Romans 8:28 Meaning: God Works All Things for Good
Romans 8:28 gets printed on more mugs and more funeral cards than almost any other verse in the New Testament, which means most of us have met it before we've ever read it in context. Paul didn't write it as a stand-alone comfort. It sits inside a long argument about groaning, the creation groaning, we ourselves groaning, the Spirit groaning on our behalf, and it only makes sense inside that argument. Read slowly, verse by verse, it says something sturdier than the version we usually get handed. Quick answer Romans 8:28 promises that God works in every circumstance of a believer's life, including the ones that are genuinely bad, to bring about good, defined specifically in the next verse as being shaped into the likeness of Christ. It does not say every event is good, that suffering has an obvious silver lining, or that you'll get to see the purpose while you're in it. The promise belongs to "those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose...