What is the Good, God is Working in Romans 8:28?

 You don’t need to be around me long in any setting where a discussion of life and faith is present to know that I quote Romans 8:28 a lot. I don’t like to say I have one favorite scripture—the Bible is just too full of incredible passages to choose only one—but I do believe Romans 8:28 is a truth we must hold onto and turn to almost every day of our lives.

Suffering is a real fact of life. No one escapes life without seasons of trials and storms. Far too many Christians have yet to grasp the theological implications and aspects of suffering. To understand these truths, one must believe the biblical fact that God is sovereign. The Bible teaches repeatedly that everything in our lives—whether good or bad—is completely under the sovereign hand of Almighty God. As R.C. Sproul once said, "There is not one maverick molecule if God is sovereign." The Bible declares that God is sovereign. And that settles it.

Look at Romans 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."

We should never make Scripture say what it does not say. This verse does not promise that life will be easy or trouble-free. The Bible is clear on that. Jesus stated this truth in John 16:33, saying:

"In the world you will have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."

What a great verse and promise! But also within that promise is the assurance that we will experience tribulation. Romans 8:28 assures us that despite our sufferings—whatever they may be and for whatever reason they happen—God is working them for good.

But for what good? Most of us have been through things, or at least know people who have endured things, that seem to have no apparent good outcome. I could provide many examples, but I think we can all recall times when something happened, and we just couldn’t see its purpose or understand what good could come from it.

So, isolating Romans 8:28 from the rest of Scripture doesn’t give us the full picture. But I have good news—Paul answers that very question in the next verse. Unfortunately, many people spend so much time arguing over doctrine that they miss the answer, which is quite clear once you see it. And this answer explains suffering and why it even exists.

Take a look at Romans 8:29:

"For 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."

If you missed it, let me highlight it for you:

"To become conformed to the image of His Son."

So why does God cause all things to work together for good?

So that we would "become conformed to the image of His Son."

God is using every event in your life to do the work of sanctification. He is not wasting anything. Romans 8:28 tells us that God causes all things to work for this purpose. Even our sins, the sins of others against us, and the most painful experiences in life—God is using them to shape us into the likeness of Christ.

Your cancer, your grief over the loss of a loved one, your job loss, and every other hardship you face—God is using all of it to conform you to the image of His Son.

Our sole purpose is to glorify God, and the best way to do that is to become more like Christ. The most powerful witness to the world is when they see Jesus in us.

Romans 8:28 is my go-to verse when life overwhelms me with sorrow and fear. But understanding that everything happening in and around me is being used by God to make me more like Jesus helps me endure each day. My faith grows because I know what God is doing, even if I don’t always like it.

My prayer for all of you reading this is that you will make this promise of God real in your life. Memorize Romans 8:28. Study it. Meditate on it. Share it with others. Believe this truth and rejoice in it. It is truly life-changing.

How To Build the Temple For God

The God we serve is a holy and glorious god, who deserves our reverence and our obedience. Reading today of the story of the building of the temple by King Solomon in 1 Kings 6, there is a very powerful fact about how Solomon went about the construction. 

1 Kings 6:7 - When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built. 

Solomon was so bent on constructing the temple in a way that, not only followed God’s specifications, but was also built in a very special manner. As we read, Solomon made sure that no tool could be heard in the actual process of the on-site construction. Why would he take such stringent actions in this work? Solomon understood that the temple was to be a place of reverence and worship to his God, because God is a holy god, worthy of our complete worship and respect.

God no longer chooses to dwell in man-made buildings. We see this truth recorded in Acts 7:48, which tells us that “ the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands.” No, God has chosen to replace the temple of stone by placing His Holy Spirit within the very hearts of His people and making them His temple.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 - Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

In light of this truth, what does Solomon’s careful construction of the first temple say to us today? 

When we receive salvation and begin to follow Jesus, we are a new creation. But as we all can clearly understand about ourselves, there is still much work to be done. We use the word sanctification to describe the process of growth that begins at salvation. But it is a work that takes our entire life to be completed. We know it will because the Apostle Paul wrote this to us in Philippians 1:6  saying, “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

The work of salvation is completely of God, according to scripture. But the work of sanctification is a work that involves both the empowering of the Holy Spirit and our commitment to follow Jesus and walk in obedience to Him. 

