“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.” Rom. 8: 28.
It is true of all who are in Christ Jesus that all things are working together for their good. If the Bible had said that some things were working for their good — that we could well understand. But what the Scripture says here is that all things are working together for their good. How different it is, on the other hand, with those who are out of Christ. So far as they are concerned everything is working against them. The Gospel alone affords them any hope. That Gospel proclaims, if they only knew it, a Saviour who is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God through Him.
All things are working together for good to them that love God. Love is the fulfilling of the law. When one asked the Saviour what was the great commandment of the law he was told: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” How sad it is that so few fulfil this command, or, for that matter of it, the second commandment: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” How solemn for anyone to have no love in their soul to Him who is the Fountain of life and of all blessedness. “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.”
Those for whom all things work together for good are called effectually by divine grace. It is one thing to be under the call of the Gospel: it is another thing to experience the application of that call to our individual souls with divine power. Yet it is only thus that we can embrace the hope set before us in the Gospel and the way of salvation through a crucified Saviour. “A people shall be willing in a day of Thy power.” How heartily does the quickened soul embrace Jesus Christ freely offered in the Gospel as all his salvation and all his desire.
But they are also called according to his purposes. The purposes of God are from eternity. He has fore-ordained whatsoever comes to pass. Had not the Lord purposed from all eternity to save a people and to redeem them from all their iniquities, what hope could we have? But he has so purposed, and these purposes cannot be thwarted. A people who have been embraced in the electing love of the Father, shall be called out from the world lying in the wicked one to be a people unto God. How good it is that everything is in the hand of God and that the Covenant is from everlasting! Many things appear outwardly and also in the experience of the children of God to be against them. How much is permitted of God which seems to work against the life of faith within. They have to pass through many trials, some through fiery trials — as Joseph himself. The Word of the Lord tried Joseph in prison. Could all things be working for his good in the circumstances in which he was placed? Had God not forgotten him as well as the butler? What hope of release was there? The people of God may be so tempted and tried as to say with Jacob — “all these things are against me”. Did not all things seem to be against David when he was hunted as a partridge upon the mountains? Did not all things appear to be working against the disciples as their Master was arrested and later led out to be crucified? Did not all things seem to be working against Paul when in prison at Rome? When the soul experiences a dark night of desertion, the Lord hiding His countenance, who is going to convince the soul at that time that this dark hour is one of the “all things”?
Yet all things are working together for good to them that love God. The difficulties, the fiery trials, the afflictions, the seasons of desertion, as well as the times of prosperity and blessing, are all working together for the good of the people of God. Yes, Joseph, you are tried in the prison; how then is God’s word to be fulfilled? But wait a little, Joseph, and see all things working together for your good — yes, and for the good of Egypt and Israel too.
“Then sent the king, and did command
that he enlarg’d should be:
He that the people’s ruler was
did send to set him free.”
Yes, Jacob, to all intents and purposes you have lost your beloved Joseph and now you are about to lose your Benjamin too. But wait for a moment or two, Jacob, and you will see that God has been secretly intending all these things for your good. Soon you will see, not only Benjamin but Joseph too and all the good of the land of Egypt besides. Yes, David, you are saying: “I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul.” But wait a little, David. What do you hear now? The voice of the Lord saying:
“Ev’n David I have found him out
a servant unto me;
And with my holy oil my King
anointed him to be.
I will beat down before his face
all his malicious foes;
I will them greatly plague who do
with hatred him oppose.”
Yes, Paul, well might you wonder at imprisonment in Rome and that at your first answer no man stood by you. Well might you say: What kind of place is this for the Apostle of the Gentiles to be in and to be forsaken of his companions? But that is not your complaint. On the contrary we hear you say in writing to the Philippians: “The things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel.”
Must we indeed say — all things without exception? Oh, yes, all things, however difficult it may be to grasp it now. There is nothing that takes place in your history from your new birth — yes, and before it — to the day of your death but is working for your ultimate good. And not only so, but also all the things which make up the sum total of your experiences are working not only singly for your good, but they are working together for your good. There is, while you are in this world, an intricate pattern being gloriously interwoven by divine wisdom, so that at the end of the day when you enter into glory you will be able to look back and trace the steps of your God and of your mighty King, not only in those seasons of His Presence in His sanctuary, but also clearly evident in every disposing of His providence throughout your whole life’s history. Then you will sing:
“Thy way is in the sea, and in
the waters great Thy path:
Yet are Thy footsteps hid, O Lord;
none knowledge thereof hath.
Thy people Thou didst safely lead,
like to a flock of sheep;
By Moses’ hand and Aaron’s Thou
didst them conduct and keep.”