A Shocking Reality
What do you make of it?
For some Christians it is a source of great comfort and peace..
For others, who love Christ just as much, it raises questions and even doubts
Lack of assurance Unbelievers just find it fanciful… that whistle in the dark to reassure yourself when scared.
This text seems contrary to experience
Many looking at this word ‘GOOD’ take it to mean, for Christians everything will pan out in this life “It will all come right in the wash” as they say… that silver lining in a dark and menacing cloud
Yet is that so?
Is that the Christian experience in this ‘veil of tears’
Is that the experience, of so many of God’s children as suffering increases with the ravages of disease
What of the suffering of family watching the love of his love fade away before his eyes over a number of years Or what of the family?
When a family goes through an extended period of seeing one they love so much, each member is confronted with questions about suffering, faith is tested, and each struggles in their own way Such a struggle with all its questions… many left unanswered, are natural and not at all sinful “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent.” (Psalm 22:1–2, NIV84)
The Lord is gracious when we are confounded by the suffering of this life and how it all adds up “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:13–14, NIV84)
So we ask now, What does it mean, this GOOD that in all things God works for His children?
- THIS VEIL OF TEARS
- THE ‘GOOD’ THAT IS OUR GLORIFICATION
- THE GUARANTEE THAT ASSURES US OF WHAT WE HOPE FOR
Readings reproduced on this page:
The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1996, 1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan
Readings
Psalm 121 (NIV84)
A song of ascents.
1I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from?
2My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
3He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber;
4indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5The Lord watches over you— the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
7The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life;
8the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
Text
Romans 8:18–39 (NIV84)
18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope
21that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?
25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
36As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.