All Things for Good?

Romans 8:28, Genesis 50:15-21

by Dave Wilkinson

May 31, 1998

In 1966, Randy Johnson, a nephew of President Lyndon Johnson, was the quarterback for Oklahoma State University. This particular year had not been a happy one for Randy or his team. There seemed to be little hope for redemption in the climatic final game against the University of Oklahoma. Oklahoma State was behind by six points. Rain was pouring down. But the mud-covered suits didn't look half as bad as the battered, despairing faces of the State players. There was only time for one last play.

The Oklahoma State coach put in all the seniors for the last play of the game so they could end their college football careers on the field. He told Randy to call any play he wanted, since they were eighty yards from the goal line and had zero chance of scoring.

To the surprise of his teammates, Randy called play 13.

It was a trick play that had never been used in a game. It had never been used for good reason -- it had never worked in practice.

Well, the impossible happened! Play 13 worked! Oklahoma State scored! The fans went wild. As they carried Randy off the field, his coach called out to him, "Why in the world did you ever call play 13?"

Randy answered, "Well, we were in the huddle, and I looked over and saw old Harry with tears running down his cheeks. It was his last college game and we were losing. And I saw that big 8 on his chest. Then I looked over and saw Ralph. And tears were running down his cheeks too. And I saw that big 7 on his jersey. So, in honor of those guys I added 8 and 7 together and called play 13!"

"But, Randy," the coach shouted back, "8 and 7 don't add up to 13!"

Randy reflected for a moment and answered with a smirk, "You're right coach! And if I had been as smart as you are, we would have lost the game!"

The correct answers are not always the right answers. Two plus two doesn’t always add up to four -- especially when God enters the equation. Paul tells us in Romans 8:28: "We know that God works in all things for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose."

Romans 8:28 is probably the most indirectly quoted Scripture in the entire Bible. It is generally paraphrased to go something like this: "That everything will work out in the end."

That’s the message.

Do you buy it? Is it all good if we just have the right outlook?

What about that horrible train crash in Germany a couple of weeks ago. Is that good? What about that genocide in Rwanda? Is that good? What about that cancer diagnosis? Is that good? What about that divorce? Is that good? What about that forced termination? Is that good? And does the combined total of all of those things somehow equal good? Are all things really working together for good? Some things appear about as good as thinking that it was good that you were only run down by an Accura rather than a semi.

You certainly remember the two boys in Jonesboro, Arkansas who shot down some classmates and a teacher. After the immediate shock and horror some people were very quick to start identifying the good. "Look at how the community pulled together," they said. "Look at how people became more aware of hurting, loner children." "Look at the opportunity to demonstrate Christian forgiveness."

Those things are all true.

But let me tell you. If I were a parent of a child who had been killed, none of those things would be worth the life on my child. None of them. If this is all the good Romans 8:28 promises, I don’t want it. I don’t want a temporary good or a provisional good. I want a world where there are no hurting loner children. I want a world where Christian forgiveness doesn’t need to be demonstrated because there is no wrong. I want a world where communities don’t need to be pulled together. At least I’m in the best company. Mother Teresa once said, "When I see God, He's got a lot of explaining to do!" I bet they’re still talking.

Several times I have quoted Gerald Sittser a Professor at Whitworth College who lost his wife, his mother and a child to a drunk driver. Sittser wrote an insightful book on suffering called A Grace Disguised in which he explores his own deep wrestling in faith. He writes:

"Over time I realized that the trajectory of my grief had set me on a collision course with God and that I would have to wrestle with this most complex of issues. I knew I had to make peace with God's sovereignty, reject God altogether, or settle for a lesser God who lacked the power or desire to prevent the accident" . . . . "Suffering does not allow us the luxury of keeping the question at a safe distance. Rather, suffering forces us to think about God's essential nature. Is God sovereign? Is God good? Can we trust him?

Sittser writes: "After many years of infertility Lynda finally conceived. . . Lynda was already thirty-two, and she believed that this baby was probably going to be her only one. . . She was overcome with joy. But seven weeks later she miscarried The miscarriage devastated her. She became profoundly sad and disillusioned, and for many months she was angry at God. She said to me once, "My earthly father would never do such a thing to me, but my heavenly Father has." It was the darkest hour of her life."

So where’s the good?

Sometimes when bad things happen, we say things like, "Well, God has his reasons," or "There's a reason for everything," When I was about 10, I lost a baby sister named Mary. She only lived a few days. A caring 10 year old friend told me: "God needed another angel." I remember even then thinking that it’s an awfully rough way to recruit.

But my friend meant well. We always mean well when we say things like that. We're doing our best to make sense out of what has happened, to justify it so that we can live with it all.

But is there a reason for everything?

A reason implies a simple cause-and-effect relationship; a single, underlying motive that makes logical sense out of everything that happens. Reason looks to justify every event as good and worthwhile and meaningful and significant. "Things don't just happen," we say. "They're done for a reason." But I'm not so sure about that.

