Robert Haldane
Romans 8:28. 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.
Even the sins of believers work for their good. This is not from the nature of sin, but by the goodness and power of Him who brings light out of darkness. Everywhere in Scripture we read of the great evil of sin. Everywhere we receive the most solemn warning against committing sin. And everywhere we hear also of the chastisements it brings, even on those who have been rescued from its condemning power. So it is not sin itself that works the good, but God who overrules its effects on His children – who shows them, by means of it, what is in their hearts as well as their entire dependence on Himself and the necessity of walking with Him more closely.
Their falls lead them to humiliation, to the acknowledgment of their weakness and depravity, to prayer for the guidance and overpowering influence of the Holy Spirit, to vigilance and caution against all carnal security, and
2That is, the correct performance of a rite by a priest, in and of itself conveys grace to the recipient.
1This edited extract from Haldane’s Exposition of Romans is continued from November.
to reliance, for their appearing before God, on the righteousness provided. It is evident that the sin of Adam, which is the source of all their sins, has worked for their good by raising them to a higher degree of glory. Believers fall into sin and, on account of this, God hides His face from them and they are troubled; then, like Hezekiah, they go softly. God left Hezekiah to himself, but it was to do him good at his latter end.
But if our sins work together for our good, shall we sin so that grace may abound? Far be the thought from us! This would be entirely to misunderstand the grace of God, and to turn it into an occasion of offending Him. Paul contends against such an abuse of the doctrine of grace in Romans 6. Sin should be considered as to its nature. Sin as committed by us is only sin and rebellion, against God and the holiness of His nature. It ought therefore to be regarded with abhorrence; it merits eternal punishment. That it is turned to good is God’s work, not ours. We ought not to conclude that we may sin because of this – any more than to say that wicked men do what is right when they persecute the people of God, just because persecutions are overruled by Him for good. That all things work together for good to them who love God establishes the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints; for if all things work together for their good, God will permit nothing to happen that will lead them into condemnation.
That all things happen for the best is a common saying among people of the world. This is a fact as to the final result of God’s administration, by which all things shall be made to contribute to His glory. But as to sinners individually, the reverse is true. All things are indeed working together in one complex plan in the providence of God for the good of those who love Him; but so far from working for good, or for the best, to His enemies, everything is working towards their final ruin.
Both of these effects are remarkably exemplified in the lives of Saul and David. Even David’s aggravated sin led him to deep humiliation and godly sorrow, to a greater knowledge of his natural and original depravity, of the deceitfulness of his heart, and to his singing aloud of God’s righteousness. The sins of Saul, as well as everything that befell him in God’s providence, led to him becoming more hardened in his impiety and at last brought him to despair and suicide. The histories of many others, both believers and sinners, as recorded in the Old Testament, abundantly confirm the words of the Psalmist: “The Lord preserveth all them that love Him, but all the wicked will He destroy”. “The way of the wicked He turneth upside down.”
There are two particular scriptures which should fill the people of God with joy and consolation. One is: “The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from them
that walk uprightly” (Ps 84:11). The other is the passage before us: “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose”. If then God will withhold nothing that is good for us and will order and dispose of all things for good to us, what can be lacking in our absolute security? How admirable is the providence of God, not only as all things are ordered by Him, but as He overrules whatever is most disordered and turns things to good that in themselves are most pernicious! We admire His providence in the regularity of the seasons, of the course of the sun and stars; but these are not so wonderful as bringing good out of evil in all the complicated occurrences in the lives of men, and making even the power and malice of Satan, with the naturally destructive tendency of his works, to minister to the good of His children.
Them that love God. What is said of all things working together for good is here limited to those who love God. This is given as a special characteristic of a Christian. It implies that all believers love God, and that none but believers love Him; to love Him is the peculiar characteristic of a Christian. No one can love God till He has shined into that person’s heart to give the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. It is therefore only through faith in the blood of Christ that we can love God. Until our faith gives us some assurance of reconciliation with God, we cannot have the confidence which is essential to loving God. Till then we dread God as our enemy, and fear that He will punish us for our sins. In loving God, the affections of the believer go out to God as their last and highest end. In everything else, there is only a finite goodness, and we cannot absolutely rest in it.
This is the rest that the Psalmist had when he said, “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. . . . God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever” (Ps 73:25,26). What satisfies the believer in his need and poverty, in every situation in which he may be placed, is to have God for his heritage and his possession, since God is his all. And as this divine love expels from the believer the love of the world, so it overcomes the immoderate love of himself. He is led to love what God loves and to hate what God hates, and thus he walks in communion with God, loving God, and more and more desiring to comprehend “what is the breadth and length, and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge”.
To those who are the called according to His purpose. This is a further description or characteristic of God’s people. They are called, not merely outwardly by the preaching of the gospel, for this is common to them with unbelievers, but they are called also by the Spirit, with an internal and effectual calling, and made willing in the day of God’s power. They are called
according to God’s eternal purpose, according to which He knew them and purposed their calling before they were in existence, for all God’s purposes are eternal. It implies that their calling is solely the effect of grace; for when it is said to be a calling according to God’s purpose, it is distinguished from a calling according to works. “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Tim 1:9). It implies that it is an effectual and permanent calling, for God’s purposes cannot be defeated. “The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever.” Their calling is according to “the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11).