinful human heart, but by God’s grace, we are blessed with faith which receives that salvation. At some point, this doesn’t all make perfect sense to the human mind. But, as Martin Luther says, we take off our little hats, and admit that we can’t comprehend all of God’s ways.
We focus on the fact that, completely by the grace of God, we’ve been called by the Word of God, by the Holy Spirit, to faith. We’re called to believe in the greatest gift we’ve ever been given… the gift of innocence. To believe that Jesus Christ did indeed live a perfect life and die an innocent death… for my sins. And by faith in this message, we are declared innocent, not guilty, in God’s sight. That’s what it means to be justified. Having been called to faith, we’re called to “conform to Christ’s likeness”—to follow and serve Him, to bring glory to His name, and to become like Him (like Christ). And we’re called to be glorified, like our brother Christ.
And that’s the final piece of the blueprint that Paul gives us. “Those He justified, He also glorified.” The word “glorified” is past tense. God has promised it, it is as good as done. We share in God’s glory right now through faith. We are empowered by the Word here on earth and we have a sure foundation in Christ, by faith in Him. And while we still do encounter these difficulties in life, as I mentioned before, we live with the sure guarantee that our glory will be fully realized in heaven. There we will live in perfection for eternity.
Is there any doubt that this applies to us? No. Not as long as we keep our eyes focused on Christ in faith. We know that God wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.[3] Are we included in all people? Yes we are. So He wants you and me to be saved. We can also be sure that Christ has done everything needed for our salvation. In another of his epistles, Paul writes, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”[4] Christ has done everything for us. Believing this, Jesus tells us that “no one can pluck us from the Father’s hand.”[5] So we focus, not on ourselves, or on our own good efforts to get to heaven… but on God’s promise. He wants us to be saved, He sent His Son who died for us, and nothing can now pluck us from His hand.
And as Paul writes just a couple verses after our text, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”[6] Because God has chosen us from eternity, has provided our salvation in the gift of His Son, and has called us to faith, we know that all things in life work for our eternal good.
Want to see the blueprint for your life? There it is. It starts way back before the beginning of time when God decided to create you and bring you to faith. Then He created the world, time began, and He set in motion His plan to save you. 2000 years ago God sent His Son to earth. And Jesus Christ carried out every part of His mission which means that our sins are forgiven and heaven awaits us. Now you’ve been born and are living. At times, life can be difficult, but God’s working it all out… for you. And someday it’ll be your time to pass from this life into the next. And there your story will continue forever and ever. And it will be perfect. The perfect happy ending that never ends. Keep your eyes on the big picture, on the big blueprint. And when you can’t see why it’s going the way it does, trust God that He knows what He’s doing, because He does. He has a much bigger plan than we can ever possibly see or imagine. And it’s all for you, from eternity to eternity. Praise be to God on High! Amen.
[1] Luke 12:7
[2] 1 Timothy 2:4
[3] 1 Timothy 2:4
[4] Ephesians 2:8-9
[5] John 10:29
[6] Romans 8:32