The Meaning of Romans 8:28

romans 8:28 is probably the best known verse in Romans and one of the best known verses probably in the whole Bible for God works all things together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose there's a good reason people like this verse and think a lot about it it's because we all suffer we all experience hardships some of it almost unbearable and those of us who believe in God and that's most of us want to know what God's relationship to that suffering is did God caused our suffering does he sympathize with us in our suffering can he do anything about our suffering these are human questions and questions that many many people have Romans 8:28 does not tell us that God causes people to suffer and it doesn't say that God considers suffering in and of itself to be good what it does say however is that God works all things together for the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose it's actually really important to read around that verse I would recommend anybody interested in the meaning of this verse read all of Romans 8 beginning in verse 1 what in verses 1 to 4 kind of summarize the gospel beginning with those verses but then especially if you're suffering beginning with verse 18 and reading all the way through to the end of the chapter in verse 39 this passage in Romans is really helpful for understanding what suffering is all about particularly as a Christian it doesn't solve the problem at a philosophical level the problem of how God can be all powerful and all good and yet good people can suffer how can that happen doesn't solve that problem for us but it does describe how God is at work in a suffering world we know he's identified that world through his son the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross talked about suffering died on the cross for our sins and participated with us in a suffering world we know he's he's with us in our suffering and it also reminds us that God is busy recreating this world and that those of us who are united with Christ by faith are being transformed and the church is being transformed in his God's kind of pilot unit for what the world should look like he's transforming the church and eventually he'll transform this whole world to bring suffering and oppression to an end so that's how God is working all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose

Channel: zondervan

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Keywords: book of romans, romans 2:8, famous bible verses, bible study

Id: -Moz5qnZqcM

Length: 2min 59sec (179 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 15 2019