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Seven Things Working Together
for Your Good

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. (Romans 8:28)

THIS is a favorite Bible passage for many Christians. The common understanding of this verse has generally been that all things, whether they be good, bad or indifferent, work together in the plan of God to bring about good for those who love Him.

This view is something of a sacred cow, but I would like to challenge it because I believe it has brought about a dangerous misunderstanding of the means and purposes of God. It confuses goodness with that which is actually the enemy of goodness. Not only that, but when it is followed to its logical conclusion, it tends to make God the creator of evil.

In this view, when something bad happens, we are obliged to paint it as somehow contributing to the good rather than stealing from it. The result is that we often tend to accept the bad instead of standing against it according to the promises of God. We may even end up stepping away from what God has promised, all because we have missed what this passage is really talking about.

Yes, I know that there are some translations that render this text as, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good” (NASB), making God the subject of this verse. But that is not found in the majority of the Bible manuscripts or lectionary readings in the early Church. The majority of texts have “all things” as the subject. In other words, this verse is not about what God does in all things, but about “all things” themselves working together for good.

There are a couple of observations to make here: First, the word “things” (“all things work together”) is not necessary to the translation. We may just as well simply say, “all work together for good.” It is not necessary to take “all things” in an absolute sense (i.e. everything that has ever existed or happened, whether good or bad). We may understand the “all” to refer to those things which are particularly mentioned within the context of Romans 8.

Notice also that the “working together” of all things is cast in the present tense. That is, all these things are presently working together for our good. They are available and active on our behalf right now.

We do not have to tolerate, accept, bless or be thankful for any of the bad or evil things that happen in our lives, as if they are somehow necessary for our good (they are not), or that they somehow add to the quality of our lives (they do not).

Now, certainly God can take a bad situation and bring good out of it. After all, isn’t that what our redemption is all about, God buying back and setting free that which has come under the power of evil? But that is not at all the same as evil somehow working together to bring about good.

And certainly God can teach us in the midst of whatever evil things may happen to us. But that does not in any way make evil our teacher, nor should we think of it that way. God has given us the Holy Spirit as our teacher, and He does not need to use evil to teach us anything.

Evil is about bringing forth evil, not about bringing forth good. Even if evil could work together with good, the final result would not be good, but a diminished good. Evil is the lack of good, so that even a little lack of good, as in a mixture of good and evil, is still a lack of good, and therefore ultimately evil.

But no, that is not God’s way. God is completely good, and He does not cooperate with evil to bring about good. Rather, He works to deliver that which is good from that which is evil. God’s way is to overcome evil with good.

So, if the "all" of Romans 8:28 is not about evil things and good things working together to bring about the good, then what are they about?

Well, I’m glad you asked. I believe that in this case, “all” is speaking about the same things that Paul has just finished discussing earlier in Romans 8. All these things not only work together for good, but they are all, themselves, good. Paul’s point is that, though there may be many things trying to work against us for evil, there are also many other, greater things working together for our good.

Before we consider these things, I would like you to notice the words “work together” in verse 28. The underlying Greek word is sunenergeo. It is a compound made up of the word sun, “together,” and energeo, where we get the word “energy.” Sunenergeo is the expending of energy in a cooperative effort to produce a desired result. In Romans 8, there are a number of other words with the prefix sun (and its alternate forms, sum, sus, and sug) indicating things which are operating together. These are brought out in the following list.

1. The Law of the Spirit of Life

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). Notice that the law of the Spirit of life does not cooperate, or work together with, the law of sin and death. Rather, it sets us free from it.

2. The Spirit of Adoption

“For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out ‘Abba, Father’” (Romans 8:15). Notice, again, that the Spirit of adoption does not cooperate with the “spirit of bondage again to fear,” but acts in opposition to it.

Paul says, “The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (v. 16). The phrase “bears witness with” is the Greek summartureo. That is, they work together to bear witness.

Paul continues, “and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (v. 17). Here, in one brief sentence, are three instances of the Greek prefix meaning “together.” We are “joint-heirs,” (sugkleronomos), or heirs together with Christ. If we suffer together (sumpascho) with Him, we will also be glorified together (sundoxazo) with Him.

3. The Earnest Expectation of Creation

“For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now” (Romans 8:19, 22).

When Adam and Eve sinned, the whole creation fell under the curse and suffered with them. The Greek indicates that the whole creation “groans together” (sustenazo), as well as experiences travail together (sunodino). Creation waits to experience together with us the glorious liberty of the children of God.

When God created the heavens and the earth, and everything in them, He pronounced them “good” (see Genesis 1 throughout). Though they have been subject to the Fall, there are laws still present within Creation for bringing about the good. For example, the principle of seedtime and harvest (that is, sowing and reaping) is in effect as long as the earth remains (Genesis 8:22). This means that if we sow evil, we will reap evil, but it we sow good, we will reap good (see also Galatians 6:7-8).

4. The Firstfruits of the Spirit

“Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23).

Just as creation groans and travails together to bring forth good, we also groan within ourselves, anticipating the adoption — the redemption of our bodies from corruption. We groan together with creation, and creation groans together with us.

We have already received the firstfruits of this adoption — the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father to the Church at Pentecost, the “Feast of Firstfruits.” We now have the fruits of the Spirit as well as gifts of the Spirit at work in us.

5. Hope

“For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?” (Romans 8:24) The Greek word for “hope” is elpis, and refers to a positive expectation, a joyful anticipation. Because it is oriented toward the future, it helps us stay on track in the present. We have a hope, a joyful expectation rooted in the promise of God, the work of Christ, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. As Paul said in Romans 5:5, “Hope does not disappoint.” Our anticipation of good will be fulfilled, just as God promised.

6. Patience

“But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance” (Romans 8:25). If we are oriented by hope, then we also need to have perseverance. The Greek word for “perseverance” is hupomone, and means “constancy, endurance, patience.”

We know that faith and hope work together, for “faith is the substance of things hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1). Faith and patience also work together, for “the testing of your faith produces patience” (James 1:3). So, patience and hope work together also. We persevere because we believe, and expect to see God’s plan fulfilled.

7. The Holy Spirit Helping Our Weakness

“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. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercessions for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27).

The Holy Spirit “helps us.” This is the Greek word sunantilambanomai, laying hold together, each one doing his part to obtain a goal. The Holy Spirit does this by interceding for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, but which perfectly express the will of God for us. The whole creation groans, we groan within ourselves, the Holy Spirit groans within us — all working together to bring forth good.

Which brings us up to verse 28: “And we know that all work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

From the context of Romans 8, we see that this is not about good working together with evil to produce good (which is logically impossible and morally suspect). No, this is about all the things Paul has already mentioned — the Spirit of life, the Spirit of adoption, the groaning of Creation, the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit, hope, patience, and the Spirit Himself interceding for us — all of these are working together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

We are hard-pressed to understand how all kinds of evil things can work together to bring about good. It just doesn’t add up for us, and rightly so. On the other hand, it is very easy for us to understand how all the things Paul talks about in Romans 8 actually do work together to bring about our good. They have a specificity to them which we can lay hold of by faith, and they are more than adequate to deal with any adversity we might face.

Let’s turn loose of the vague, dark notion that all things, good and evil, somehow add up to complete good. Instead, let’s lay hold of all the thoroughly good, God-ordained things Paul talks about in Romans 8, things which are working together to bring about our good and fulfill God’s purpose.

© 2005 by Jeff Doles.
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