Romans 8:28 is one of the most precious promises of God but is often misunderstood. We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose (CSB). The passage does not teach us that all things are good, nor does it teach us that the bad circumstances of life will turn out good. It does not teach us that we will understand on this side of glory everything that happens to us. If you do not believe me ask Job.

The passage is a promise that in the end, we will discover that all things work together for our ultimate good. Most of my friends know that I love chocolate. In fact, chocolate has been a vice for me for as long as I can remember. My mom used to make chocolate cakes from scratch. One of the ingredients was cocoa powder. I saw the name Hershey’s on the cocoa powder in the pantry and thought, this must be good.  Long story short, it was not good, in fact it was terrible. How in the world could something so bitter be an ingredient to make something so delicious. It has to be worked together with other ingredients.

God takes everything in our lives both good and bad and He works them together and He brings something good out of them. It is not the good that we think that God should bring but our ultimate good. In fact, the very next verse tells us what the ultimate good is. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29 CSB). God uses everything in our lives, and He works them together so that we might become more like Jesus.