Tim Keller on
Romans 8:28-30
“Happiness
and Weeping” Series
Christianity
is supposed to be about a joy that is not subject to circumstances. There is a joy that the deepest trouble,
grief cannot be put out.
Jesus prayed
that we would have the full measure of his joy.
In sixteen he told His disciples He was giving a joy nothing could take
away from them. (and He knew what would happen to them)
What is that (impervious, relentless) joy
made of?
Romans 8 (17-18)
is talking about trouble. Romans eight is about living in a world of
suffering. How do we live in a world
like that?
In these
three verses (28-30), you have three principles that bring, cause, need to be
understood
·
v. 28 Bad
things turn out for Good
·
v. 29 Our good things can never be lost.
·
v. 30 Your best things are yet to come.
This is the
basis for your joy that you need to grasp and implant.
I. Bad things turn for good.
A literal
the translation says “For (to )those loving Him, God works together all things for
good
A. All things will happen to
you.
This text and
experience tells us that all the same stuff that happens to other people will
happen to the people of God. See
examples in the following verses.
B. When things work together for God, it is because of God. They never work together on their own.
Previously in
Chapter 8 (18-20) All things fall apart, are subject to decay. It is the nature of things.
Christians
get rid of the idea that things ought to go right. If my health is intact, people love me in
spite of my flaws, it’s God doing it. It
is a miracle of grace.
C. It doesn’t mean that bad things are really good things.
“They are not blessings in disguise. (ie There is
a silver lining behind every dark cloud.)
No bad things happen even if God is working good through them.”
The promise
is not that if you love God you will have more good things happen, not that bad
things won’t happen, or that bad things are really good. The promise is that taken in the totality
they will work them for good. The
promise is that taken in the totality of your life and the whole of everything
that if you love God He will make sure it works for good.
“Everything
is necessary that He sends. Nothing can
be necessary that He withholds.” -- John Newton:
The premise
is the things that really hurt you that kill you are foolishness, selfishness,
pride, hardness of heart, denial of your weakness and the denial that there is a
god. Those are the only things that can
hurt you in the long run and the totality of your life.
Good things,
if God has withheld them, they would not be good in the macro. God will only bring in the bad things to kill
the things that will destroy you.
Bad things
will happen to you. You should not be surprised,
shocked when they happen. The promise is
not that I live God so more good things are going to happen.
APPLICATION:
Routine
praise. If bad things happen, you won’t
be shocked.
“The lower
you (bad things) lay me the higher you will raise me.
All things
work together for good (all by itself) does I not mean if I don’t get what I want, there is a better something waiting for me. There is a little word “for” that means verse 29
explains verse 28.
II. Our good things can never be
lost.
God does not
promise you better life circumstances, but a better life.
Jesus Christ
did not suffer so that you would not suffer but so that when you suffer, you
will become more like Him. Verse 29 is
explaining what the good is.
Paul is not using
this verse to explain the word predestined and all the theological difficulties
that go with it. He is using this word
as an encouragement, a statement of certainty.
Something that is predestined is fixed.
The word conformed does not refer to outward conformity, but to change
(like metamorphoses) by and to the character of Jesus. Everything is molding and shaping you into
the image of God’s son. He is giving you
that incredible…
It is
predestined, guaranteed.
Glorified is
in the past tense. It is so absolutely certain
that He is going to make you like Jesus that He states it in the past tense, like it already happened, make you as holy and happy as Jesus.
The two good
things that we have as Christians and we will never lose. 1. We are on a collision course with
greatness. When we suffer, we will become like him. 2.
That we will be in this family. “the firstborn of many brethren.” Most people adopted in the Roman world were
adopted as adults by a wealthy man who had no heir. Firstborn among many brothers is something
that happens now. Everything Jesus
accomplished is yours.
All “sons”
seems to not be inclusive. In many
cultures, the son would get more provisions and inheritance. St Paul lived in a culture where women were
second class. Paul is saying there is no
second class in God’s family. You are
all sons. None are excluded. There is no second class. Every one of us is a son.
Paul is not
promising us better life circumstances: He is promising you a far better
life. He is promising you a life of joy,
of humility, of nobility that goes on forever.
Why can you
be happy?
III. The best is yet to
come. Glory.
Do you
understand glory? If you understand what
is to come, you can handle anything here.
“I believe
like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful
mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small
Euclidean mind of man, that in the world's finale, at the moment of eternal
harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all
hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the
crimes of humanity, for all the blood that they've shed; that it will make it
not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.” -- ― Fyodor
Dostoevsky, The Brothers
Karamazov
Where does this leave someone who is not a Christian?
Don’t come to Christianity because it is comforting, because it is encouraging, because it is relevant, because it is exciting. Come to Christianity because it is true, because if it is not true, how can it be all those other things.
It would be
stupid to think you have all these intellectual doubts, but I want to come for the
joy. The joy is based on these
convictions about Christ and the Gospel.
Paul says, "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us.” That is where the joy comes from…
thinking. Christianity is not the absence
of thinking. Christianity helps you get
by adding this perspective. Paul
reckons, he thinks, he works this out.
This talk
about glory and heaven does not trivialize your suffering. It is the only world view that takes your
suffering seriously. Your souls are so
great, and your suffering is so deep that nothing but this will overwhelm it.
