There are two little words in the English language that tell more lies than all the others put together.  They are always and never.  When you use those words, you are almost always exaggerating.  Notice that I didn’t say always.  Let me give you some examples.   You always interrupt me when I am trying to say something.  You never get your work done on time.   I always tell the truth.    I never tell a lie.   When we make statements like that, we should probably use the words usually or almost never.  Otherwise, we are almost always guilty of lying.

There are sometimes when you can use the world always or never and you are using those words correctly.  You can say that the sun always rises in the east and that it always sets in the west.  

Paul makes one of those kinds of absolute statements in our text.  “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  God’s people can say that everything that happens always works out for our good because God makes it so.   It doesn’t always seem like this.  If you were a Christian in Rome and you saw your husband arrested for being a Christian and thrown to the lions in the arena, how can that work out for your good?    If your doctor tells you that you have cancer that it is inoperable and incurable, how can that possibly work out for your good?  

Paul backs up his statement with some facts.   “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”  Paul reminds us that before you were born, God saw you and God chose you to be one of his dear children.  In fact, the Bible says that God did this before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1.4).  God then put in motion a plan that carried out what he willed from eternity.  In order to make this possible, God sent his Son, Jesus, to pay for your sins.  “If God did not spare his own Son,” our text says.   Nothing stood in the way of God carrying out that plan.  When Herod decided to kill the babies in Bethlehem, God already had an escape plan for the baby Jesus.  When Pilate nailed Jesus to the cross, he did not even know that he was carrying out God’s plan to pay for the sins of the world.  God was making everything work out for our good.  

God’s plan was not finished when Jesus died on the cross.  God’s plan is so amazing that this plan included you.  Do you think you are sitting here today by accident?  No.  Someone shared the gospel with you.  A parent baptized you.  A friend said, “Come to church with me.”  A Sunday school teacher called your parents to encourage them to bring you to Sunday School.  Paul says that those God predestined, he also called.   He called them to faith through the gospel.  Those he called to faith he justified.   He declared them holy.  Those he justified, he also glorified.   Paul uses the past tense.   He looks ahead to the time when Jesus will come and will change you in the twinkling of an eye to become just like him.   He uses the past tense because even though it is in the future, it is as good as done.  All things work out for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.  

Really?  Everything?   What if your brothers hated you so much they wanted to kill you?   What if they decided to sell you as a slave instead?   What if you master’s wife accused you of rape and your master threw you into prison?   What if the guy you helped in prison and who said he would talk to his boss about you forgot?   Do you recognize who I am talking about?   The boy was Joseph.  He was sold as a slave when he was seventeen.  For thirteen years he endured all of that – and never lost faith that God had forgotten him.  When he was thirty, Pharaoh made him second in command.  Years later after his father died, the brothers who wronged him came to him because they were afraid that now, finally, with Jacob gone, he would get even.  Remember what Joseph said?  “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”   God makes everything work out for our good.  

   P. 2   February 5, 2012