How rich in promise is the inheritance of every believer! Even in this life he possesses riches of grace from which he may draw much present joy and comfort, but by far the greater part of his inheritance is held for him in promise, and is received by him in faith. “Faith,” we are told, “is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” One of the most wonderful of these promises, and one that is perhaps most often quoted is that in Romans 8 and 28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” The range of this promise is very wide, embracing as it does “all things,” and under the all-wise and all-powerful control of God, the promise operates with a certainty which never fails to result in the highest good to those concerned. Nevertheless to many of these there is a very real difficulty. That all good things would work together for good they are disposed enough to believe, but in the stern facts of life in this world many things operate which are not good; as, for instance, sickness, disease, accident, grief, death, bereavement, etc., etc. When the “all things” of the promise include such things, how can we persuade ourselves that they work together for good? And yet there it is written in the Word of Eternal Truth. “All things work together for good to them that love God,” and the Apostle is so assured on the matter that he says “we know.”
No doubt, in the case of many, much of the difficulty arises from their giving a carnal interpretation to the “goodness” promised here. Even the true believer may confound worldly carnal good with spiritual and heavenly good. In so far as he does so he cannot fail to get into difficulties with this promise and to lose much of its comfort and sweetness. Let us then, in a very brief way, consider the nature of the “goodness” here promised; it may help. (a) The “good” here promised is undoubtedly spiritual good and not worldly good; that goodness which consists in the deliverance of the soul from sin. The salvation of the soul from the dominion, guilt and bitter fruits of sin is the scriptural ideal of all good, and it is in the originating, the promoting and the realising of this good that all things work together. In the process of salvation from sin the soul of a sinner is as gold in which there is much dross; as fire is one of the chief things necessary to purge the dross and purify the gold so the fires of pain, sorrow, trial, need, etc., etc., are among the “all things” which work together to ensure the saving of the soul. “Now no chastisement for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous, nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby.” Due regard to this will go a long way in resolving the difficulty indicated. Further, (b) The goodness here promised is eternal good, not temporal good. How easily and often mistaken we are in this: we judge goodness according to the present transient effect upon our lives, but that is the world’s estimate of good—as they say, good fortune, a good time, a pleasant evening, good company, etc., etc. When the evening is past, when the time is spent, when the company is dispersed, when finally death comes, where then is the goodness, and how much of it is left? “The laughter of fools is as the crackling of thorns under a pot”—a great deal of noise, an intense flame, a momentary blaze of light—then blackness and ashes. The goodness designed by the Redeemer for his redeemed is of quite another quality—it is that substantial and enduring goodness inherent in Life that shall never end. In attempting to look out into the future, even with the enlightenment of faith and scripture, our vision still is but as a looking through a glass darkly; and how restricted our view must be! But the Lord is not restricted, his view takes in the whole extent of our future requirements in this world; it takes within its range the Great Day of Judgment, and an endless eternity—an eternity of torment to be delivered from, and an eternity of glory to be prepared for; it takes into account the body of sin and death which is still to be destroyed, and the perfection of holiness yet to be realised in order to “the enjoying of God to all eternity”; and with all this in view he so orders and so controls all things that they work together in the production of a goodness fully adequate to meet all demands and to abide for ever. To this view the Apostle refers when he says, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for these things which are seen are temporal: but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (c) No doubt the good promised is also a holy, sanctified, gracious goodness. It is this quality of holiness which secures the happiness of the gracious soul—apart from it there can be no true good. It is such a goodness as has in it, in some measure at least, a holy and willing obedience to the Master’s will. In this Jesus himself provides an example which should never fail to call forth our deepest wonder and admiration, “Though he were a Son yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered,” and “For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons into glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” This discipline of learning obedience, this writing of the Law of the Covenant upon the heart, this “Oh, how I love thy law, it is my meditation all the day,” becomes a mark of sonship, a necessary and very precious mark; a mark, moreover, which shows our kinship with the Son and with the Captain of Salvation; could there be greater good than this? Who would quarrel with those things—any of these “all things”—which in the Lord’s mercy and wisdom work together to produce that highest form of all good which consists in conformity to the image of Jesus? Is this not the fulfilment of all gracious desire, and the answer of all true prayer? And is it not to this highest of all possible good that those who love God are predestinated? “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren.”