Romans 8:28

“ But we know that all things work together, for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to the design formed beforehand. ”

We have shown how mistaken those expositors are who take the δέ as a simple particle of transition: then, and say: third or fourth ground of encouragement. The δέ is adversative: but. With this universal groaning which he has just described, and the source of which is in the sufferings of the present time, the apostle contrasts the full certainty already possessed by believers of the glorious goal marked out beforehand by the plan of God. This result, which they await with assurance, is the luminous point on which their eye is already fixed, and the brilliance of which is reflected on the obscurities of the way which they have yet to traverse: “We groan no doubt; we know not how to pray..., but we know ”...The regimen: to them that love God, is placed at the beginning, as expressing the condition under which the prerogative about to be enunciated is realized in man. This characteristic of love to God is associated with the attribute of saints which he ascribed to believers, Romans 8:27, and more particularly with the cry: Abba, Father, the expression of their filial feeling, Romans 8:15. Those who belong to this class will never fail to be strengthened, and even to gain progress, by everything which can happen them; for in this normal path obstacles even become means of help. The end of the verse will explain why.

The term πάντα, all things, includes all that comes on us, especially everything painful in consequence of the miseries of the present time and of the sins of our neighbors. But it would be wrong to embrace under it what we may do ourselves in opposition to God's will, since that would contradict the idea: them that love God.

The σύν, with, in the verb συνεργεῖν, to work together with, has been variously explained. According to some, it means that all things work in concert (comp. the σύν, Romans 8:22); according to others, All things work in common with God under His direction. Others, finally: All things work in common with the believer who is their object, and who himself aspires after the good. This last sense, which is well developed by Philippi, is undoubtedly the most natural. The Alex. and the Vatic. have added ὁ Θεός, God, as the subject of the verb. In that case we must give to συνεργεῖν a causative sense: “God makes all things work together. ” But this meaning is foreign to the N. T., and probably to classic Greek; Passow does not quote a single example of it.

The regimen: εἱς ἀγαθόν, for good, has a more precise meaning in the apostle's language than that usually given to it. It means not only any good result whatever in which everything issues for the believer, but that constant progress to the final goal to which the plan of God leads us, and which constitutes our real destination. Everything is fitted to hasten our progress in this direction, when the heart has once been subjected to God. The last words of the verse give the reason. Those who have come to take God as the object of their life and activity, and to live for Him like Jesus Himself (Romans 6:10), are exactly those in whose favor God has formed the universal plan. All therefore which happens according to this plan must turn out in their favor. Two reasons explain the co-operation of all things for the believer's good: a subjective reason he has entered into the true current (loving God); and an objective reason all things are ordered in his favor in the plan of God; this is indicated by the second regimen.

The notion of the divine plan is expressed by the term πρόθεσις, the design fixed beforehand. Paul often uses this expression in a more or less extended sense; thus, 2 Timothy 1:9, he applies it specially to salvation by grace without works; Ephesians 1:11, this term is applied to the election of the people of Israel; Romans 3:24, the design of God has for its object Christ's expiatory sacrifice. The classic passages, as they may be called, where this term is taken in its most general signification, are found in the Epistle to the Ephesians: Ephesians 1:3-10 and Ephesians 3:11. We see here that the design of God is eternal (before the ages), for it rests on Christ (in Jesus Christ), and that is was conceived freely, solely on account of the divine love (the decree of His will, according to His good pleasure).

In this plan of salvation there were comprehended at the same time the individuals in whom it was to be realized; hence they are designated here as the called according to His purpose. The call is the invitation addiessed by God to man, when by the preaching of His gospel He offers him salvation in Christ. This call by the Word is always accompanied with an inward operation of the Spirit which tends to render the preaching effectual. Those theologians who hold absolute predestination have no deubt denied the generality of this internal operation of grace; they have alleged that it does not accompany the outward call except in the case of the elect. Some have even gone the length of distinguishing between a serious and consequently effectual calling, and a non-serious and consequently ineffectual calling. But it will be asked, What could God have in view with a non-serious call, that is to say, one which He did not Himself seek to render effectual? It has been answered, that its object was to render those to whom it was addressed inexcusable. But if God Himself refuses to give the grace necessary for its acceptance, how is he who refuses thereby rendered more inexcusable? It must then be held that when the apostle in his Epistle speaks of the divine call, he always embraces under the term the two notions of an outward call by the Word and an inward call by grace, and that the apostle's expression: the called according to His purpose, is not at all intended to distinguish two classes of called persons, those who are so according to His purpose, and those who are not. All are alike seriously called. Only it happens that some consent to yield to the call and others refuse. This distinction is indicated by Jesus in the saying: “Many are called, but few are chosen,” Matthew 20:16. The chosen in this passage are those who accept the call, and who are thereby rescued from the midst of this perishing world; the called are those who, not accepting the call, remain called and nothing more, and that to their condemnation. In the Epistles, the apostles, addressing Christians, do not require to make this distinction, since the individuals whom they address are assumed to have accepted the call, from the very fact that they have voluntarily entered the church. The case is like that of a man who should say to his guests when assembled in his house: “Use everything that is here, for you are my invited guests. ” It is obvious that by expressing himself thus, he would not be distinguishing invitation from acceptance, the latter being implied in the very fact of their presence; comp. 1 Corinthians 1:23-24. What the apostle means to say then is this: There is something prior to the present sufferings of believers; that is the eternal purpose in virtue of which their calling took place. It is not possible therefore but that all things should turn to their good.

The relation between the two clauses: them that love God, and them that are the called according to His purpose, reminds us of John's words: “We love Him because He first loved us” (1Jn 4:19).

The participle τοῖς οὖσι, who are, strongly expresses the present reality of this condition described by the word called, in opposition to the ideal nature of the decree, previously to its realization in time.

The Greek Fathers, Pelagius and others, in their desire to escape from the idea of an absolute predestination, applied the act indicated by the word πρόθεσις, purpose, to man, and understood thereby his good will to believe, as in Acts 11:23. But in the context it is the divine side of salvation only which is meant to be emphasized, as it is the only side which is expounded in the two following verses. The ground of the calling could not really be the believer's disposition to accept it.

The idea of God's purpose is developed in the two verses, Romans 8:29-30. Romans 8:29 indicates its final aim; Romans 8:30 marks off, as it were, the path along which it reaches its realization.