The Most Googled Bible Verses — Episode 3: All Things Work Together for Good (Romans 8:28)
When you face a really hard trial of life, it’s hard to see how anything good could come out of it. Your mind is so fixated on surviving the pain of the present that you don’t think about it. And if the hardship lasts for months or years, you get into such a habit of thinking negative thoughts that it’s difficult to have positive ones.
We don’t know how these tragic times in our Christian lives work out for good, but God does. So it’s no surprise that Romans 8:28 is one of the most read Bible verses in our time (and perhaps in any age).
The outlook of this verse is not desperate hope. It is a promise from God Himself who knows the future and intervenes to bring good out of bad (and even the worst) situations. In this episode, we will see many encouraging stories in the Scriptures that illuminate this text and teach us not to lose hope.
Read about this subject
- Scripture: Romans 8:28; Genesis 45:5-8; Genesis 50:19-20; Philippians 1:12-18
- “Long, Hard Lessons of Life”
Listen to more on this subject
Transcript
Kerry Duke: Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you’ve learned with others.
We’re looking at Bible verses that people look up most often on the internet. The verse we’ve come to today is probably no surprise. It’s Romans 8 verse 28—“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” We all have troubles in life, and the thought of bad things somehow leading to good things is comforting.
Before we look at what this verse means, let’s talk about what it does not mean. First, it doesn’t just mean that the hardships of life will work out for good in heaven. There’s no doubt that this is true. No matter what we as Christians face, they will all be gone when we get to heaven. And not only that, but the more painful those experiences are here, the greater the peace and rest will be in heaven. Paul said, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (Second Corinthians 4 verse 17). It may sound strange that Paul called them “light” afflictions. Just in the book of Second Corinthians, Paul talks about being beaten, put in prison, suffering shipwreck and almost being stoned to death. And those are just a few of the trials he went through. He mentioned many others. But it’s amazing that he didn’t say, “I’ve been through some hard times you wouldn’t believe.” He didn’t say, “I’ve had to bear some really heavy burdens in life, but I know it will work out good in the end.” Instead, he called all those afflictions “light.” They were light—compared to heaven. And Paul said these hardships produce a “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” in heaven. The more troubles you have in this world, the more you’ll appreciate heaven. So in that sense, all the trials we go through work together for good. But Paul is not just talking about bad things working out for good in heaven. He means that, somehow and some way, these trials work out for the best in this lifetime.
Also, this verse doesn’t mean that bad things just happen to work out for good on their own. Sometimes people say, “It’ll all work out good in the end.” Now if we’re talking about some little problem, there might be a place for saying that. But sometimes when people say, “Don’t worry, things have a way of working themselves out,” they leave God’s hand out of it. They talk like life has a way of balancing things out. If you’ve had bad experiences, chances are good things will eventually come your way. If life has been hard on you, then life will do you good at some point. “It’ll be alright. Don’t worry. Things like this happen, but they always pass.” That’s not what Paul says in Romans 8 verse 28. He doesn’t mean that you should just bet on the odds like a game of chance and hope that life will get better. Life may not go on at all. Life may not last long enough for better days ahead. But even if that happens—even if things, as we say, “work themselves out,” a person who thinks like this is not one whit better in his heart, because he didn’t look to God to help him through his troubles and he doesn’t give God credit at the end. Paul is not talking about bad things working themselves out for good without God. He’s talking about God bringing good out of bad situations for a selected group of people.
And, Paul certainly is not encouraging people to sin. He’s not saying we should deliberately live a sinful life so that God can bring good out of our sins. The Bible warns about sinning willfully or intentionally in Hebrews 10 verse 26. A person should never say, for instance, “I’ll drink and carouse and party for a few years when I’m young, then I’ll settle down when I’m older. I’ll appreciate it more then. I know I’ll make a lot of mistakes, but it’ll work out better in the long run.” That is foolish. It’s foolish because that young person doesn’t know if he or she will live long enough to repent. It’s foolish because that young person is putting God to the test. Paul is not encouraging that kind of thinking in Romans 8 verse 28. In fact, he said some had actually accused him and other apostles of teaching the ridiculous doctrine “Let us do evil that good may come” in Romans 3 verse 8. Romans 8 verse 28 is not about doing bad things and expecting good to come from it. It’s about bad things happening to God’s people and God working it out for good.
