{"id":1815,"date":"2010-06-28T16:51:46","date_gmt":"2010-06-28T21:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1815"},"modified":"2010-06-28T16:51:46","modified_gmt":"2010-06-28T21:51:46","slug":"romans-828-called-for-goodness-sake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-828-called-for-goodness-sake\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 8:28 – Called for Goodness Sake"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Romans 8:28 – Called for Goodness Sake
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His<\/em> purpose.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

God is producing goodness in Christians because He has decided to do so.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The words \u201call things\u201d are from pas<\/em>, meaning \u201call\u201d or \u201cevery.\u201d It is expressed here as a neuter plural noun, thus \u201call things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Greek verb sunerge\u014d<\/em> is translated \u201cwork together.\u201d It is made up of sun<\/em>, meaning \u201ctogether with\u201d and erg\u014d<\/em>, meaning \u201cto work.\u201d It is expressed as a third person singular verb so it could be translated as \u201che or she works together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGood\u201d is from agathos<\/em>, meaning \u201cgood and benevolent\u201d or \u201cuseful.\u201d There is another Greek word translated \u201cgood.\u201d It is the word kalos<\/em>, meaning \u201cinherently good without necessarily being benevolent\u201d or \u201cbeauty as a harmonious completeness.\u201d An easy way to distinguish the two is to think of kalos<\/em> as specific goodness or beauty and agathos<\/em> as general goodness.<\/p>\n

The word translated \u201ccalled\u201d is from kl\u0113tos<\/em>, meaning \u201cone who is called, invited, or appointed.\u201d It is a noun, not a verb.<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

What does Paul mean by \u201call things work together for good?\u201d The key is the word translated \u201cgood,\u201d meaning \u201cgeneral goodness.\u201d Paul is saying that even though some of the things that happen to us don\u2019t necessarily seem very good, all things work together for our general goodness.<\/p>\n

As we mentioned above, the verb \u201cwork together\u201d is a singular, third-person verb. The subject for this verb is not \u201call things.\u201d How do we know? The word translated \u201call things\u201d is a plural subject. In Greek, as in English, the number of a verb (singular or plural) must always agree with the number of its subject, so the subject of this verb must be singular. As it turns out, the subject is not stated but simply implied. That\u2019s why some translators render the first part of this verse as, \u201cAnd we know that God<\/em> works all things together for good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who are those people for whom He works together all things? Paul says they are \u201cthose who love God.\u201d Only we who have recognized our own sinfulness and need for salvation can fully appreciate the sacrifice that God made to have our sins paid for. And only we can really love God for having done it for us.<\/p>\n

He also says it is \u201cthose <\/strong>who are the called according to His<\/em> purpose.\u201d As we noted above, the word \u201ccalled\u201d is not a passive verb, but a plural noun (as in, those who are the called ones). Those for whom God works all things together for good are those who are the called ones according to His (God\u2019s) purpose. Paul is saying clearly that our being called to Christ and salvation is not of our own doing. It is wholly God\u2019s doing and it is according to His purpose. We don\u2019t know why God called us to salvation but we do know, according to Paul, that He is purposeful in calling us.<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

When we are in the midst of trials we should be encouraged for two reasons. The first is that the Holy Spirit is our prayer partner and the second is that no matter how bad things seem, God is going to use whatever is happening to us ultimately to produce good in us, and that brings the glory back to Him.<\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2010 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 –<\/p>\n

If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, send an e-mail to:\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 8:28 – Called for Goodness Sake 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. Truth to Learn God is producing goodness in Christians because He has decided to do so. Behind the Words The words \u201call things\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[821,986,53,86,987,988,989,990],"class_list":["post-1815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-agathos","tag-all-things","tag-called","tag-good","tag-his-purpose","tag-kalos","tag-kletos","tag-sunergeo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-th","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}