God Guarantees Our Good

Romans 8:28
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, May 30, 2010
Copyright © 2010, P. G. Mathew

And we know that to those who love God, in all things God works for good, to those according to purpose are called (Rom. 8:28, author’s translation).

God guarantees our good. What is our good? Our eternal happiness, salvation, and glory. Like Psalm 23 and John 3:16, Romans 8:28 is one of the most well-known verses of the Bible. It speaks of the absolute certainty of the final salvation of a true believer in Jesus Christ. The proposition regarding our assurance made in this verse is explained further in Romans 8:29-30. If you are a child of God, you may derive great comfort from this scripture. God is speaking to all his suffering children. Dr. John Stott says of Romans 8:28: “It has been likened to a pillow to rest our weary heads.”¹

Why do God’s children suffer afflictions? Why doesn’t God eliminate all sufferings in answer to our prayers? If the Holy Spirit intercedes with God the Father in behalf of us according to God’s will, why do God’s people still suffer? Why do bad things happen to God’s good people?

Paul assures us that afflictions are salutary and profitable. God makes them work for our ultimate good. God directs all things, good and bad, to bring about God’s ultimate purpose of our lives-our glory for God’s glory. Let us then consider seven things from this proposition of Romans 8:28.

1. “And We Know”

Paul begins, “And we know” (oidamen de). In other words, we know something for certain, we have unshakable knowledge. Romans 8:26 stated that true believers “do not know” (ouk oidamen) what to pray for in the will of God, especially in unusual and crisis situations, and therefore the Holy Spirit intercedes in behalf of us according to the perfect will of the Father. But in this verse we are told something we do know.

There are many things we do not know in this life, especially why certain negative things are happening to us. Joseph did not know why his brothers hated him, threw him into a pit, sold him to the Midianite merchants for twenty shekels, and why the merchants then sold him as a slave to Potiphar of Egypt. He did not know why Mrs. Potiphar accused him of rape, why he was put in prison, and why the butler of Pharaoh completely forgot to help him get out of the prison, as promised. As we read in Deuteronomy 29:29, the secret things belong to the Lord our God. We do not know everything now, but we will know by and by. But we do know the ultimate things. We know for certain that we are destined for glory. God will bring all his people to final and full salvation through the valley of the shadow of death.

How do we know what we know? We know by faith. We know by the Holy Spirit’s illumination. We know from God’s propositional revelation, the Bible.

Jesus loves me, this I know,

for the Bible tells me so.

So we know God brings good out of bad things because the Scriptures tell us this truth. The psalmist declares, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word. . . . It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees” (Ps. 119:67, 71). He also writes, ‘Because he loves me,’ says the LORD, ‘I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name'” (Ps. 91:14).

It is not that we feel, but we know. Therefore, God’s people engage in serious daily Bible study to know God and his plan for our lives. He is for us and he will save us: “In the desert land . . . he shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye” (Deut. 32:10; see also Zech. 2:8). Deuteronomy 32:9 says that we are the Lord’s portion, his allotted inheritance.

God is our portion and inheritance. Therefore, we know that no harm will ultimately come to us because from the Scriptures we know the ultimate reality that God saves his people. All Scripture is written for our comfort: “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the [comfort] of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4). God gave us his word to teach us that we may have endurance, comfort, and hope. Therefore, can you say with Paul, “We know”?

2. God Works for Our Salvation

Our great and good God works for our salvation. He weaves together all experiences in this life-good and bad, pain and laughter, prosperity and adversity-for the good of his children. The lie of evolutionary hypothesis is that things work of themselves. No, God works in all things.

Romans 8:28 begins in the Greek, “And we know that to those who love God. . .” God is the subject, not all things. But even if we take “all things” as the subject of this proposition, we know God must work in all things. So we read, “In all things God works.” God is working always, not once in a while. He works to bring about our good in and through all the happenings in his universe and in all the experiences of our lives.

God is always at work in our lives. He ceaselessly, energetically, and purposefully works in us moment by moment. He never sleeps nor slumbers. Jesus said, “My Father at always at his work to this very day, and I too am working” (John 5:17). It is against Christianity for a person to be lazy, unproductive, a failure in school, or living off of parents and the government. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, as well as God’s holy angels and his holy church, are all at work to save God’s people through the preaching of the gospel. And God never fails. Nothing, therefore, in all creation is able to separate us from the love of God.