A good way to begin your Bible study of this verse is to look at Romans chapter 8. Before he says those well-known words in verse 28, he talks about what Christians endure. In Romans 8 verse 17 he says we are “joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” Then in verse 18 he says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Then he says the whole creation—that is, God’s spiritual creation, the church, “groans” in the present state of things until the resurrection day (verses 19 through 23). And what gets us through these pains and heartaches in life? Hope. That’s why he says we are saved by hope in verses 24 and 25.
Then in verse 26 he says there is someone that makes intercession to God for us as we carry these burdens of life: the Holy Spirit. “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” This is not a miracle or a miraculous gift of the Spirit. This is not the Holy Spirit speaking to us. It has nothing to do with that. Paul said the Holy Spirit helps us through the dark times in life. He “helps our weaknesses.” How? He explains. He says the Spirit makes intercession for us. Intercession to whom? To God the Father. He explains that further in verse 27: “Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
You might say, “Why would the Holy Spirit talk to God the Father about our situation if God the Father already knows?” But you could ask the same question about Jesus. The Bible says Jesus is our Advocate with the Father in First John 2 verse 1. If God already knows about our sins and knows how He will forgive them, you could ask, “Then why is Jesus our Advocate with the Father when we sin?” Also, think about it in this way. Jesus said in John 16 verse 13 that the Holy Spirit would not speak from Himself but that He would speak whatever He heard—that is, what He heard from the Father. Of course, the Holy Spirit knew already. The Bible says the Spirit knows the deep things of God (First Corinthians 2 verse10). So when Paul says in Romans 8 verse 26 and 27 that the Holy Spirit makes intercession, that doesn’t mean that He informs God of something God didn’t know. That accommodative way of speaking is put there to encourage us. It helps us to know that we have help in times of grief and trouble.
Paul said the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us (not to us) in verse 26. And he does this with “groanings that cannot be uttered” or put into words. He makes intercession along with our groanings. There are times when you hurt so bad we can’t put the pain into words even when you pray to God. But the feelings are there. The need is there. And that’s where the Holy Spirit steps in. He takes those feelings and conveys them to God. That’s how He intercedes in this verse.
Paul said the reason the Spirit intercedes for us is because we have trouble expressing ourselves in times like this. He said, “For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought.” Now he cannot mean that we don’t know how to confess our sins. He can’t be saying we don’t know that we’re supposed to give thanks to God. He is not teaching that we don’t know to pray for others. When he says we don’t know what we should pray for like we should, he’s talking about praying to God when you’re under severe stress. You know you’re hurting. You feel desperate for help. You turn to God, but what do you say? You don’t know what to say sometimes. When your loved ones seem to be close to death and are suffering more than they can stand and more than you can bear to watch, what do you ask God? Do you pray that God will spare them and let them live or do you pray that God will let them die? When you have a family problem that seems impossible to fix, and no matter what you pray for, there’s some kind of obstacle, what do you say to God? When your heart is breaking and you’re overwhelmed with grief, you turn to God in prayer, but the words don’t come. It’s not like you’re having a conversation. You don’t know what to do or what to say. That’s why this verse is in the Bible. What Christians must learn to do is bow their heads before the throne of God and and pour out your heart without words. Just hand over the feelings to God. Prayer is more than simply saying all the “right” things.
What an encouraging verse this is. It’s a shame that Christians are afraid to mention it and take comfort in it because they’re afraid they might slide into Pentecostalism. But that’s an overreaction.
