Working for Good - Part 1

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:28-29 NASB).

For many this will not be a new concept, and when I recently heard it, it was not a new concept for me, either. This truth was, however, exalted to a higher level than what I had heard before and broke through with increased clarity over what I had understood before.  While the central thought of this blog comes from a sermon by Dr. Mark Minnick, the post is primarily my response to the sermon.

The central idea is that when God works all things together for the believer's good, God's primary good objective is to conform His child to the image of Christ. I don't think any Christian would deny that God wants to accomplish that goal. When I have heard these verses taught in the past, however, I have commonly been left with the interpretation that God turns bad things into good things, that He achieves some specific and visible result in the life of His child through something bad that happens to him. For example, through the circumstance in question, God directs someone to a new job, provides protection from danger, or initiates an encounter with a particular person.

There is no doubt that God does those providential kinds of things. Both the Bible and life itself provide abundant proof. The story of Joseph is a classic example, when Joseph tells his brothers, "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive" (Genesis 50:20). Many Christians can share similar stories, confidently affirming that if a certain bad thing had not happened to them, they would never have been able to do some other thing, or they would have been injured, killed, trapped in a bad marriage, etc.

Those stories, and God's work through them, are accurate and wonderful. In my past teaching, however, I have seen those good results lifted to the pedestal of God's only (or ultimate) plan within the situation. The conformity into the image of Christ has been almost an afterthought. The impression I have been given is that, "Oh, yeah, God does that, too. Conforming to Christ happens incidentally as part of the package," but what appears to be most exciting is the meeting of Mr. Right through the bad situation or being spared from an accident or house fire.

Instead of an afterthought or a minor part of the equation, I submit that conforming the believer to Christ-likeness is the big deal. It is God's main objective, and along the way, He incidentally works out some very interesting life situations - what believers typically look for as the "good" in the situation.

I believe that looking for a visible and providential good result rather than being stabilized by the assurance of God's conforming work in the life (whether any "good" result is seen or not) leaves a believer with a few shortfalls. First, he misinterprets God's objective. He forgets that God is doing bigger things in the world than arranging victories or positive results in the lives of individuals. God has a major goal of wanting to produce a vast multitude of children, men and women who will exalt His Son by their imitation of the greatest and foremost Son of God. God wants to present these children to the Son in a way that will bring Him great honor and glory. A believer who is focused on how some event works out in his life misses the grander objective that God is seeking to achieve.

Second, the believer underestimates the scope of what God is doing. The believer is satisfied, perhaps even amazed, that a flat tire saved him from an accident down the road, but God desires to do far more in that person's life. Perhaps the flat tire was just another small step in His design to teach the believer patience or trust. Being delivered from the accident is nice, but God is interested in doing more on the inside of a man than on the outside. Everything that God does and allows in life is designed and utilized to bring increased conformity to the image of Christ.

I believe this concept becomes clearer when one ponders the end of life. What does he want people to say about him when he is old (or has passed)? How does he want God to view his life? Will people say, "He was a man of faith," "She was the most loving person I knew," or "He was an example of what patience should look like"? Those are the things God wants to accomplish, maybe through a thorn in the flesh. Maybe through a troubled or abusive past. Maybe through a long illness. Maybe through a disabled child. Maybe through years of singleness or widowhood. Maybe through repeated job losses, ministry opposition, or financial reversals. Paul gloried in his weakness because he realized it worked the grace of God in him.

Third, the narrow-sighted believer misinterprets God's process. Perhaps because faith, which requires belief in what one cannot see, is difficult, man prefers to look on what he can see. Man therefore focuses on the concrete - an accident, a chance encounter, a storm, a surgery, and so on. He wants to see God's good worked through these incidents; often he even looks for a one-to-one correlation. He wants to see that out of the accident came X, out of the chance encounter came Y, and out of the surgery came Z. He can then be convinced that God worked each incident for his good.

God plans much further ahead than that. God foresees a lifetime of events, struggles, and conditions, and He orchestrates all of them into a lifetime process of gradually achieving a masterpiece as the result. Man too often thinks of God as a jeweler who makes a series of distinct cuts in order to form a beautiful diamond. Sometimes God does advance His work through brief and focused blows, but more often He could be compared to a rock tumbler.  God achieves His work gradually over time. While events and incidents are part of the process, a lot of God's molding comes through the repeated drudgery of everyday life. Rather than a single doctor's appointment, although that may have impact, God works through the years of battling cancer. More than through the birth of a disabled child, God works through the years of parenting him. Much more significant than a job loss would be the years of working under a difficult boss or with constant uncertainty about the future of the job.

God is working all things for good in the life of the believer. When one realizes the eternal impact, the internal aspect, and the gradual process, he will be much better prepared to appreciate the good that God is doing.