There is no equal ultimacy of good and evil. God is almighty, all holy, and all wise. So no evil can frustrate God’s purpose to save us. Everything is under God’s control. Satan could not tempt Job without God’s permission. God puts a hedge, a wall of fire, around his people. So Job would not curse God; rather, by God’s grace, he blessed God, despite his tragedies. How could he do so? Because God works in everything for our salvation.

3. He Works for Good

God works for or “unto” good (eis agathon). Our triune God works in everything for our ultimate good, not necessarily to give us the earthly goods of health, wealth, power, or fame. Recall the experiences of the saints recorded in Hebrews 11: “Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground” (vv. 35b-38). Or listen to Paul: “Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea” (2 Cor. 11:23-25).

God works for the ultimate good of conforming us to the image of his Son. We were once wrath-filled enemies of God, dead in trespasses and sins. But he took us ungodly, powerless nobodies of the world and made us glorious saints who now praise God for his grace.

God uses all measures at his disposal to do good to his people, including the discipline of expelling them from the church and giving them over to Satan that he may work on them. Paul speaks of this in his letter to the Corinthians: “When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan, so that the [flesh] may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord” (1 Cor. 5:4-5). To the same church Paul wrote, “That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep,” because God’s judgment had come upon them. But then he explained, “When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world” (1 Cor. 11:30, 32).

The goal of God’s good work in is our eschatological glory of final salvation. The people of God are destined to shine like the sun in the kingdom of God the Father.

Fear not, little flock: our God is at work in us for our good. To the rich young ruler who worshiped money and called him “good teacher,” Jesus said, “No one is good-except God alone” (Luke 18:20). God is good, and he works good. God permits evil, but he is never the author of it. Jesus said, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matt. 7:11). God alone is good, and he gives good gifts.

God works for our good and our glory. Our good is the goal of all God’s providential dealings. Out of all things God brings good. Look at a watch. One wheel moves in one direction, the other goes in the opposite direction, yet the watch shows correct time. Look at bread. Wheat is made into flour by crushing it; then water and yeast are added to it. More pressure is applied through kneading and then it is put in a hot oven to bake. The result is good bread. Likewise, God works with us through positive as well as negative experiences to bring about our good ultimate end.

Professor John Murray called the crucifixion of the sinless Son of God “the arch-crime of history.”² Yet through this arch-crime God brought about our salvation. Peter declared, “This man was handed over to you God’s set purpose and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross” (Acts 2:23). Paul says of Christ’s death, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised for our justification” (Rom. 4:25).

Not even one small thing in our lives can ultimately work for our destruction. Everything is working, and God works through everything for our good. Moses said, “He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you” (Deut. 8:16). Since God is at work, everything will work for our good by God’s providence.

4. In All Things

“In all things” means in both good and bad experiences of God’s people, but the emphasis is on our present sufferings. We are weak and suffer daily. We may go through many fiery trials. Yet these cannot destroy us. Instead, they serve to purify our faith by removing the filth, dross, and impurities of our lives, and produce in us endurance and proven character. So our trials are achieving for us an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4:17). In other words, they bring about our sanctification. Sufferings under God’s providence are our servants, though they are evil in themselves.

We do not court sufferings. We are not ascetics who mutilate their bodies. But the shocking truth is that even our sins and our backslidings can only contribute to our final good. The prodigal came to a better knowledge of his father when he returned. Nothing can prevent God from saving us, not even our sins. Bishop Anders Nygren says, “Thus all that is negative in this life is seen to have a positive purpose in the execution of God’s eternal plan.”³ John Stott declares, “Nothing is beyond the overruling, overriding scope of his providence.”⁴

God permits terrible things to happen to us. Study the lives of Joseph, Job, Jacob, Jeremiah, and Jesus. Listen to Paul, who says, “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Cor. 12:7-9).

Not only does God allow terrible things to happen to us, but he also leads us directly into bitter experiences: “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deut. 8:3).

