The Good: Devotional Commentary for April 2-8
Romans 8:28-30 (NASB)
This is the Word of God. May the Spirit of Truth give us wisdom and insight to receive what has been conveyed through His Word by His Inspiration.
The Word of God for the Christian.
8:28 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.
Following his assuring words on the intercessory Prayer of the Holy Spirit, Paul gives us yet another Truth that sets our hearts at peace. Through His Prayer, the Holy Spirit causes us to live and serve in the framework of a right and holy communion with our Father. The inexpressible Truth declared in this verse is the bedrock of our salvation. It is foundational. God our Father causes everything to work for the good of His children.
Caution is advisable here lest we consult our sentiments and wrongly feel that everything will be as good as we see things and hope for. No, not really. The bad is usually bad and the good often stays good, generally speaking. Regardless of the inherent attributes of things, events, experiences, circumstances, or people, the influences of such aspects of life shall ultimately result in the Good that is purposed by God. That is, God will work His Good for His children in all things. His Goodness makes all things work for the good of His children in keeping with His Purpose.
No matter what we face as believers, God is faithfully at work making everything progress in keeping with His Purpose, Plan, and Will, always dispensed for our Good according to His redemptive Purpose. Redemption is then, the expression of God's Glory through His Goodness and His Love toward undeserving sinners. God showcases His Glory by dispensing His Goodness toward us, His children.
As those who are redeemed by faith through Grace in Hope, God's Goodness comes to us every step of our way as we press onward toward the finishline. Events, circumstances, people, experiences of any nature or quality do not have any sway on God's redemptive Purpose. Like everything else in creation, they too serve God's Purpose in our lives in particular, and in creation in general.
Regardless of our individual lot in our journey of life, God's redemption and His Love overflow the life of the child of God with the abundance of God's Goodness. Simply put, the child of God is appointed, anointed, and blessed to see the Glory of God through His Goodness and His Love. Ultimately for The Called and those who love God, the crux or the essence of the matter is not events or circumstances; but God, His Will, His Purpose, His sovereign Authority, His Glory, and His Goodness.
8:29-30
29For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
30and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
The mystery of God's redemption is transcendent as well as pervasive. It touches every individual sinner called unto salvation and reveals God's Glory through His Goodness toward His children and toward creation at large. It is unfathomable yet perceivable. However, redemption does not flow out of the sinner's confession or one's acceptance of salvation by faith. The roots of redemption reach far into eternity past into the bedrock of God's timeless Omniscience and His sovereign Grace.
- Before He created us;
- before we drew our first breath;
- before He formed us into the first living cell;
- before we were brought into existence and occupied space;
- before we were assigned a span of life in time;
Before we were yet uncreated, He purposed our life and planned our journey. In His prerogative as the sovereign God, the Lord determined that all sinners called unto salvation would be conformed through redemption to the image of Christ in His Righteousness, Holiness, and in His Resurrection. He predestined the redeemed to rise with Christ in His Resurrection sharing in His Victory over sin, death, hell, and the devil. The redeemed are then pre-purposed by God to be adopted as sons and daughters of God so that our risen Lord is also our eldest brother in the redemptive process of restoring what was lost by Adam to God's judgment due to sin and disobedience.
God's pre-Purposing of the destination of Christ's brethren is not merely an exercise in divine decision-making. God fulfilled His Purpose by executing His Plan through a series of divine actionables affixing God's divine Signature on the certainty of redemption. So those whom He purposed unto salvation, He foreknew as redeemed, conformed as redeemed to the image of His Son, called as redeemed unto salvation, declared just, as redeemed through Christ's finished work, and glorified as redeemed through the glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, in spite of trials and tribulations, the certainty of the salvation of the redeemed rests in the revelation of God's Glory through His gracious, merciful, and loving Goodness toward the lost.
We are saved by faith through Grace in hope because we are predestined to conform to the image of God's Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Redemption is then the Gift of God, purposed, planned and accomplished, showcasing the Glory of God through His Goodness and infinite Love.
Notes/Applications
The mystery of the redemption of God's children is embedded in the timeless actions of the eternal God. It surpasses comprehension yet we perceive what is revealed: God's Goodness and His Glory.
The story of Joseph is one of the most fascinating accounts in the Old Testament. He was a young man favored by his father, hated by his siblings, bought and sold by slave-traders, trapped and despised by the wife of his master, mistrusted by his master, imprisoned without guilt, betrayed by his inmates, and exalted by Pharaoh. He traveled from favor to exaltation through years of trials and tribulations.
But his outlook on God's Purpose for his life was quite impressive. Joseph was well aware that God was working His Good in his life at home or in a strange land. He told his brothers, God revealed His Goodness through the evil they had done to him. Joseph was not a unique or uncommon man. He was a man of like passion with us. He simply took God upon His Word and rested in His Goodness and in His redemption. That is the crux of Paul's message to us.
Having been delivered from judgment by God's redeeming Grace through Christ's finished work, our redemption is settled in heaven forever because our salvation has been purposed, planned, and accomplished by God not now, not later or even when faith is confessed, but in the inscrutable expanses of eternity. We did not just get saved when we confessed faith. Our conscious confession of faith is only a response to the irresistible conviction by the Holy Spirit Who moves upon the heart of the lost in keeping with the unsearchable counsel of god and His Grace, Mercy, and Love.
But we often find ourselves conflicted because we confuse the promises of redemption with the hard realities of earthly life. We are often misled into thinking how can we be sure we belong to God if we are actually going through trials and hardships? We struggle not because there is an actual problem, but due to our inability to grasp the essence of the eternal perspective with our finite outlook.
The Glory of God is brought to us in Jesus Christ Who says to us: come unto me and I will give you rest. Rest? What rest?
- Rest in knowing that the trials and hardships we experience are not to be compared to the heavenly inheritance prepared for us in Jesus Christ.
- Rest in understanding that our experiences serve as the means for God's Good Purpose.
- Rest in recognizing that passing hardships cannot reduce us to a passing quantity.
- Rest in realizing that our earthly life is temporal and our redemption is eternal.
Temporal experiences are God's means for fulfilling His Good Purpose for which these specific experiences are planned and executed. As for us, we are pilgrims on our way out of this temporal world going into our eternal Home prepared for us before the Foundation of the world. We are privileged to have heaven's Gate opened for us because we are glorified in Christ. We are glorified in Christ because we are declared just, righteous, and holy in Christ. We are given access to stand before God in the Grace which has set us free. We are justified because we are called unto salvation. We are called unto salvation because we have been purposed and therefore predestined to be redeemed by God the Almighty. This is sovereign Grace. It is unsearchable Wisdom. It is unfathomable Love. It is inexplicable Mercy.
Taking our cue from the Psalmist, we do not fret because our confidence is Christ, our strength is the Holy Spirit, and our guarantee is God our Father, the Almighty Lord. God worked through His Son and the Holy Spirit to reveal His Glory, to bless us with His Goodness, and to accomplish His Purpose in the ways and means He preordained. Faith and hope are now meaningful and significant because God's glory and His Goodness are revealed through Christ's finished work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
His Goodness and His Mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives and we shall dwell in the house of our Father forever. Free from condemnation, privileged to call Him Father, co-heirs promised eternal inheritance, aided by the Prayer of the Holy Spirit, the redeemed are God's children. The redeemed love God. The redeemed are The Called who are also justified and glorified. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are the Works of God, so is His redemption: timeless, complete, and glorious.
