The True Christian's Blessedness

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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.

We have here —

I. THE DESCRIPTION OF A TRUE CHRISTIAN, AND A DECLARATION OF HIS BLESSEDNESS.

1. "Them that love God." Now, there are many things in which the worldly and the godly do agree; but on this point there is a vital difference. No ungodly man loves God in the Bible sense of the term. An unconverted man may love a God, as, for instance, the God of nature, and the God of the imagination; but the God of revelation no man can love, unless grace turn him from his natural enmity towards God. And there may be many differences between godly men; they may belong to different sects, hold very opposite opinions, but all agree in this, that they love God.

(1) As their Father; they have "the Spirit of adoption, whereby they cry Abba Father."(2) As their King; they are willing to obey Him.

(3) As their Portion, for God is their all.

(4) As their future inheritance.

2. "The called according to His purpose," by which He means, that all who love God love Him —

(1) Because He called them to love Him. All men are called by the ministry, by the Word, by daily providence, to love God; the great bell of the gospel rings a universal welcome to every living soul, yet there was never an instance of any man having been brought to God simply by that sound.

(2) Because they have had a supernatural call.

II. TAKE THE WORDS ONE BY ONE.

1. "Work." Look around, above, beneath, and all things work —

(1) In opposition to idleness. The idle man is an exception to God's rule. There is not a star which doth not travel its myriads of miles and work. There is not a silent nook within the deepest forest glade where work is not going on. Nothing is idle. The world is a great machine, but it is never standing still.

(2) In opposition to play. They are ceaselessly active for a purpose. The world hath an object in its wildest movement. Avalanche, hurricane, earthquake, are but order in an unusual form; destruction and death are but progress in veiled attire. The great machine is not only in motion, but there is something weaving in it, viz., good for God's people.

(3) In opposition to Sabbath. Since the day when Adam fell all things have had to labour. Let us not wonder if we have to work too. If all things are working, let us "work while it is called to-day, for the night cometh when no man can work."

2. "Together."(1) In opposition to their apparent confliction. Looking with the mere eye of sense, we say, "Yes, all things work, but they work contrary to one another. The world is always active, but it is with the activity of the battle-field." Be not deceived. There is no opposition in God's providence; the raven-wing of war is co-worker with the dove of peace. The tempest strives not with the peaceful calm — they work together. Look at our history. The strifes of barons and kings might have been thought to be likely to tread out the last spark of British liberty; but they did rather kindle the pile. The hearings of society, the strife of anarchy, the tumults of war — all these things, overruled by God, have but made the chariot of the Church progress more mightily. The charioteers of the Roman circus might with much cleverness and art, with glowing wheels, avoid each other; but God guides the fiery coursers of man's passion, yokes the storm, bits the tempest, and keeping each clear of the other from seeming evil still enduceth good, and better still; and better still in infinite progression.

(2) None of them work separately. The physician prescribes medicine; you go to the chemist, and he makes it up; there is something taken from this drawer, something from that phial, something from that shelf: any one of those ingredients, it is very possible, would be a deadly poison if you should take it separately; but he puts them into the mortar, and when he has worked them all up, and has made a compound, he gives them all to you as a whole, and together they work for your good. Too much joy would intoxicate us, too much misery would drive us to despair: but the joy and the misery, the battle and the victory, the storm and the calm, all these compounded make that sacred elixir whereby God maketh all His people perfect.

3. For good.

(1) There is the worldling's good, the good of the moment. Now God has never promised that "all things shall work together" for such good as that to His people. Expect not that all things will work together to make thee rich; it is just possible they may all work to make thee poor.

(2) The Christian understands by the word spiritual good. "Ah!" saith he, "I do not call gold good, but faith! I do not think it always for my good to increase in treasure, but I know it is good to grow in grace."(3) Good eternal. All work to bring the Christian to Paradise(4) Sometimes all things work together for the Christian's temporal good, as in the case of Jacob.

4. I return to the word "work" — to notice the tense of it. It does not say that they shall work, or that they have worked; both of these are implied, but that they do work now. I find it easy to believe that all things have worked together for my good. I can look back at the past, and wonder at all the way whereby the Lord hath led me. And I have an equal faith for the future, that all things will in the end work for good. The pinch of faith always lies in the present tense. However troubled, downcast, depressed, and despairing the Christian may be, all things are working now for his good.

5. Paul does not say, "I am persuaded"; "I believe"; but "We (I have many witnesses) know." The apostle lifts his hand to where the white-robed hosts are praising God for ever. "These," says he, "passed through great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb: ask them!" And with united breath they reply, "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God." He puts his hand upon his poor distressed brethren — he looks at his companions and he says, "We! We know it. Not only does faith believe it, but our own history convinces us of the truth of it."

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