Springs Articles 2020-09 (3)
Romans 8:28-34
Romans 8:35-39
Why will all things work together for good according to Romans 8:28?
- It is because God is working always for the good of His people (even in the middle of bad circumstances)
- God is committed to turning things around for His people
- God is committed to the best interests of His people
What are the conditions for all things to work together for good according to Romans 8:28?
- Loving God (faithfulness)
- Doing God’s will (obedience)
- John 14:15
Why do more good people die early than bad people?
- This is simply not true!
- People of all kinds die early; death is a cold reality of this life
- Statistically, there are more bad people (unbelievers and false believers) than good people (faithful believers) in the world
- Therefore, statistically, more bad people die than good people
What are the possible reasons why believers die early?
- Carelessness (free will)
- Faithlessness (free will)
- Disobedience (free will)
- Brokenness (the fall of Adam & Eve)
- Higher Purpose (the Divine Will)
- Life is not a right. Rather it is a gift from God that must be used for His glory. God reserves the right to take it if/when necessary, but only in accordance with His righteousness
- God will rather call you home than for you to enter into a shipwreck of your Christian faith
- The greatest disaster is not physical death. Rather, it is spiritual (eternal) death
- The best way to live is to be ready to flywhenever you’re called home
- Do your best each day to obey God and to do what pleases Him
- Don’t rationalise or procrastinate your obedience to God
- The day of reckoning always comes swiftly, suddenly and unexpectedly (Revelation 3:11)
Why can’t God intervene to prevent the death of ALL faithful believers?
- Many times, the future is pre-programmed by the choices and events of the past and the present
- Our lives are affected by all the circumstances around us
- God cannot overrule all the consequences of free will because He is not lawless. However, He can intervene as much as possible in accordance with His Word and righteous character (2 Timothy 2:13, AMPC)
- There are some irreversible outcomes in the future that have been predetermined by the past and the present
- Jesus Christ had to die early (at 33 years) in order to fulfil the higher purpose of God that was predetermined by the past (the sins of mankind)
- God will never allow His faithful believers to be tempted above what they can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13)
- God always acts to preserve the righteous from any evil that can destroy them spiritually (Isaiah 57:1-2)
- The best way to guarantee your future is to seek to do the will of God all the time using your faith, hope and love. If you live like this, there is nothing to worry about (whether in life or death)
How does God use a bad circumstance to work out a good outcome?
- When one door shuts, another opens, Revelation 3:7
- God will always make a way, Isaiah 43:19
- There are some doors that need to shut down in our lives in order for other doors to open
- If we hold on too tightly to the past, we may never enter into God’s best for our future
- God always provides a way of escape (even to the extreme of calling some faithful believers home, if necessary)
What should we do when bad things happen to good people?
- We have to trust the character of God: He is holy, righteous, loving, faithful, merciful, stainless and blameless. He cannot deny Himself!
- 2 Timothy 2:13
- God loves you with an everlasting love and when you respond back to God with a loving, willing and obedient heart, great things become possible in your life
- God always does what is right in the light of the specific circumstances (past and present)
- God always acts in the best interests of each believer, given all that He knows in His omniscience
- God always makes a way for the people that are affected negatively
- God can always work out something good from something bad, if we trust in Him and follow His instructions
“according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” – Philippians 1:20-21
“For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” – Romans 14:7-9