It is right after he talks about the intercession of the Spirit that Paul says those words in Romans 8 verse 28. And he doesn’t stop there. Read this whole section. Here’s what he wrote in Romans 8 verses 31 through 39: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” That’s what we need to remember. What difference does it make what others do if God is on our side? And what good is it to have others on our side if it means God is against us? And then think about what he says next in verse 32. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” If God gave His only begotten Son for us, then there’s nothing He won’t give us if it’s for our good. If God agave His only Son to die for you, then God can give peace. He can give comfort. And, Paul said, don’t worry about what others say or do. He wrote beginning in verse 33, “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That is the context of Romans 8 verse 28.
One of the greatest stories in the Bible about bad things working out for the good in the long run is the story of Joseph. Now the best way by far to let that story sink in is to read it. That would be great Bible reading sometime today after you get through with this podcast. Just read Genesis chapter 37 through 50. If you can’t read all of it, then at least get started. No matter how many times you’ve read it or heard sermons on it, that old story will move you. It will stir your soul.
The story begins in Genesis 37. Right away you see things that are not good in this situation. Jacob has 12 sons. Joseph is 17 years old. His father knew that the other sons were doing things that were not right. He trusted Joseph and relied on him to find out what the other brothers were doing. And the Bible also tells us that Jacob loved Joseph more than the other sons and made him the famous coat of many colors. That caused the brothers to resent Joseph. They were jealous of him. But then something else happened that caused even more resentment. Joseph dreamed that they were in a field gathering sheaves. In that dream, he said, his brothers’ sheaves bowed down to his sheaf. He didn’t have to interpret the dream for them. They got the message. And that caused them to hate him even more. Then he had another dream where the sun, the moon, and the 11 stars bowed before him. This time even his father seemed to be offended or at least surprised. His brothers mocked Joseph with the nickname “the dreamer.“
Now Joseph didn’t ask for any of these things. He didn’t ask his father for a special coat. He didn’t ask God for the dreams. But he had to learn to deal with the situation at a young age. If Joseph had been like a lot of people, he would’ve turned into a mean, spiteful person because of the way that he was treated by his brothers. But he didn’t. It may be that the conflict in his family growing up helped to make him the man he became.
We see in the story that sin has a way of getting worse. Things like envy and hate progress if they are not halted. That’s what happened with Joseph’s brothers. They saw an opportunity to get even with the brother they called the “dreamer.” They caught him and threw him into a pit. The oldest brother talked them out of killing Joseph. But they weren’t going to let him get off without suffering. So they sold him as a slave to some slave traders who happened to be passing by. They took his coat of many colors, killed a goat and took some blood and put it on that coat and brought it to their father. Jacob immediately thought a wild animal had killed his beloved son. The grief was almost more than he could bear. His family tried to comfort him, but he said he would go down to his grave mourning for his son. For the next 20 years, Jacob had to live with that grief every day all because of the lie his sons led him to believe.
Joseph ended up in the land of Egypt in Genesis 39. He had a master there named Potiphar. Potiphar was good to Joseph. He respected Joseph and gave him a good job. As a matter of fact, he made him the manager over his whole estate. The Bible says during this time that the Lord was with Joseph. But there were problems, and especially one problem. His master’s wife tried to seduce Joseph. When Joseph refused, she accused him of trying to seduce her. That’s when his master put him in prison. So just when things were looking up for Joseph, trouble came out of nowhere and brought him down again. But the Bible says while Joseph was in prison, he gained the respect of the keeper of the prison. That man put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners. Why? Because he like Joseph’s master before, could see that Joseph was trustworthy and a man of ability. And the Bible repeatedly says in this chapter that “the Lord was with him.”
In Genesis 40, while he was a prisoner, Joseph met other prisoners that the king had put there. One was the king’s butler and the other was the king‘s baker. Both of these men had dreams that bothered them. Joseph interpreted those dreams. The bakers dream meant bad news for him. And it happened just as Joseph said because the king had him put to death. But the dream of the butler meant good news. The king let him out of prison and gave him back his old job. But although Joseph asked him to remember him if he got out of prison, the butler forgot about him anyway.