In 1841, the family bank of J. C. Ryle, who later became one of the great evangelical theologians in nineteenth-century England, failed in one day. His family lost everything. Of that time Ryle wrote:

I have not the least doubt it was all for the best. If my father’s affairs had prospered and I had never been ruined, my life, of course, would have been a very different one. I should have probably gone into Parliament very soon and it is impossible to say what the effect of this might have been upon my soul. I should have formed different connections, and moved in an entirely different circle. I should never have been a clergyman, never have preached, written a tract or book. Perhaps I might have made shipwreck in spiritual things. So I do not mean to say at all, that I wish it to have been different to what it was. All I mean to say is that I was deeply wounded by my reverses, suffered deeply under them, and I do not think I have recovered in body and mind from the effect of them.⁵

My family suffered a similar economic collapse in 1910. This circumstance was ultimately used by God to bring my parents to evangelical faith. In a sense, I preach the gospel today because of the economic deprivation suffered by my grandparents a hundred years ago. God works in all things for our good.

Moreover, God may also withhold blessings. He turns his face away from us and may not smile on us for a season. He scolds and rebukes: “On that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and difficulties will come upon them, and on that day they will ask, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is not with us?’ And I will certainly hide my face on that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods” (Deut. 31:17-18; see also Deut. 32:20). The psalmist cries, “Answer me quickly, O LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit” (Ps. 143:7). But through all these things God brings about our repentance and correction.

Through the high pressure and heat of many experiences, he creates many sons of glory. So Paul writes,

Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-more than that, who was raised to life-is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, nor the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:34-35, 37-39)

5. To Those Who Love God

“To those who love God” is a limiting clause. The comfort of Romans 8:28 is limited to a minority, a remnant of people who are characterized by love for God. God does not work in all things for the good of the vast majority of people. Of such people Paul says, “What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath-prepared for destruction?” (Rom. 9:22). But the comfort of Romans 8:28 is for those who love the true and living God, that is, the triune God who has revealed himself in nature and especially in the Holy Bible.

Most religious people of the world do not love the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Rather, they are devil worshipers who hate the true God. They sacrifice to demons, which are not God (Deut. 32:17; see also 1 Cor. 10:20). They will not repent and believe on Jesus Christ because they worship Satan, the god of this world. They would rather believe in the lie of religious pluralism.

But Paul writes, “To those who love God. . .” Do you love God? Consider this carefully so you can arrive at the correct conclusion. There is emphasis in the Greek text. It does not say “to those who believe God,” but “to those who love God.” We love God because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). By his love, God transforms his enemies into lovers of God. The first commandment, Jesus said, is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). And Paul says, “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Rom. 5:5). The Holy Spirit floods our souls with love, that we may love God.

So Paul writes to the Corinthians, “However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. . . .’ But the man who loves God is known by God. . . . If anyone does not love the Lord-a curse be on him” (1 Cor. 2:9; 8:3; 16:22, italics added). He writes to the Ephesians, “Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love” (Eph. 6:24).

Jesus said, “If [you] love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15, KJV). So God works in all things for the good of those who love him, that is, those who obey him. Or we could say, God works for the good of those who are being sanctified. If we believe in God, we will love God. And if we love God, we will obey God with delight.

This verse speaks against universalism, as taught by theologians like Karl Barth, who taught that because God is love, all will be saved in the end, including all wicked people, all evil angels, and the devil himself. This is the danger of speaking about unconditional love at the expense of the justice and holiness of God.

But the Scriptures condemn such universalism. God works in all things for the good of those who love him. The devil believes that God exists and even trembles at this thought, but he does not love God. (PGM) In fact, he is at war with God, even though he always loses. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice.” That means they hear and do. Jesus prayed for his sheep, who are the Father’s gifts to him. He did not pray for the world. The Lord knows those who are his. The visible church is always a mixture of people who love God and those who pretend to love God. But eventually the God-haters will stop pretending and will fall away. So John says, “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us” (1 John 2:19).

What do you love from the depths of your heart? What do you love when you are alone? What do you love with all your heart, soul, mind, and might? Do you love the goods of the world? Or do you love God, the Creator and Redeemer, the Lover of our souls? John tells us, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world-the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:15-17).

John Piper said this is how we know if we love God: Do we desire God? Do we treasure God? Are we satisfied with God? The word “love” is in the present tense. Do we love God always, not once in a great while? And especially do we love God in the midst of adversity? Assurance of our full, final, and glorious salvation belongs only to the lovers of God who obey him. They love and obey God because God loved them and sent his Son to die on the cross for their salvation.

6. To Those Who Are Called

“To those who are called. . . .” Our love for God springs from our being effectually called by God with the gospel. Our love for God is subjective, but the objective basis of our love is God’s call. So Paul writes, “Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 1:5-7).

