Limitation to the Promise: by ML Jones

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. Romans 8:28

We now note what we might call the limitation to this promise. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.” In the original that is emphasized by placing “to them that love God” at the commencement of the sentence. “We know that to them that love God all things work together for good.”

The promise is definitely limited. It is not universal as to the people included. The popular idea of the love of God is the very antithesis of this. That idea says that He is regarded as promising to bless all in exactly the same way. That He does so in His providential dealings with mankind in general is true. But following that, there is a great fundamental division and distinction everywhere in the Bible between the saved and the unsaved, between those who have entered into a covenant relationship with God in salvation through Jesus Christ and those who have not, or, to use the words of our text, “those who are the called” and those who have not been called.

Salvation is the result of the operation of special grace, and there are special promises to those who have received this grace. The Gospel has but one word to speak to those who do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is to exhort them to repent and to believe. It holds out to them no special promises until they have done so. Indeed it threatens them with disaster. It does not tell them that “All things work together for good” for the reason that it tells them that they are “condemned already.” Special promises and comforts and consolations are not to be obtained directly. They are the consequences and results of salvation. They are offered only to those who “love God.”

An All-Inclusive Promise: by ML Jones

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. Romans 8:28

Let us look at the all-inclusiveness of the promise—“all things work together for good.” It is generally agreed that the “all things” has special reference to trials and tribulations. Here is one of the most remarkable claims ever made for Christianity. Here is certainly the boldest justification of God’s ways to man.

Let us observe what this verse says. Perhaps we shall best be able to grasp its significance if we approach it along the negative route. We see clearly that, as Christians, we are not promised an easy time in this world. Our Lord Himself in His teaching told the disciples that they would have tribulations and trials and sufferings. And in the same way Paul teaches that “unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake” (Philippians 1:29). The Christian’s view of life and of the world is realistic, not romantic. He does not avoid troubles and problems. Neither does he try to minimize the seriousness and the greatness of the troubles and problems. The glory of the Gospel is that it faces the whole situation without shirking anything, and yet shows the way out.

Some of the older versions bring out this feature in our text very clearly by adding the word “God” to “all things work together for good”—i.e., that “God works all things together for good to them who love him.” And that is undoubtedly what the apostle teaches. These trials are not to be ignored; neither are they without any explanation whatsoever. God uses them to our advantage in order to bring His own great purposes to pass. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.” That is the ultimate justification of God’s ways; that is the ultimate answer to all our questions as to why God allows certain things to happen.

God’s Palms: by JI Packer

See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Isaiah 49:16

What matters supremely is not the fact that I know God but the larger fact that underlies it—the fact that he knows me. I am graven on the palms of his hands. I am never out of his mind. All my knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me. I know him because he first knew me and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me. There is no moment when his eye is off me or his attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when his care falters. This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort—the sort of comfort that energizes, be it said, not enervates—in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good.

I Must Speak: by John Owen

Ephesians 4:15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

Consider, then, that of our Savior to Peter in Luke 22:32, “When you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” which containing nothing but an application of one of the prime dictates of the law of nature, cannot, ought not, to be restrained unto men of any peculiar calling as such. Not to multiply many of this kind (whereof in the Scripture is plenty), add only that of St James, James 5:19, 20, “My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back,  remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.” etc. From these and the like places it appears to me, that, —

There is a general obligation on all Christians to promote the conversion and instruction of sinners, and men erring from the right way.

Again, consider that of our Savior, Matt. 5:15, “Men do not light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it gives light unto all that are in the house;” to which add that of the apostle, “If anything be revealed to another that sits by, let the first hold his peace,” 1 Cor. 14:30 which words, although primarily they intend extraordinary immediate revelations, yet I see no reason why in their equity and extent they may not be directory for the use of things revealed unto us by Scripture light. At least, we may deduce from them, by the way of analogy, that, — Whatsoever necessary truth is revealed to any out of the word of God, not before known, he ought to have an uncontradicted liberty of declaring that truth, provided that he use such regulated ways for that his declaration as the church wherein he lives (if a right church) cloth allow.

Amos 3:8 says, “The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?” and Jer. 20: 9, “Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay;” with the answer of Peter and John to the rulers of the Jews, Acts 4:19, 20, “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye; for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”

From this it appears, that, — Truth revealed unto any carries along with it an unmovable persuasion of conscience (which is powerfully obligatory) that it ought to be published and spoken to others.

That none may take advantage of this to introduce confusion into our congregations.

Is It Unlikely? By Oswald Chambers

Joab . . . had conspired with Adonijah though not with Absalom. — 1 Kings 2:28

Joab passed the big test: he remained loyal and true to David for nearly four decades, and he resisted the fascinating and ambitious Absalom. It might seem unlikely that a man of such proven integrity would ever turn his back on God. And yet, when David was on his deathbed, Joab conspired to help the scheming Adonijah seize the throne (1 Kings 1:1–7).

Always remain alert to the fact that where one has turned back, any may turn back. “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind” (1 Corinthians 10:13). Have you recently passed a big test of loyalty to God? Now is the time to pay attention to the details. “But,” you protest, “it’s not at all likely that I’ll turn back now—not after everything I’ve been through.” Don’t try to predict how temptation will come; peril lies in the least likely thing. It is in the aftermath of a great spiritual transaction that the sphere of the small and seemingly insignificant begins to exert itself. It doesn’t become dominant, but if we don’t remember that it is there, if we don’t remember to warn ourselves about it, it will trip us up.

If you’ve remained true to God under great and intense trials, now is the time to watch out for the undertow. Don’t become morbidly introspective, looking toward the future with dread. Just remain alert, keeping your memory bright before God. Unguarded strength is double weakness. The Bible characters fell on their strong points, never on their weak ones. “Shielded by God’s power” (1 Peter 1:5): that is the only safety.

It Is Modern Man Himself Who Is the Dreamer: by AW Tozer

1 Thessalonians 5:5-6 You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.  So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober.

We of the Christian faith need not go on the defensive, for it is the modern man of the world who is the dreamer, not the Christian believer!

The sinner can never be quite himself. All his life he must pretend. He must act as if he were never going to die, and yet he knows too well that he is. He must act as if he had not sinned, when in his deep heart he knows very well that he has. He must act unconcerned about God and judgment and the future life, and all the time his heart is deeply disturbed about his precarious condition. He must keep up a front of nonchalance while shrinking from facts and wincing under the lash of conscience. All his adult life he must dodge and hide and conceal. When he finally drops the act he either loses his mind or tries suicide.

If realism is the recognition of things as they actually are, the Christian is of all persons the most realistic. He of all intelligent thinkers is the one most concerned with reality. He pares things down to their stark essentials and squeezes out of his mind everything that inflates his thinking. He demands to know the whole truth about God, sin, life, death, moral accountability and the world to come. He wants to know the worst about himself in order that he may do something about it. He takes into account the undeniable fact that he has sinned. He recognizes the shortness of time and the certainty of death. These he does not try to avoid or alter to his own liking. They are facts and he faces them full on.

The believer is a realist—his expectations are valid and his faith well grounded!

IN CHRIST: by ML Jones

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:22

Paul draws a contrast between the union of the unbeliever with Adam and the union of the believer with Christ. This is the great argument in Romans 5, which is repeated in 1 Corinthians 15:22, 49. In Romans 5 the whole argument is that death passed on to all people because of Adam. Why? Because of their relationship to Adam; that is the whole doctrine of original sin. We are all condemned in Adam because of Adam’s sin. He was our representative, he was our federal head; and not only that, we are bound to him, we were in the loins of Adam when he fell. In Adam all died.

In Christ all shall be made alive again. That is it. The relationship of the believer to Christ is the same sort of union and relationship as that old relationship of the whole of Adam’s posterity to Adam. We are all born in Adam, and we are related, we are joined in that way. Yes, but being born again, we are in the same sort of relationship to Christ.

Regeneration and union must never be separated. You cannot be born again without being in Christ; you are born again because you are in Christ. The moment you are in Him you are born again, and you cannot regard your regeneration as something separate and think that union is something you will eventually arrive at. Not at all! Regeneration and union must always be considered together and at the same time because the one depends upon the other and leads to the other; they are mutually self-supporting.

There is nothing that so strengthens my faith and fills me with a longing to be pure as He is pure and to live even as He did in this world as the realization of what I am and who I am because I am a Christian. I am a child of God, and I am in Christ.