God Keeps Saving Us

D. Scott Meadows

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose (Rom 8.28).

“All things work together for good.” This is a truncated quip from our text verse that many use for encouragement, but without the whole verse and an appreciation of its surrounding context, the quip may mean little more than, “Every cloud has a silver lining.” It can become no more than happy talk, that no matter how bad a situation might seem, there is always some good aspect to it. That is not the idea of Romans 8.28. Very concisely stated, it means God keeps saving His people. This truth is far more glorious!

For certain, God keeps saving us who love Him, chosen for salvation.

See the verses that precede our text. Romans 8 is a celebration of gospel salvation. Our salvation in Christ includes being delivered from condemnation for our sins (verse 1), being set free from the law of sin and death (2), to be made spiritually minded (6), having God’s Spirit dwell in us (9), and the eventual resurrection of our mortal bodies after we die (11). We know even now that we are the redeemed children of God (16) with the confident hope that one day, glory shall be revealed in us (18). We are saved by hope, Paul says (24). Salvation, broadly speaking, is the topic.

See also the verses after our text. Verse 29 explains 28 further. Its first word is “for” or “because.” We know verse 28 is true because God’s chosen people are predestinated to become like Christ. God decrees that they be chosen, called, justified, and glorified (30)—that is, consummately saved from all miseries to incomprehensible blessedness.

Now observe four particulars about Romans 8.28 and its teaching that God keeps saving us.

1. The Certainty that God Keeps Saving Us

It starts, “And we know.” We do not know what we should pray for as we ought (26), but one thing we do know, and that is that God keeps saving us (28). The contrast of our ignorance in prayer with our knowledge that God keeps saving us is striking and suggests the latter is not a mere presumption but a certainty without any possibility of disappointment.

I recently heard a celebrity known as a political commentator who identifies as a Christian say that only God knows things with certainty. He said to know anything for certain, you would have to be God. This illustrates the fact that philosophical skepticism has invaded the Christian community. I challenge the claim by asking, “Are you certain that only God knows with certainty?” Answering “yes” disproves the thesis; answering “no” undermines it. A denial of real human knowledge is in conflict with reason, reality, and Scripture—not to mention the best tradition of Christ’s church. Here Paul says, “and we know.”

This certain knowledge given us by God is a lifeline to the suffering soul. You can make it through anything if you know that God is continuing to save you through it all. Saints, that is, true Christians, have this spiritual knowledge which rests upon the firm foundation of God’s holy Word.

2. The Manner in Which God Keeps Saving Us

The next phrase is a wonderfully succinct and interpretive declaration of providence and God’s love for His elect. “All things work together for good.” The “good” is our ultimate salvation. The phrase “all things” is comprehensive without restriction. The word translated “work together” means to cooperate. It is as if the “things” in view are personified and they act at all times in perfect harmony as a team to promote, maximally, our saving good. God is saving us, not only through it all, but by it all.

This reality in redemptive history implies a robust doctrine of divine providence as expressed by consensus documents of historic Christian theology. For example, “God’s works of providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures, and all their actions” (#14, the Baptist Catechism of 1693). It also implies God’s eternal, unchanging, continual love toward all He saves. If you are one of those, then no particular thing in all creation is not on the salvation team for you, and in no particular time are you not an object of God’s saving love and work. Every person, wittingly or not, promotes your salvation under God. Every situation and event is another occasion of God saving you. Even when you sin, God is still loving and saving you, if you are chosen for salvation. I hope you see how much better this truth is than a cloud’s silver lining.

3. The Identity of Us Whom God Keeps Saving

Now we face a common misuse of our text as if it applied to absolutely everyone. It doesn’t. This holy declaration is quite specific and insistent on its limited scope, encompassing only some people. It describes those people as “them that love God.” Scripture contrasts these with them that hate God. God says He punishes “them that hate me” (Exod 20.6; Deut 7.10). He counts them
His enemies (Deut 32.41). All the unconverted are characterized as “haters of God” (Rom 1.30). So Paul’s phrase, “them that love God,” designates those who are being saved, or bound to be.

4. The Grace by Which God Keeps Saving Us

It is not as if God loves us because we love Him. Scripture teaches the exact opposite (1 John 4.19) and thus, it exalts His grace to us who are, in ourselves, but wretched sinners no more worthy of His favor than anyone else. In a phrase parallel with “them that love God” and further describing those whom God keeps saving, Romans 8.28 describes them as “them who are the called [ones] according to His purpose.” In theological terms, this is the effectual call to salvation which is the outworking of the eternal decree of election. Here, it serves to strip our love for God of any merit and to remind us that He keeps saving us, not for any good in us, but on account of the good in Him, overflowing to us who are being saved by His sovereign pleasure. To Him who saves us belongs all the praise. Amen. Ω