Posted on 08/15/2018 5:12:01 AM PDT by Gamecock
When Paul declared the mysterious and breathtaking promise that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8: 28), he was musing in teleology. He was dealing with the realm of the remote rather than the proximate. This suggests that the proximate must be judged in light of the remote.
Our problem is this: We do not yet possess the full light of the remote. We are still looking in a dark mirror. We are not utterly devoid of light, though. We have enough light to know that God has a good purpose even when we are ignorant of that good purpose.
It is the good purpose of God that gives the final answer to the appearance of vanity and futility in this world. To trust in the good purpose of God is the very essence of godly faith. This is why no Christian can be an ultimate pessimist.
The world in which we live is not a world of chance. Its beginning was not an accident, its operation is not an accident, and its telos, or goal, is not an accident. This is my Father’s world and He rules it without caprice. As long as God exists, vanity is a manifest impossibility.
Coram Deo
Spend some time reflecting on the goodness of God. In what specific ways is His goodness being manifested to you right now?
Passages for Further Study
1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,8 for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Ping
IMHO, verse 28 should never be quoted without verse 29 - they are one thought.
Change “remote” for “eternal”, and “proximate” for “temporal” and some might understand it better.
Romans 8:28, 29 are simply a 10,000’, or eternal view of the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus on the cross.
What is the worst evil done in all of time? Hitler? Stalin? Mao? No. It was the false trial, torture, and crucifixion of the only perfect Man who ever walked the planet, the One who was Love in the flesh.
What is the best thing that ever happened in all of time? The death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus which purchased our salvation to the uttermost, bought our total forgiveness, made us righteous in Him.
Romans 8:28 & 29 describe this in the most simple terms anyone can understand - but it takes years and the Holy Spirit to comprehend. You cannot separate these verses from Christ’s finished work on the cross.
And if Christ’s work on the cross took the very worst evil ever, and made it the best, what does that say about all lesser evils? The ones we and others suffer every day?
They all are included in these wonderful, powerful, deep and comprehensive two verses.
But it will take us eternity to fully comprehend what is in them - the height, breadth, width and depth of God’s love and what He did in His Son’s death, burial and resurrection.
Praise God!
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