Through the gospel preaching, God calls sinners to repentance. “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!'” (Isa. 52:7). It is time we appreciated preachers of the gospel. Bad heads of state and bad physicians can only kill us, but a bad preacher can send us to hell. That is why we must be careful what church we attend. The question is whether the preacher preaches the word of God or not. If a minister does not preach the gospel, then run from that place and find a place where it is preached.

We are called to be holy. Paul writes, “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ-their Lord and ours” (1 Cor. 1:2, italics added). Many who call themselves Christians are mere pretenders. But do they truly love God? Are they living holy lives? We are called to be saints. God is calling people to come to him and enjoy fellowship with him, which is eternal life: “God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful” (1 Cor. 1:9). God is calling us to come to live with him.

God calls those who are dead in trespasses and sins to come to him. He calls those who are weary of sin to come to Jesus and he will give them rest. He is life and he gives life. He is the light that enlightens the blind. The call of the gospel has to do with the person and saving work of Christ. The gospel is the medicine for sinners’ health.

Because of our moral inability, we cannot come to God unless he enables us. Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44; see also John 6:65). By nature we are dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1). But when Jesus calls, we come through his powerful, divine drawing. When Jesus called the dead and decomposing Lazarus, “Lazarus, come forth!” he came. Elsewhere Jesus said, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32). So the Father draws, the Son draws, the Holy Spirit regenerates us, and we come.

When God calls, we come. If a person has not come to Christ, God did not call him effectually. There is a general call and there is a specific, particular call, an outward call and an interior call by the Holy Spirit. Yet many people do not come to Jesus. They have excuses: “I bought a new field”; “I bought a new tractor”; “I got married.” Many people may hear the gospel, but they go to their deaths never having come to Christ. Such people were never called by the Spirit in the interior of their being.

Jesus said, “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matt. 22:14). There is the general call, which offers life, and there is the call of the Holy Spirit, which gives us life. There is the general call, which offers hope, and there is the call of the Spirit, that gives hope.

God’s particular, effectual, and internal call of the gospel comes to the poor, crippled, blind, and lame (Luke 14:21). God effectually calls not many who are wise or noble; rather, he calls the foolish, the weak, the lowly, the despised, and the nothings of this world (1 Cor. 1:26ff). This general call is to be given to all. We are to go into all the world and preach the gospel.

The effectual call comes only to the elect. And when God’s powerful, effectual call comes, we cannot sit still. We will say, “God is calling me, and I am coming to him.” Through the effectual call of the Spirit, a sinner is regenerated and given the gift of repentance and faith, so he will repent and believe in Christ.

When Jesus called, the blind Bartimaeus received his sight and followed Jesus (Mark 10:46-52). When Jesus commanded, the legion of demons were cast out of the miserable man, and he began to proclaim the gospel to his own people (Luke 8:26-39).

God’s effectual call came to Saul of Tarsus, a murderer and blasphemer, and he began to preach the gospel. Then he was directed to go to Europe, where he preached to some women in Philippi, a Roman colony. All of a sudden the Lord opened the heart of the businesswoman Lydia, and she and her entire household were effectually called and regenerated. They repented of their sins, believed in Jesus Christ, and were baptized and saved. God directed the feet of Paul from Asia all the way to Europe so that Lydia could be saved!

Paul then was beaten up and put in prison. There in the prison at midnight the jailer heard the gospel call from Paul, and he and his family were saved. Paul was beaten and thrust into prison so that this jailer could hear the gospel and be saved.

Later, when Paul was on his way to Rome as a prisoner, there was a shipwreck, but all 276 passengers landed safely on the island of Malta. Why did this happen? God engineered this shipwreck so Paul could preach the gospel in Malta. And the people of Malta whom God loved from all eternity heard the gospel, believed the gospel, and were saved.

Think about how you heard the gospel. God engineered it all. So Jude writes, “To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ” (v. 1). Why are we called? Because God the Father loved us. And we are “kept by Jesus Christ.” We are loved, called, and kept.

7. According to Purpose

Finally, Paul says, we are called “according to purpose.” It is God’s purpose, not ours. We love God because we are called, and we are called because of God’s eternal purpose. In Romans 8:29-30 Paul explains this great, grand, glorious purpose of God.

God purposed our salvation from all eternity, and his call came to us in time in our personal history. We remember when the call came to us and interrupted our lives, just as it interrupted the lives of the tax collector Matthew, the fisherman Peter, and the prosecutor Paul. After God called, they were never the same. What a glorious interruption and intervention! Those who are effectually called will rise to follow Jesus.

