Perhaps one of the most quotable phrases among people of faith is the encouragement found in Romans 8:28. The apostle Paul wrote, "All things work together for good..." If ever there was a reassuring, bumper-sticker type of scripture to place on our hearts and minds—this is it!

But, just like the bumper stickers placed on our cars, time and the elements can wear away the words we want stuck on our hearts.

We contemplate some of the challenging times that lie before us in an increasingly godless society. We see how external spiritual or temporal forces can peel away our faith and tear our spiritual enthusiasm to shreds. In the face of these negative forces, we had better think again and grasp the substance behind this phrase, "All things work together for good." As many have noted, "It doesn't mean all things are good by themselves, but ultimately they work for the good." If you understand that, the bumper sticker holds on a little longer.

At times, bumper stickers won't do!

But the Scriptures indicate specific events that are going to alter the spiritual landscape of God's "elect." At that time, paper-thin faith with trite bumper-sticker religiosity won't do!

Jesus clearly warned us of times ahead by stating, "For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened" (Matthew 24:21-22).

The books of Daniel, Jeremiah and Revelation, along with Christ's Olivet Prophecy recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, bring the future to us by depicting a clash of civilizations between God's Kingdom (Daniel 2:44) and the realm of Babylon (Revelation 17:5).

For some of the saints, the clash with Babylon in its various manifestations has come and gone. Let's realize the book of Revelation was initially written to real people by a real God who proclaims that "all things work together for good." Consider the impact of Jesus Christ's message on the brethren in first-century Smyrna. "Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life" (Revelation 2:10).

Needing to move beyond the moment

Most likely the words of the book of Romans had been read in Smyrna and throughout the seven churches of Asia Minor. Could Romans 8:28 have helped them to move beyond their moment of suffering by recognizing "all things work together for good," and thus a witness for God? What will allow people in the future to "not love their lives to the death" by overcoming Satan, the dragon, "by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony" (Revelation 12:11)? Is a part of that testimony the fullness of the gospel message surrounding Romans 8:28 that they have internalized?

You might be saying, "Just you wait a minute! I've got enough challenges right now with my family, this rotten economy, my house payment, the boss who targets me every day; and now you want to squeeze me in between past and future martyrs!"

Yes, that's exactly what I want to do! I am reminded of Jeremiah's straightforward challenge: "If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?" (Jeremiah 12:5).

Jeremiah is saying, Get ready! We are now in training for something bigger yet to occur. You are not responsible for the rise and fall of empires or the coming of the False Prophet or the wholesale moral decline of the modern-day descendants of Israel. But you are responsible to God for how you incorporate the powerful depth of the gospel that has been personally revealed to us.
Let's learn a vital lesson

Let's go back and learn a vital lesson about how to read the Bible by carefully examining Romans 8:28 in the context of the entirety of God-breathed revelation. So often we make the presumptuous error of just grabbing one scripture out of its contextual framework and running with it. This is equally troublesome, whether we are handling prophecy or God's promises.

You see, friends, Romans 8:28 is much more than a goody-two-shoes bumper sticker for the righteous. The fullness of Scripture clearly indicates that bad things do happen to good people—even people of faith. It also plainly declares that if Christ suffered, so shall we. The difference for a Christian is that suffering serves an eternal purpose far beyond any initial human awareness.

Let's come to understand that Romans 8:28 is but the gateway verse to the good news of why God could never abandon us! Too often, this verse is framed in isolation, rather than allowing it to open the door to explain the fullness of God's purpose toward humanity.

Let's look at the whole verse for a moment. "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). It is here that the phrase "His purpose" is given substance; it is the spiritual glue to keep Romans 8:28 tightly sealed in our minds and hearts.

The substance that supports a promise

Verse 29 begins by revealing two dynamic aspects of the gospel message. It says, "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren."

The first foundational undergirding of why "all things work together for good" is that God "foreknew" what He had in store for all those He created "in His image" (Genesis 1:26-27). God did not discover His purpose along the way, but plainly states His intentions toward us from the beginning. He saw the overriding grand purpose of His creative acts before He started. In one sense, you might say, "He saw us before we were."

His unwavering purpose has always been to transform the human race from the dirt of Eden to the incredible fullness of His spiritual image by "bringing many sons to glory" (Hebrews 2:10). Isaiah 46:9-10 grants us the dimensions of this divine "foreknowledge" by stating: "Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.'"

"All things work together for good," because there is a purpose being worked out here below, and you are a part of it! God planned your existence. You are not an accident of evolution headed for destruction, but a child of God with a destiny.

The second foundational undergirding of why "all things work together for good" is that God "predestined" you to be "conformed to the image of His Son" right now! You might say, "This is my moment." When Adam and Eve rejected God's sovereignty in their lives, a plan of return went into motion. Revelation 13:8 speaks of "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."

Predestination is not about being spiritually cemented into salvation or damnation ahead of time by an unmovable God. It's about the incredible opportunity of being selected now by a loving Heavenly Father to embrace the reality of God's greatest gift to us, His Son.

Not everyone has been granted that opportunity yet. God in His love and wisdom has given you that blessing now. Ephesians 1:11-12 explains: "In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory."

Our purposeful selection by God now is directly linked to trusting in Christ. We trust in the same Christ who said, "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit" (Luke 23:46). What enabled and empowered Him to do this even as He was nailed to a piece of wood? Simply put, He understood Romans 8:28.
I chose you!

The third, fourth and fifth foundational underpinnings of why "all things work together for good" are displayed in Romans 8:30. It simply says, "Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified."

Let's remember during those times when we get challenged on the journey of life or as we twist and turn through the fulfillment of prophecy, that God called us. He started the process; we didn't. Yes, we were sought out and desired. It doesn't get any better than that!

Jesus indicates we were divinely selected when He proclaimed, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you" (John 15:16).

What kind of fruit? Spiritual fruit such as realizing "all things work together for good" even when our personal life or the world is seemingly crumbling around us. And because we are justified and made right before God through Christ's sacrifice and resurrected presence at the right hand of God, we can come before our Heavenly Father. As we are confronted with issues, both personal and global in scale, we can place them into the hands that sculpt eternity.

The last undergirding spoken of in Romans 8:30 is glorification. This refers to a literal existence that is no longer earthbound, caught in the web of time and space. It is a transformed life that lives by more than a bouncy-sounding scriptural bumper sticker that can be peeled off by the first thing that goes wrong. Such spiritual radiance is able to say, no matter what the current dilemma, "For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever" (Matthew 6:13).

Let it be!

How often does God quiet the fears and trepidations of His loved ones, whether it be in the persecuted first-century Church, the Body of Christ right now or for future saints during the Great Tribulation, by simply reminding us, "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10)?

As we move through present challenges and future prophetic occurrences, let's realize that Romans 8:28 is more than a trite phrase to appease human disappointment. It is in a great sense the essence of "the word of their testimony," the testimony of the saints of God down through the ages. It is the spiritual fuel that allows us to not only run with the footmen, but also keep up with the horses as personal trials and prophetic events stampede around us.

Perhaps it is in a few words of Mary, the mother of Christ, that the echo of "this is the way, walk in it" (Isaiah 30:21) is best understood in relationship to "all things work together for good." As she was confronted with the fulfillment of prophecy in her life, she uttered, "Let it be" (Luke 1:38).