Tell me, who is responsible for cancer? Who's responsible for that? Satan, the destroyer? Is he the one? Or is it we who have polluted our own environment and failed to care for our own bodies and souls? Or is it God because he is sovereign over everything? Who's responsible? It's not so easy. What is the logical explanation for a stray bullet that finds its way into the chest of a toddler sitting in a stroller or a car that jumps a curb or a disgruntled employee who shoots up an office? What's the justifiable motive for mass starvation or for child abuse or for annihilation of a people over racial hatred?

Is there a reason for everything? I'm not so sure about that.

I'm afraid it's not as simple as that -- where every effect can be traced to its logical cause. There are too many forces loose in this universe, too many factors colliding with chaotic results.

First of all, there is Satan on the loose. Martin Luther reminds us in "A Mighty Fortress," "His craft and power are great, / and armed with cruel hate, / on earth is not his equal." He and his creatures are out to steal and kill and destroy. Short of that, they will deceive and discourage and divide. Satan's at work.

Then there is this fallen world that we live in -- a spoiled universe where the forces of nature sometimes run amuck. As we saw when we looked at verse 22 of this same chapter, "that the whole created world groans under the weight and penalty of our sin. Rivers overflow their banks, and the earth quakes and shakes. The skies dry up, and the earth produces no food. Cars crash, and planes fall from the sky.

And this world is inhabited by sinful people, people like you and me, whose hearts are prone to greed, to hate, and to vengeance and violence.

And, of course, God is here too, and He knows and sees all things. But with such a complex interplay of forces and factors, who is to say who is responsible for what, or what the justifiable reason is for some particular event? It's just not that simple. Is there a reason for everything? I'm not so sure.

But I’ll tell you what I am sure of. I am sure that in God’s grace, not every event in my life has a reason, but it does have a purpose.

I know that the eternal purpose of God is to restore this universe to its intended splendor and to enable men and women to become the eternal beautiful beings we were created to be.

Reason looks at the isolated event; purpose looks to the big picture. Reason is fixated on the present; purpose looks down the road to future outcomes. Reason insists on an explanation; purpose says let's get on with it. Reason hangs on to the event; purpose hangs on to God, who is at work in it all.

Romans 8:28 is about purpose not reasons. Romans 8:28 does not say everything that happens is good. It doesn't even say that all things work together for good. It says that God works in all things, good and bad, to accomplish His purpose.

I realize God is sovereign, all-powerful and all-wise. But God has put boundries on his work in the world. He has voluntarily limited Himself. He allows Satan to roam the earth. He gives men and women the freedom to choose even when those choices are foolish and hurtful to themselves and the world. He doesn't control and manipulate everything. He works with the things that happen, working them together in His strong hands so that His purpose is accomplished.

This verse does not tell us that God causes everything that happens. James 1;14 tells us that He certainly is not the author of the sins we commit. What Romans 8:28 does mean is that in the midst of all the good and evil that goes on in our lives and in the lives of those with whom we are involved, God is at work figuring out how to make things good for those who trust Him with their lives.

The phrase "to work together " in Romans 8:28 translates sunergeo from which is derived the English term synergism, "the working together of various elements to produce an effect greater than, and often completely different from, the sum of each element acting separately. " For example, ordinary table salt is composed of two poisons, sodium and chlorine. The right combination of otherwise harmful chemicals can produce substances that are extremely beneficial -- or at least flavorful.

Thousands of years ago there was a young man named Joseph whose jealous brothers first threw into a deep pit. They planned to leave him there to die. But when they saw a caravan passing by on its way to Egypt, they figured they could make some money by selling him as a slave. The Midianites sold him to a military man in Egypt whose name was Potiphar.

Joseph was only seventeen years old. He was now a slave in Egypt, where he could not even speak the language. But even this was not all. For a time he prospered as Potiphar's slave. But when Potiphar's wife tried to seduce him and he refused, she cried rape. Joseph spent the next two years in prison as an abandoned and seemingly forgotten man.

But all this, bad as it was, was only the path by which God was planning to raise him to the throne of Egypt to be second in power only to Pharaoh himself.

Pharaoh had a dream. No one could interpret it. Then Pharaoh's chief butler, who had been in prison with Joseph two years before, remembered how Joseph had interpreted one of his dreams. He told Pharaoh. Joseph was removed from the prison and brought to court, where he easily supplied the explanation. Pharaoh was so impressed that he promoted the former slave on the spot. Joseph was able to direct the Egyptian grain harvests and store large quantities of grain. In this way he saved many lives during the ensuing famine.

The favor of his father, his dreams, his brothers' hatred, the passing of the Midianite caravan, his being sold to Potiphar, the enthrallment of his master's wife, two years in prison, the Pharaoh's dream-- all these diverse circumstances, some quite evil in themselves, were used by God for the great and ultimate good of Joseph and others.