Like the construction of the first temple, the construction of the temple within us must be accomplished with the same commitment to reverence and respect to God. We should be diligent to study His Word and to build His temple with the same dedication to God’s plan for our lives.

Listen to what God said to Solomon as he was building the temple.

1 Kings 6:11-13 - Now the word of the LORD came to Solomon, 

“Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father. And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel.” 

This is how we must respond as we also build God’s temple, the temple not of stone, but of our own hearts. 

Listen to how chapter 6 ends up.

1 Kings 6:14 - So Solomon built the house and finished it.

1 Kings 6:38 - And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its parts, and according to all its specifications. He was seven years in building it. 


It’s a new year. There is no better time for us to get to work and to build God’s temple and to build it according to all His specifications.

Do so and God will dwell among us and in us. 

The Excuse of Our sin

“An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie; for an excuse is a lie guarded.” That is a quote from an 18^th century poet named Alexander Pope and it really nails home the reality of what we do when we make excuses.

Excuses have been the tool of mankind since the very beginning when Eve took the first bite of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. God was explicit in the command when he told Adam and Eve, they could eat of any tree in the garden but the one in the middle. And after they got caught by God, both made an excuse.

Adam’s excuse was that she gave it to him.

Genesis 3:12
The man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate."

Eve’s response was also to blame someone else.

Genesis 3:13
Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" And the woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

The simple truth is that both knew better. God had spoken directly to them. Thus, was born the excuse. And we haven’t let up since. We make excuses for everything these days. It is a culture of, “It’s not my fault.” We make up little reasons for why we do what we do and why we don’t do what we ought. We are lying about our own responsibility.

There are as many excuses as there are sins and we Christians are just as guilty as the non-believers. It’s crazy that we do this because it really isn’t necessary. When we sin against God, we have an advocate, Jesus, who sits at the right hand of the Father. Jesus paid the price of our sins and the process of repentance and forgiveness is not based on our faithfulness, but on God’s.

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

But when we fail to fully confess our sins by excusing them? We are saying we really aren’t responsible. Read the follow up to 1 John 1:9;

1 John 1:10
If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

Sadly, the modern church seems reluctant to preach the message of sin these days. Instead, the messages are soft and under the excuse of not offending anyone, afraid they won’t come to receive the Gospel, they preach a one-sided message of love that is mostly void of the truth of God’s justice and His hatred of sin.

One of these excuse that I hear from brothers and sisters in Christ these days when the topic of personal sin comes up, is that sanctification is a process. Sure, we are called to become like Christ, but not today, they cry. It takes time.

Ok, I agree, it does. But that is not an excuse for your sin. It does not give us the freedom to keep living in the same sins. We cannot live out the Christian life and expect God’s blessings when we excuse our sin.

God hates our sin. He does. And, while His mercy and grace flow lavishly upon us through the substitutionary work of Christ on the cross, He still commands us to obey His commands. Samuel warned Saul of this very thing.

1 Samuel 15:22
Samuel said, "Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.

His message gets even harder in the next verse.

1 Samuel 15:23
"For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king."

 

Purposely excusing our sin and as seen above, even trying to make up for it through sacrifice or giving and serving, is not what God wants from us. He wants obedience. He even sent His Holy Spirit to live in us and we have the power to obey. We have God’s power to overcome. We need to stop making excuses.

 

The Word of God has provided the instructions on how we are to live. The Sprit of God has provided the power. We are without excuse. It is time we preach the truth. It is time we encourage each other to walk in the Spirit. It is time we not be offended by talk of holiness and when confronted with the scriptures, it is time we listen to God.

 

I close with a very important warning that we must adhere to.

 

2 Timothy 4:1-5
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:  preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.  But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

 

Do reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.

 

Don’t tickle ears.

 

Preach the Word.

The Violence of the Christian Life

The Bible is an amazing work of writing. The very concept that men sat down and wrote its words as the Holy Spirit inspired them to do, is for many, a difficult concept to believe. One of the defining attributes of the committed Christian is that he believes this. Adding to the confusion in the minds of those who doubt God, is the fact that the Christian believes these things because God’s Holy Spirit has placed that truth within the heart of the Christian. Without a complete belief that the Bible is the very Word of God, the entire Christian faith, fails. The Apostle Paul confirms this truth.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

I believe every word in the Bible is from God and true. I believe that it is complete and in it is truth is everything we need to live a life pleasing to God.