Until, that is, the king of Egypt himself had a dream that bothered him in Genesis 41. When the butler found out about it, he told the king that there was a Hebrew man in prison with him that could interpret dreams, and the king immediately sent for Joseph. Joseph interpreted his dreams and told him that there would be seven good years, followed by seven bad years. During the good years, they would have plenty of food and be prosperous. During the bad years, there would be a famine so great that everybody would forget about the good years. So he advised the king, Pharaoh, that is, to store up grain during the seven good years so that they would have food during the seven lean years. When the king heard this advice, he promoted Joseph to a position of great power and made him second only to himself in the nation. He was thirty years old at the time. Joseph married and had two sons, and that gave him some comfort. Meanwhile, his father back home thinks that he’s dead and lives with that pain every day. And on top of that, Jacob‘s wife, Rachel, Joseph’s mother, had died before he was taken to Egypt.
The Bible then tells us that the seven years of plenty ended, and the seven years of famine began. There was a great drought throughout all the land. It was hard to find food after a while. But not in Egypt. They had plenty of grain. Joseph’s father and his brothers and their families live far away, but they heard that there was food in Egypt. So Jacob sent them to see if they could buy food in Egypt. This is in Genesis chapter 42. His brothers went to Egypt and a little did they know that they were standing before Joseph, the very brother they had betrayed all those years ago. They didn’t recognize him. But he recognized them. After several very emotional events and another trip after this one back to Egypt, Joseph finally told them who he was. With his heart breaking, Joseph told his brothers who he was. And then he said some of the most remarkable words about the providence of God you’ll read anywhere in the Bible. Those words are in Genesis chapter 45 verses five through eight. Joseph told his brothers, “But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.” Think about what Joseph said. “God sent me” here. God didn’t make his brothers sell Joseph to be a slave. But in some way beyond our comprehension, God opened a door for them and they made the choice. It’s not just that the all-seeing eye of God foreknew that Joseph would end up in Egypt. It’s that His providential hand worked behind the scenes and intervened in what happened. God sent Joseph to Egypt. Now listen as Joseph continues: “For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.” Now notice that Jospeh says for the third time that God was behind what happened all along: “So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.”
After that very emotional reunion, his brothers went back and told their father that Joseph was alive. He didn’t believe it when he first heard the news. It had been well over twenty years since he saw the blood on Joseph’s coat and thought he was dead. He had believed a lie so long he had trouble believing the truth! And think of all the heartache those brothers caused their father. They watched him grieve day after day. But they wouldn’t tell him what happened. But Jacob pulled himself together and saw Joseph before he died. That is, he saw him in this world. They’re together now in glory. They’ve been together for a long, long time. But Jacob was old and his health was failing. A few chapters later in Genesis 49 they Bible says he breathed his last and was gathered to his people. Joseph’s brothers were afraid when that happened. They though Jospeh would kill them for what they’d done to him all those years ago. And that’s when Joseph said these remarkable words: “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (Genesis 50 verses 19 and 20). That is how all things can work together for good.
So here is a story of all kinds of grief and pain and loneliness and emptiness and conflict and crisis and anger and fear, and yet God brought good out of it all in the end. I don’t know of a better commentary on Romans 8 verse 28 than the story of Joseph in Genesis 37 through 50.
But there are other stories. The book of Ruth is an example of all things working together for good in the end. There was a drought in Judea. So a man named Elimelech, his wife Naomi and their two sons moved to the country of Moab. But tragedy struck on the heels of this economic trouble. Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died. Her two sons married women from Moab. One of those women was Ruth. Ten years later both of Naomi’s sons died. That left her alone with her daughters-in-law. She heard that the drought was over in her homeland of Judea, so she decided to go back home. Ruth went with her. When they arrived in Bethlehem, they were poor, grieving widows. Here’s what Naomi said, “I went out full, and the Lord brought me home again empty” (Ruth 1 verse 21).