Years later, Joseph's brothers came to Egypt because a famine had brought them to the edge of starvation. They had heard of the wise prime minister of the country who had made sure that ample food supplies were stored in the king's granaries to meet just such an emergency. And so they came to ask the prime minister to share some food with their family, not knowing that the wise and spectacular prime minister was none other than the brother they had wronged.

Joseph finally revealed his identity to his brothers. They shuddered at the thought of what Joseph would do to them, but Joseph comforted his brothers with some words that ring out with the awareness of God’s purpose: "You meant evil against me but God meant it for good, in order to bring about this present result, to keep many people alive."

Back in the 1940's, Leslie Weatherhead wrote a brilliant little essay entitled "The Will of God." He helps to put what I am trying to say here in a very logical form.

Weatherhead contends that, first of all, there is what he calls God's intentional will. This means that before the world began God meant for there to be no evil in the world at all. He wanted goodness to reign and love, joy, and peace to be evident everywhere and in everything. But we foolish people rejected what God planned for us. We came up with our own plans for life, and they were disastrous.

The good news is that God didn't give up on us, even though He had every right to. Instead, God established what Weatherhead called the circumstantial will of God, This means that God goes to work in the midst of the messes we create. God devises a plan to take the evil actions and the troublesome circumstances we have generated and weaves them into an outcome that works out for good. The death and resurrection of Christ is the best example. God took the evil of Judas, the high priests of the Temple, Herod, Pilate, and that bloodthirsty mob and turned it into the greatest blessing of all time. There is just no telling what God can do when He takes the evil that we commit and uses it to do good.

Weatherhead completes his essay on the Will of God by telling us about the ultimate will of God and the end of history when evil will be finally and absolutely defeated. His will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven. The miraculous reality is that God will ultimately make everything new and right.

Romans 8:28 says that "In all things God works for good" What many people fail to realize is that this enormous statement is not a of a "grin and bear it" Stoic philosophy. It is the affirmation of an absolute, total faith in a crucified and risen Lord.

John Huffman, Pastor of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian in Newport Beach writes: "One day we were talking about this verse of Scripture at a men's Bible study. The question was raised: What is the proper definition of "Good"? For about fifteen minutes, the twenty-one men who were gathered around that table wrestled with this question, "What is good?" Initially, we defined it in terms of events and things. When I say that good things are happening to me, I tend to mean that things are going my way.

Then we began to shift gears -- to realize that this is not at all what Paul is talking about. Paul is saying something different. Good is not defined in events and things as much as it is defined in a spiritual perspective -- a kind of position from which we view all of life. Paul says that God works in all things for good. This is a clear statement. But it must not be viewed in your classic way of understanding good. To get in stride with the good that Paul talks about, you must be in stride with the God of eternity, realizing the transient, temporary nature of the life which you are now living."

Last April one of the speakers at our West Coast Presbyterian Pastor’s Conference was a man named Marshall Shelley. In one of his presentations Marshall described the great losses he and his wife experienced -- the birth of a baby who lived for only two minutes after birth because of a condition called trisomy 13 -- and just two months later the expected death of their two year old daughter who was profoundly retarded.

People asked: "Why did God permit those children to be born at all if they were to live so briefly?" And the answer Shelley discovered by faith is that God didn’t not create them to live either a long time or briefly or earth. He created them to live for eternity. That’s purpose. But it doesn’t always take away the pain.

As C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter: "We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be." In another place he commented "I do not understand people who say they are not afraid of God because they know He is good. Haven’t they ever been to the dentist?"

Paul himself wrote Romans 8:28 out of the experience of tremendous suffering. His life had not been easy. He had been in and out of prison. On five different occasions, he had been whipped. Three times he was beaten with rods. Once he was stoned. Three times he suffered shipwreck. Often he had been imperiled by robbers and potential drownings. Many times he was weary, in pain, hungry, thirsty, cold, and naked. All of this was done for Jesus Christ. All of this could have been avoided if he had taken the easy way.

Paul sees the sufferings of this world from the perspective of the eternal. In spite of the difficulty he had come through, he could boldly say, "And we know that God works in all things for good .... "

"We know." He does not say that we "feel" all things to-be good. Often we do not feel that God is doing good at all in the short term. We feel exactly the opposite. We feel that we are being ground down or destroyed. And it is not even that we "see" the good. Most of the time we do not perceive the good things God is doing or how he might be bringing good out of the evil. The text simply says, "we know" it. Paul did not go around saying how wonderful the world was or how pleasant his missionary endeavors had been. On the contrary, he reported that he had been hard pressed on every side -- perplexed and struck down" (2 Cor. 4:8-9). But Paul came through the things that pressed down and perplexed him precisely because he knew that God was working out his own greater and good purpose through these events.

How did Paul know it? He knew it because God had told him this was what he was doing. And now Paul is telling us.