Yet, there are scriptures that are difficult to be sure of the proper interpretation and we must seek the Holy Spirit’s teaching if we are to lay hold of God’s truth as presented in His Word. The fact is, none of us are perfect in this pursuit. I am not, you are not, and even our pastors and teachers are not. If this were not true, we wouldn’t have so many different viewpoints on things such as the end times and other doctrines of our faith.

One of the verses that fascinates me is Matthew 11:12. It is Jesus who is speaking here and in it He says this, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.”

I have read that verse many times over my years of Bible study. Though I had never spent any time trying to break it down and dig deeper into its meaning, I believed it had a simple meaning. I believed it meant that the enemies of God, violent men, have opposed God and His kingdom with everything they could and in the end, this culminates in killing Jesus. Since the days of the Garden of Eden, Satan has battled against God and sought to stop Jesus from bringing salvation.

That interpretation is true. But last week I encountered this verse in my Bible Study and I learned that that interpretation is not the only possible one. John MacArthur offers a different viewpoint on what Jesus meant when He said “the violent take it [The Kingdom of God] by force.

I took a little time reading several commentaries on this verse, and many admit that this is a difficult verse to be sure of Jesus’ intent. Many scholar’s offer that there are at least two possible meanings. The first is similar to what I stated above. This would mean Jesus is speaking of God’s enemies.

The second viewpoint and forgive me if I fail in explaining this as the scholars do, suggest Jesus is talking about those who seek Him and His salvation. I suggest anyone reading this would do well to do your own Bible study on this verse. But the following is how I have come to understand what Jesus is saying.

I believe that Jesus is instructing us on what the true Christian life is in terms of reaching the end goal of our walk here on earth, sanctification. The call from Jesus is that we become “perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect.” – Matthew 5:48

Many Christians seem to ignore this command and live comfortably in their imperfections, knowing God is full of grace and mercy. He is. And He does forgive us in our imperfections. But that does not change the command to be perfect. Our imperfections and our daily failings are the background for this interpretation that it is us Christians, who are taking the Kingdom by force. The Christian life is a life of warfare. We have an enemy, Satan, who wants to destroy us. Satan does not want us to give glory to God, but to Him. The war is won, Jesus finished that on the cross, but we still have to fight the mop-up battles of our own lives as we progress down this road of sanctification. To do that requires we respond to Satan’s attacks with great violence. We must storm the beaches of our own sin nature as the soldiers did on D-Day. This isn’t speaking of violence in the literal sense of physical violence, but as a metaphor for spiritual warfare.

The best way to interpret scripture is with scripture. Here are some verses that support this idea of us taking the Kingdom by force, that show us we are in a battle. Listen to how they describe the intense effort our Christian walk requires of us. I am not talking of how we are saved, that is by faith alone, I am talking about how we are sanctified. I am speaking of how we become more like Christ in this life and in being obedient to the commands of God.

Luke 13:24
 Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

Acts 24:16
So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.

1 Timothy 4:10
For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

1 Timothy 4:10
For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

Hebrews 12:14
Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.  Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.  No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Galatians 5:24
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Romans 8:13
For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Take careful notice of what the Christian life is. It is a battle, but the true enemy is our old nature, called the flesh. Satan tempts us, but he cannot make us sin. It is our own free will that chooses to sin against God. Notice the words used in the scriptures I shared. Strive, toil, fight, beat your own body, crucify and put to death our flesh and its passions and desires.

Jesus taught us to pray for God’s kingdom to come, and that His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Until Jesus returns, we are the means by which God’s Kingdom comes to earth and we are to do His will.

If we are to have victory over our sinful flesh and present to the world God’s Kingdom, we must do so by violence. Not physical violence against the world, but spiritual violence against our own sin nature. The violent take the Kingdom by violence. That violence is what Jesus means when He tells us to crucify our flesh. It must be put to death. It will not die easily. Self-examination reveals the power of the flesh in leading us to sin and it must be killed. That my friends, is a violent act.

My prayer is we Christians live out lives that show the unsaved world the Kingdom of God in how we live. I know how far short I fall in this quest. Let us encourage each other as we watch and pray for the return of Christ, to do whatever it takes to be His light. Let us take the Kingdom with a fervor and a zeal for God that can only be described metaphorically, as violence.

