A Big IN, a Bigger FOR, and a Huge WITH (Week 47, July 16)

Readings

  • Genesis 50:15–21

  • Micah 7:8–13

  • Romans 8:18–39

Silent Reflection

Remarks

In all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28 (NIV)

Does it ever make you wince? This verse from Romans 8 has been slung around so flippantly, so uncritically, so often—it can start to make you cynical. So many times, too many times, it’s been wielded as a catch-all approach to suffering, both small and great. It’s one of those verses that—although (possibly) theologically true—just seems to step out of bounds in some way.

There is deep truth here, though as is the case with many verses, it is difficult to catch in an English translation. I want to highlight three words that have stood out to me as I learned them from others: in, for, and with.

First, there is the idea of God working in all things. In John 5, when Jesus is discussing Sabbath with the Pharisees, he makes the statement that God is always at work and that He never stops working. This isn’t a detail about God’s relationship with the Sabbath; it’s a statement about God’s relentless, inseparable relationship with work that aims to set things right. No matter the circumstances, no matter the challenge or timeline, God is always at work in all things. That’s a big “IN.”

Second, we are told that in all those things that God is working in, He is committed to working for goodness. God isn’t just arbitrarily having fun with the details. He is committed to bringing about repair and restoration. And while the Text spends very little time trying to discern whether God caused or allowed the bad things to happen, it is very committed to expressing that whatever is happening, God is at work in all things for the good of all creation. This creation that groans for redemption, this creation of which you and I are a part of—God is for it. He is absolutely working in all things for the good. That’s an even bigger “FOR.”

But there’s an even bigger word, often translated away in many versions. It’s nowhere to be found in my old 1984 NIV (or the 2011 version, either). But it does contain a footnote that says the verse could easily be rendered as such:

And we know that in all things God works together with those who love him to bring about what is good—with those who are called according to his purpose.

Well now… hot dang! That’s a big grammatical shift, isn’t it? And it majorly changes what this verse means for us, doesn’t it? Some translations will try to catch this with by translating the idea that God works together for the good—but rendered without us as the object, it raises the question: together with what? Or whom? But consider where the conversation goes in the following verses and the next paragraphs.

For those God foreknew he also predestined…

The work God is doing in all things for the good is work He plans on doing with us as we are conformed into the likeness of Jesus. As Paul says in Ephesians, with those who are predestined for good works. Being “predestined” isn’t exclusively about privilege, and it’s not about who is in or out of whatever afterlife. It’s about responsibility and partnering with God. With this admittedly challenging call now placed on us, it makes sense that Paul would go on to talk about how we are more than conquerors and how nothing can separate us from His love. We’re going to need that reminder time and time again.

As we’ve been meditating on the Text the last few weeks, it sounds like you and I have an awful lot of work to do. Maybe we are going to have our belief in resurrection tested. Maybe we are going to need to take a look at our father Abraham as an example.

May we remember that God is at work in all things. And whenever God is at work and whatever God is up to, we can be confident that all His dealings and workings are for the good. But it’s also possible that this work needs a team, and that it’s able to accomplish a lot more for others when it finds a partner—when God is able to work with those who called according to His purpose and predestined to be conformed into the likeness of Jesus. And that’s a huge “WITH.”

So maybe this verse isn’t about how God is using your suffering or about trite explanations of how God is always going to make something good out of everything. Maybe this verse is actually a call to make sure we’re participating in the messy work of redemption. Because everything around us is groaning for it.

Silent Reflection

Response

  • Have the group use their different Bibles (or search the translations on their Bible apps) to find different renderings of this verse. What do you observe and hear?

  • Have the group identify a place where it’s hard to see what God is doing.

  • Talk about our belief that “God is always at work, so He must be doing something here.” Try to stay away from identifying what those things might be; just identify that He is.

  • Reaffirm together as a group that God is always working for the good; it can be as simple as turning to your left and right and saying, “God is always working for the good.”

  • Now consider if there is any way in which God is extending His hand, wanting to work with all of you.

  • … and now what?