God’s purpose is behind it all. What is his purpose? It is to save us, to conform us to the image of Christ, and to glorify us, that Jesus Christ may have pre-eminence and the Father may be glorified. The ultimate purpose is for the praise of his glorious grace.

This purpose of God is unchanging. Nothing in all creation can thwart it, frustrate it, or prevent it from happening. To accomplish this purpose in the fullness of time, God sent his Son to die in our place for our sins on the cross: “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened in the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering” (Rom. 8:3).

In the fullness of time, God sent his own Son to accomplish redemption. So Paul says, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law” (Gal. 4:4). Then God sent his Holy Spirit to apply this redemption to us. “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father'” (Gal. 4:6). In Romans 29-30 Paul uses five verbs in the past (aorist) tense: God foreloved, predestinated, called, justified, and glorified. God purposed and accomplished his purpose, and we now enjoy this great salvation. His purpose is the guarantee of our full and final salvation.

God’s purpose is his will, plan, and good pleasure. Elsewhere Paul states, “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (Eph. 1:11). God alone does what he wills. Paul also says, “The manifold wisdom of God [is being] made known . . . according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph. 3:10-11). So God’s purpose is behind our calling. We love God because of his purpose, and we repent and believe because of God’s purpose.

Paul also explains, “[God] has saved us and called us to a holy life-not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time” (2 Tim. 1:9). If people do not live holy lives, they are not called and are not in God’s purpose. Why are true pastors persecuted? Because they preach that Christians are called to live holy lives. The simple reason is that people like to sin. But we are not called to conform to our modern ungodly culture. We are called to be saints. I pray that we will never get used to moral filth, but will oppose it and show people the way out of it.

On the day of Pentecost, Peter declared, “[Jesus] was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross” (Acts 2:23). God purposed in eternity past, before creation and before the fall, to save a people and glorify them. Friends, we have been in the mind of God from all eternity. That is all we need to know. God loved us from eternity past, he loves us in time, and he will love us in eternity future. Therefore, we have no reason to doubt. Not even our death can threaten our salvation. God’s purpose will be done; neither Satan nor sin nor the world can prevent our glorious eternal happiness. If God is for us, who can be against us?

Conclusion

In conclusion, let us further examine the life of Joseph in light of Romans 8:28. Joseph’s father sent him to his brothers, who hated him and threw him into a pit. Then his own brothers sold him for twenty pieces of silver, though he cried and pleaded with them not to do it. Potiphar of Egypt bought him from the Midianite traders to be his slave. At Potiphar’s house, Joseph was falsely accused of rape and thrown into prison. Then he helped a fellow prisoner, Pharaoh’s butler, interpret his dream, and told the butler he was innocent. Yet for two years after his release, the butler forgot to help Joseph by speaking to Pharaoh. All this time Joseph did not know why these terrible things were happening to him. Yet God was working in all things for his good.

In Genesis 39 we find the secret of Joseph’s life: God was with him. So we read, “The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered. . . . His master saw that the Lord was with [Joseph] and that the Lord gave his success . . . From the time that [Potiphar] put [Joseph] in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian. . . . [Joseph told Potiphar’s wife,] ‘No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?’ . . . But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him. . . . The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care because the Lord was with Joseph” (Gen. 39:2-3, 5, 9, 21, 25).

This is the secret of our lives as well: God is with us. We do not see him, but he is with us. David declared, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me” (Ps. 23:4, KJV, italics added).

We may not understand certain things that happen to us, but we will understand by and by. Finally, Joseph was able to tell his brothers: “You purposed to destroy me, but God purposed it for good to save his people” (Gen. 50:20, author’s translation).

God’s purpose is to save us. To do so, he did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not, along with him, give us all things? So do not worry; God is with us. He has purposed to save us, and he always wins.

¹ John R. W. Stott, Romans: God’s Good News for the World (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1994), 246.

²John Murray, Collected Writings, Vol. 2: Systematic Theology (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1977), 73.

³ Anders Nygren, Commentary on Romans, translated by Carl Rasmussen (London: SCM Press, 1958), 338.

⁴ Stott, 247.

⁵ Quoted by Eric Russell in That Man of Granite with the Heart of a Child: Biography of J. C. Ryle (Ross-Shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus, 2001), 32.