Open His Word and strive to live as He calls us to. The same power that raised Christ from the tomb. Lives in us. That is the Holy Spirit. We must strive to let the Spirit be what drives us, not our own flesh.

Be Blessed.

The Transfiguration of the Christian

Everyone loves the fact that upon confessing faith in Christ we are instantly justified in the eyes of God. One of the theological terms used is imputation, meaning that the righteousness of Christ is given to us in terms of our position with God. The blood of Christ covers our sin and we are immediately restored to relationship with God, the Father. We can now enter into His presence through prayer offered in the name of Jesus and should we die we can go directly to heaven. This is good news. This is the Gospel.

But the Gospel does not stop there. The good news of the Gospel also means we are being changed. In terms of theology this is called sanctification. It is the process of us literally becoming like Jesus. The Bible tells us that Jesus walked this earth without sin. Since sanctification is a process, we know that it takes time. It takes a lifetime and the work will not be complete until we are taken up to be with Christ. But for the true follower of Christ, it is a guarantee as found in Philippians 1:6 in which Paul says that he is “sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Unfortunately, we too often hear preached that the Gospel is that Jesus loves you, He died for you so that you can go to heaven. All true statements but if we stop there we miss the complete truth of the Gospel. Jesus offers many warnings in the Bible about false conversions and that ought to lead us to be sure we are preaching the complete Gospel, for we must not allow someone to live in the hope of heaven only to hear the fearful words of Jesus Himself. Listen to Jesus from Matthew 7:21-23 as He says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

The truth is that our salvation experience, if true, will result in a change. Yes, that change is a lifelong process and we will struggle with sin our whole lives. But the Bible teaches us that we won’t just be the same old person we were. We will be radically different, so different that the world will see Christ in us.

While there are many readings in scripture that teach us about the Gospel experience, there is one I call attention to today that I had never really noticed before. In the Gospels we read the story of the transfiguration of Jesus. This was the point when Peter, James, and John were led up a mountain by Jesus and were given the vision to see Jesus in His full glory. The story is found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

God speaks out of the clouds and confirms that Jesus is His Son and instructs us to listen to Jesus. In the Gospels Jesus tells us to obey Him. Listen to what Jesus says in John 14:15
 "If you love me, you will obey what I command.” Proof of our love for Jesus comes through obedience to what He says. Then in John 14:21 He says, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." And again, in John 14:23-24 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.  He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”

Obedience to the commands of Christ is not an option. The mark of repentance is the change in us in which we turn from our worldly attitudes and behaviors to become in agreement with God’s moral law. This is not how we are saved, that is by faith alone, but obedience is the evidence we have been changed.

When the Holy Spirit inspired the writers of scripture to speak of the transfiguration in the Gospels, He chose the Greek word, metamorphoō, of which we derive the word metamorphose. Most of us know that word means to be changes into something g completely different. The scientific definition of the word we know says that Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's form or structure through cell growth and differentiation. It also says that is usually involves a change of habitat and behavior. That, my friends, is a pretty accurate description of what being ‘born again” as a new Christian is.

If we look up the word metamorphoō in our study materials, we find that it is used three times in our Bibles. The first in the Gospels which describe the transfiguration of Jesus. The other tow times it is used it speaks of the changes in the person who have experienced the act of salvation. Remember, though we sometimes see different words used in the Bible, we should be looking at the original Greek to get a better understanding of the meaning, so even though the word appears different, the actual word used was metamorphoō.

Romans 12:2
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

2 Corinthians 3:18
 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

The verses above ought to be enough to convince us that our salvation experience is more than just a free ticket to heaven in the next life, that it also involves a radical change in our current life. Adding the fact that the Holy Spirit uses the same word to describe how Jesus suddenly was changed to reflect the Glory of God in the story of the Transfiguration, so our salvation experience must convince us that our life after conversion also should reflect the Glory of God. Like the caterpillar, which is metamorphized into the beautiful butterfly, so ought the Christian fly into the world reflecting the great Glory of God.

Paul gave this command in 2 Corinthians 13:5,
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Our eternal destination rides upon this test. Let us not go another day without crying out to Jesus that we, indeed, will reflect His glory. He has sent the Holy spirit to empower us to be light and salt. May it be real in each of us.