So what good came from all this heartache and stress? For one thing, Ruth was converted to the true God of Israel. But there’s something else. Ruth ended up marrying a Jewish man named Boaz. They had a son named Obed, and Obed had a son named Jesse, and Jesse had a son named David—yes, David the kind of Israel, one of the most famous men in the Bible! Ruth was his great grandmother! But if all this hadn’t happened, there wouldn’t have been a David (at least not the way he came into the world)! But think about all the pain it took to bring David into the world. A famine—a scarceness of food and water—caused this family in Bethlehem to move to a foreign land. Then the father died. Then the two sons died. And yet because of that drought, because Naomi lost her sons, and because Ruth lost a husband, the great man David was born!
Then there is the story of Hannah in First Samuel 1. She was one of the wives of a man named Elkanah. The Bible says “the Lord closed her womb” which means she couldn’t have children (First Samuel 1 verse 5). That is a traumatic thing for a woman. It was especially painful to a Jewish woman. That was a heavy grief to bear. But that wasn’t all. The other wife tormented her by saying and/or doing all kinds of ugly, mean things. It shouldn’t be that way, but that’s how life is sometimes. You’re trying to deal with one hardship and here comes another. The Bible says the other wife “provoked her severely, to make her miserable” (First Samuel 1 verse 5). But then there was another very unfair thing she had to deal with (now you read all of this in First Samuel chapter 1). She was pouring her heart out to the Lord and the high priest saw her. He saw her lips move but he couldn’t hear her say anything, so he said she was drunk. He even accused her to her face that she was drunk. That was not true! But here was a man that was supposed to be a just man, a leader of the people, and he falsely accused her. And, by the way, he was letting his grown sons get away with all kinds of sin and didn’t do anything about it. So he’s a hypocrite. But all this didn’t stop Hannah from doing what was right. In fact, she prayed even harder that God would give her a son. First Samuel 1 verse 11 says, “Then she made a vow and said, ‘O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head.’” That is one of the most heartfelt, fervent prayers in the Bible. And God answered her prayer. He gave her a son who grew up to be one of the greatest men in the Bible. His name was Samuel. I say he was one of the greatest men in the Bible because that’s what God shows in Jeremiah 15 verse 1. God named two men in that verse as examples of faith and virtue. One was Moses. The other was Samuel. But think about how Samuel came into the world. If she hadn’t been barren all that time, would she have prayed a prayer like that? If there hadn’t been another wife to torment her, would she have prayed like this? It took a lot of pain and anguish to give the great leader Samuel to the world.
And then there’s the apostle Paul. Philippians chapter one is another great commentary on Romans 8 verse 28. Paul was a prisoner. That might have seemed like defeat in the minds of some brethren. But here’s what Paul said about all the hardship he was going through: “But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel” (Philippians 1 verse 12). The bad things that happened to Paul didn’t hinder the gospel. It helped to further the gospel! And Paul tells us how. His being arrested gave others, even Roman soldiers, the opportunity to learn about Jesus. Then, another good outcome was that Paul’s arrest gave courage to other preachers. They thought if Paul can do it, so can we. So, instead of being afraid, they were emboldened! And then Paul said even if some preached with a wrong motive or a bad attitude, as long as they preached the truth, he rejoiced! You read all this in Philippians 1 verses 12 through 18. All things worked together for good!
But remember that Romans 8 verse 28 is not a promise to just anyone who’s going through hard times. Paul said all things work together for good to “those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Who are these people? Christians. People who truly love God. How do we know we love Him? Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14 verse 15). He said, “He who has My commandments, and keeps them, it is he who loves Me” (John 14 verse 21).
And Paul says those who are called have this promise. How are we called? The Bible says that God calls us by His gospel (Second Thessalonians 2 verse 14). That’s a verse you don’t hear much when people talk about being called. People who are called by the gospel and obey that gospel are saved and can lay claim to the promise that all things work together for good. The Bible says in Romans 6 verse 4 through 6 that we die to sin by penitent faith, we are buried with Him when we are baptized into His death, and we are raised from that watery grave of baptism to walk in newness of life. That’s when and how our sins are washed away. And all the troubles we may have faced before or will face after that moment only serve to work together for good.
Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs. Study at your level. Aim higher and get in touch with us today.