Rom. 8:18-30, Do all things work together for good?

We would like to take the next couple of weeks (at least) and post some things related to the issue of “suffering.”  The two items we will use are an article by Dr. Vernon Grounds on Romans 8:28; and a lengthy letter I wrote several years ago based in Job.

Dr. Grounds was president of Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary (which became Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary in 1982 and then Denver Seminary in 1998).  His tenure as president ran from 1956 to 1979 and was a time of significant growth in numbers and influence for the Seminary.  I was at CBTS from 1970 to 1973 and have a deep love and appreciation for Dr. Grounds.  He was a loving man who had time for students in spite of his many duties leading the Seminary and his frequent travels representing the Seminary. 

DO ALL THINGS REALLY WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD?

Dr. Vernon C. Grounds, President Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary

On February 15, 1947, D. Glenn Chambers of New York boarded the powerful DC-4 of the Avianca Airlines en route to Quito, Ecuador, in order to begin his ministry with the "Voice of the Andes."  But he never arrived!  Not far from Bogota, rising 14,000 feet toward the sky, is the towering peak, "El Tablazo."  Chambers' plane crashed headlong into that peak and dropped, a flaming wreck, into a ravine far below.

The last letter he wrote was addressed to his mother.  At a Miami airport he picked up a piece of advertising on the flyleaf of which was the single word, why!  Around that word he scribbled a hasty and final note.  So when his mother received it, having previously learned of his death, staring up into her face was that question, why.

And whenever stark tragedy breaks into life, all of us instinctively wonder, "Why?"  Why does God permit such experiences?  Why does God allow us to suffer?  Why does a loving and almighty God tolerate evil in His universe?  Why?

When stark tragedy breaks into his life, the man without Jesus Christ may respond in one of several fashions.  Cynicism may be his response; he may unwittingly follow the advice of Job's wife, "Curse God and die."  Or stoicism may be his response:  "Grin and bear it, and if you can't grin, then grit your teeth and bear it anyhow."  Or epicureanism may be his response:  "Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow...!"

But when tragedy breaks into his life, the Christian, instead of responding with cynicism or stoicism or epicureanism, falls back upon Romans 8:28, attempting to make that text a soft pillow for his heart:  "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."  And yet, if we are going to be ruthlessly candid, the Christian does not always find that Paul's radiant certainty proves a soft pillow for his heart.  Often, on the contrary, it turns out to be a hard problem for his head, because of two facts.

In the first place, the text is much too sweeping.  It is too unqualified; it is too glibly inclusive.  Do "all things" indeed work together for good?  Who can possibly believe that?  The accident which imprisons a young man in a wheel chair as an incurable cripple/ the emotional breakdown which puts the mother of a large family out of her mind; the agonizing frustration which causes an idealist to degenerate into an embittered skeptic, mocking and denying God; the death which leaves an unhealed scar upon a heart - are these things good?

Some things may indeed work together for good, but how can any person of even limited discernment conclude that all events without exception turn out for our highest welfare?

In the second place, this text is much too dogmatic.  Paul states with unshadowed certainty:  "We know all things work together for good."  He does not say that this is our faith; he does not say that this is our pious hope; he does not say that this is a proposition which we are unable to prove but which we embrace with a trust that appears to defy logic and reason.  Paul's affirmation, we have uncomfortably felt, is overly confident.  It smacks of a naive optimism for which no solid evidence can be adduced.

Thus, the text seems too sweeping and too dogmatic.  Yet implicit in it are four truths which, when once grasped, transform Paul's assertion from a hard problem into a soft pillow.