Romans 8:28-30

Not everything works for our good.  I do not believe most politicians are working for everybody’s good.  I have known some employers who worked for nobody’s good but their own.  There are wicked individuals who do not have anybody’s best interests at heart.  Tornadoes, floods and hurricanes are not about doing us good.  Sin (the power of evil let loose in the world) seeks nothing but our destruction and damnation.  With so much in the natural world and so many people working to harm us, it would be easy to despair and give up.  Paul is writing to the church in the midst of persecution.  The emperor had blamed Christians for a great fire. He had them persecuted and driven from their homes.  Many were once again returning to Rome, but they were still living in great danger with the awareness that sin was seeking to destroy them.

In this, their darkest hour, Paul is writing to them to give them hope.  He tells them that no matter what the world and the wicked unrighteous people of the world throw at them, God is working.  They may not yet have the faith to recognize the hand of God at work in the midst of their suffering yet that does not change the reality that God is active.  They have experienced God’s call; God did not call them to destruction.  God called them with a purpose.  His purpose was for them to be reconciled and made righteous.  God’s had preordained that He would rescue all who responded to His call.  God knew that Jesus Christ would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  It was and is His plan that these many brothers and sisters would conform to the image of Christ.  While the world actively works toward our destruction, God is working to help us to transform us into the likeness of Christ.  God will not allow our destruction. Because God works, all efforts to harm us will fail.  Because God works, we are glorified.